August 26, 2014 – 9:14AM
Latika Bourke
National political reporter
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has hosed down threats of increased taxes and cuts to research if key budget measures are not passed, but Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has repeated his weekend comments that a future government would have to raise taxes if tough decisions were not accepted..
Senator Cormann warned on Sunday that the only alternative to blocked budget measures would be to raise taxes. And Education Minister Christopher Pyne raised the prospect of research grants being cut if his plan to deregulate the university sector was rejected by the senate.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre discussing the budget deadlock. Photo: Eddie Jim
But Mr Abbott, appearing at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne on Tuesday, said his government wanted to “massively increase” Australia’s research effort.
“I want to stress here at the Peter Mac, this is a government which is dedicated to science which is devoted to research,” he said.
And he similarly played down the prospect of raising taxes if measures such as the proposed $7 fee to visit the doctor are rejected.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in East Melbourne. Photo: Eddie Jim
“We don’t support raising taxes, we support cutting taxes,” he said and added “we want, over time, to see significant tax reform in the country”.
But appearing before the media a short time later, Senator Cormann warned again that a future government would have to impose “higher taxes or deeper cuts” if tough decisions aren’t accepted now.
“People might think the budget is tough now, if we don’t make the necessary decisions now it will only become tougher in the years ahead and that is the inevitable truth,” he told reporters in Canberra.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in East Melbourne. Photo: Eddie Jim
Mr Abbott stressed that not all of the government’s first budget involved cuts and increased taxes and said “It’s a budget for savings sure but it’s a budget for building as well”. But he backed his Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce’s description of the current fiscal position as a potentially fatal “financial melanoma”.
Mr Abbott said “It’s a very colourful bit of phraseology and Barnaby’s essentially right”.
“I just want to stress the overall purpose of this budget, it is to rescue this country’s future,” Mr Abbot said.
Labor’s leader in the Senate Penny Wong accused the government of making “arrogant” threats and talking down the economy with their references to “financial melanomas” and a “budget emergency”.
“As a senior person your words have really substantial, real economy risks and it’s like this government doesn’t understand that,” Senator Wong told ABC radio.
She said Labor was “not for turning” on measures such as the co-payment, universities and pension and welfare reforms.
“Labor’s going to stand up for what is right,” she told ABC radio. “We’re not going to allow what’s unfair to pass.”
On Monday, Palmer United Party Senate leader Glenn Lazarus said it would be “political suicide” for the Abbott government to raise taxes, adding he did not believe the threats were serious.
Parliamentarians return to the capital for the resumption of parliament on Tuesday following the five-week winter break, during which time there has been no progress on deadlocked measures.
Source : The Sydney Morning Herald
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