Budget seen as election play

Press, 25 August 1983, Page 10

Budget seen as election play

NZPA Sydney Reaction to the Australian Government’s first full Budget was yesterday muted with general agreement that there was little to hurt any one particular group. "Keating’s stand-still stimulus,” and the “mildmannered Budget” were the general themes of the immediate press reaction, with the focus going on the taxrises on beer, cigarettes, and petrol, which have been tied to inflation for sixmonth rises.

The key is the wages accord with the unions, and scepticism had abounded that they would keep their demands in line. But the Australian Council of Trade Unions professed itself satisfied with the Budget, despite the indirect tax slug which is aimed at the traditional pleasures of the working man. The council’s chief, Cliff Dolan, described it as welcome but not wonderful, although some other key union leaders were a little

more forthcoming with their praise. But probably one of the most telling descriptions of the Budget the Treasurer, Mr Paul Keating, presented to Parliament was that it was an election Budget.

With the Government planning to hold a referendum next year on the desirability of extending the Parliamentary term from three to four years, there has been speculation that Mr Hawke would like to call an election before the end of next year, cash in on the expected economic recovery, and extend Labour’s term in power to six years. An experienced political commentator, Laurie Oakes, said that indexing the excise rises to inflation had been a cunning move in that rises would be blamed on economic circumstances rather than the Government, although the Opposition Leader, Mr Andrew Peacock, decried that same indexation as the “boomerang Budget” which would keep coming back to hit the nation’s families.