“The tough times that Australian households and businesses have been going through over the last four years, we think we’ve turned the corner,” Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said in an FSC post-budget webinar.
Touching on calls for deep spending cuts, Jones said: “Those who were encouraging the government to adopt a slash-and-burn strategy with our fiscal settings, I think it proved to be wrong.”
“Had it not been for the measures, the carefully calibrated measures of the government to ensure that public demand was filling the gap, and public expenditure was filling the gap left by withdrawal or private consumption, we would have dipped into recession and followed the pattern of many, many other countries around the world. So, we think we've turned the corner,” Jones said.
He pointed to “very sturdy economic management,” with $60 billion saved in interest payments - “about the size of what we spend on a large social programme… more than what we spend on Medicare.”
Praising Labor’s skills in managing the economy while preserving employment gains, he said the government has maintained “one foot on the brake, while hovering over the accelerator”.
Looking forward, while optimistic, Jones warned of global risks, including sluggish growth in China, weak European economies, and the threat of a US trade war.
“Australians don’t need to look too far to see the direct impact… all they need to do is look at their superannuation balance and see how that’s contracted.
“I think average balance has probably come off about 10 per cent over the last few months. That's a direct feed from international and domestic equity markets and a lack of optimism in what's going on in some of those international movements.”
Reaffirming support for open markets, he said, “We have massively benefited from open trading arrangements and a rules-based order, and we will be a voice which is aggressively defending those settings.
“We don't want to we have no interest in winding it back in Australia, and we have no interest in that occurring throughout the globe.”
InvestorDaily's parent company Momentum Media is holding its Election 2025 event on Thursday, 10 April 2025, at Pullman Sydney Hyde Park.
Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones will keynote the event, alongside shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, shadow financial services minister Luke Howarth, AMP’s chief economist Shane Oliver, Financial Services Council CEO Blake Briggs, Financial Advice Association Australia CEO Sarah Abood, and Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia CEO Mary Delahunty.
To learn more about our event and buy your tickets, click here.
