Greens call for Coalition to submit proposals to Treasury

Posted by Steve on August 12, 2011

Reports today of the Coalition’s own expenditure review committee acknowledging it needs to find $70 billion of savings demonstrates how the Coalition under Tony Abbott is rapidly losing its economic credibility, Australian Greens leader Senator Bob Brown warned today.

“$70 billion of cuts to the budget during a period of increasing economic insecurity overseas will put thousands of small businesses and Australian jobs at risk.

“This is on top of the massive cuts to the public service we know are a certainty under an Abbott government,” said Senator Brown.

“The Coalition is also committed to a surplus for purely political purposes, yet has promoted unspecified tax cuts with no explanation of how they’ll pay for them. If the global economy takes another significant downturn this $70 billion hole would most certainly increase, and these reckless Coalition policies could send the economy into recession.

“Tony Abbott’s opposition to the carbon price and the mining tax – both of which are supported overwhelmingly by economists – would force ordinary Australians to foot a multi-billion dollar bill while leaving big polluters and wealthy foreign-owned mining companies free to continue to send their profits off shore,” said Senator Brown.