ABOUT 100 companies have been booted out of the Federal...
Rudd's plan to insulate Australia
Fri, 05/01/2009 - 15:40
The Government will also double the $500 ceiling insulation rebate for 500,000 rental properties.
The scheme, worth several billion dollars, is designed to give the economy a quick shot in the arm, putting people to work installing the insulation, while also providing a lasting environmental benefit. It is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 49.4million tonnes by 2020, the equivalent of taking more than one million cars off the road each year.
The long-awaited second stimulus package is also expected to include tax cuts and infrastructure spending, reflecting Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's revelation yesterday that the global financial crisis had ripped $115billion out of Government revenue over the next four years. This, plus recently announced spending, would give Australia a $77billion cumulative deficit over the four years to 2011-12, ANZ economists said.
The deficit would be much larger when the Government's stimulus package was taken into account and ''we could well see a budget deficit of around $40-50billion in 2009-10'', they warned.
The new figures include the $40billion drop in revenue identified in Treasury's December update and show conditions have drastically worsened since then. Company tax is down another $50billion, income tax $13billion, GST receipts $10billion and $2billion in assorted taxes.
States and territories will have less revenue and unemployment will rise even higher than the 5per cent predicted by Treasury. Most economists forecast a jobless rate near 7per cent, although some see it hitting 9per cent next year, meaning higher welfare payments will also hurt the bottom line.
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull conceded the reduced revenue made deficits inevitable.
''But the one thing that is not inevitable is that a Labor government will get out of a deficit.''
BY DAVID MCLENNAN
