Treasurer Jim Chalmers is facing pressure to deliver genuine spending cuts in December’s mid-year budget update, with calls to look beyond superficial targets such as consultants and make deeper cuts to the National Disability Insurance Scheme and “middle-class welfare” such as home battery and EV subsidies.
Economists say the government’s major savings to date have been illusory and that Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher must find real savings in the mid-year update, after hotter-than-expected inflation figures on Wednesday all but locked in another interest rate rise from the Reserve Bank next week.
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