In a repeat of last
year's pre-budget message, we had again been warned of a tough
budget.
A high Australian dollar and slowing global economy has
certainly impacted heavily on Labor's sixth budget, with the
Government giving up any hope of a return to surplus in favour of
funding the main Labor initiatives of the Gonski school reforms,
the DisabilityCare program, the National Broadband Network (NBN),
and the Nation Building Projects (Road and Rail).
Businesses eagerly awaited to see whether the Government was
able to come up with a visionary plan for the future to help the
economy grow and to turn around the declining revenue collections.
Other than the incidental stimulus from the above four initiatives
there was nothing major to kick business along. The crackdown on
perceived loopholes that are supposedly being exploited by
multinationals (such as the thin cap reform) will be a drag
on
