The federal government will use the figures to argue it is keeping inflation at bay.
Jim Chalmers will become the first Labor treasurer since Paul Keating in the 1980s to unveil a second consecutive budget surplus as the government attempts to talk up its economic credentials and efforts to bring down the cost of living.
The result is a $29.7 billion improvement on the 2023-24 budget announced in May last year, and confirms Chalmers as the first Labor treasurer to deliver consecutive surpluses since Paul Keating did so in 1988-89 and 1989-90. “These surpluses help pay down Liberal debt, help fight inflation and haven’t come at the expense of cost-of-living relief for people under pressure,” he said.
In May, Chalmers forecast total government spending in 2023-24 of $683 billion with that expected to increase to $726.7 billion in the current financial year. The single largest expense is forecast to be the GST at $91.6 billion, followed by the age pension , the NDIS and aged care services . When the 2023-24 budget outcome was first forecast in 2020-21, then treasurer Josh Frydenberg tipped a deficit of $66.9 billion and that gross government debt would be at a record high of more than $1.1 trillion.
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