The Grattan Institute’s John Daley and Brendan Coates write in The Conversation (19.7.16) about budget ‘repair’ measures that the returned Turnbull Government could realistically make.
‘The persistent budget deficit is one of the re-elected Turnbull Government’s biggest challenges. But as revealed by the long list of zombie measures that the last government proposed and the Senate refused to pass, the politics of budget reform is never easy. Success will require tough decisions, and powerful public persuasion.
‘As the government chooses its budget priorities, inevitably it will look for measures that can be implemented without parliamentary approval or that other parties in the Senate are likely to approve. But given the scale of the budget problem, it will also have to identify reforms that other parties do not support (at least initially), and then carry the day by making the case for them with the public.’