Australia has to take immediate remedial action in budget

Australia will never have a surplus unless the Coalition government takes immediate remedial action in the budget, federal Treasurer Joe Hockey warned on Monday. According to the Treasury figures, the budget would remain in deficit for the next decade if left unchecked, and that under the previous Labor government, spending growth was larger than the 2 percent promised, and as much as 6 percent in 2017-18. "The fact is, it's growing at 3.5 percent and in the year that was never published of the Budget, the fifth year, there are massive increases in expenditure. In fact, a 6 percent increase in expenditure in that one year alone, as a result of initiatives taken by the previous government," Hockey said in Sydney. Based on this situation, Hockey emphasized Monday that this means it will result in 16 years of deficits even though Australia did not go into recession and it was not expected to. "Unless we take immediate remedial action in the budget then Australia will never have a surplus," he said. "We have to address this and address this fast." And he warned that if budget deficits were allowed to continue and debt increased, Australia's standard of living would be lower. "There will be hard decisions unquestionably but everyone has to help to do the heavy lifting here. It's not going to be a case of a few do the major sacrifice. Everyone is going to have to make a contribution big business, small business, all people from all demographics across the community," Hockey added. "If the burden falls on a few, the weight of that burden will crush them," he added.