Whether Australia’s budget has a surplus tells us little about the government’s worth – it’s all on the choices made. And as with all budgets, the choices made matter much more than any big numbers that get the media attention.
The government boasted the $100bn turnaround from a $77.9bn forecast deficit to a $22.1bn surplus was “the biggest nominal budget improvement in Australian history”. But it was all due to the improved “parameter variations” – ie prices of iron ore and gas and economic growth. Budget numbers are great at giving us a monetary count for things but they tell us very little about the economic choices made.and is forecast to create only an average of 700 direct jobs a year over 50 years, and in that same period will add just $16bn to our GDP .
And because those engineers and workers could have worked on projects that would improve our economic capacity, the economic opportunity cost of Aukus is almost guaranteed to be much greater than any perceived benefit.produced extreme profits for Australian gas companiesIf the government chose to raise more revenue from gas super profits they could either raise less from other sources, or spend more on services and projects without changing one dollar of the budget balance.