The federal treasurer is playing down expectations of major new spending ahead of the May budget, saying spending will be tighter and revenue upgrades smaller.
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00:00 The Treasurer, as we get ever closer to the May Budget, is seeking to limit expectations
00:08 of major new funding in the Budget. This is because revenue upgrades will likely be much
00:16 less than what was anticipated and recorded in the December MIEFO, the Mid-Year Economic
00:24 and Fiscal Outlook. Treasurer Jim Chalmers is attributing that mostly to two things,
00:30 one of them being a fall in iron ore prices and the other being a softening of the labour
00:37 market, suggesting an end to tax receipts being significantly higher than forecast,
00:44 something that's often referred to as 'rivers of gold' when we're talking about different
00:51 resources and the incomes that are eventuated as a result of that. On iron ore, he'll reference
00:58 a near 10% fall in the cost over the past week, and that's largely due to limited demand
01:05 from China for iron ore, for steel production. On the side of the jobs market, more job losses
01:16 and fewer jobs being created is likely to see reduced receipts from income tax as well
01:23 as a heavier reliance on welfare payments. So they're the insights that we're getting
01:28 so far ahead of this speech this afternoon from the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers.
01:34 [BLANK_AUDIO]