Labor plans $1.18BILLION foreign aid increase over four years
- The Labor Party has planned a $1.18billion foreign aid increase over four years
- Chris Bowen and Jim Chalmers outlined Labor’s costings in Canberra on Friday
- Bill Shorten declared his party would deliver a ‘better set of books’ than Coalition
The Labor Party has planned a $1.18billion foreign aid increase over four years.
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen and finance spokesman Jim Chalmers outlined Labor’s costings at Parliament House in Canberra on Friday, showing budget savings of $154billion over the next decade.
Their budget plan has declared a $30million increase to ODA (official development assistance) between 2019 and 2020.
The increase jumps to $220million for 2020/21, $410million for 2021/22 and $520million 2022/23, totaling $1.18billion.
The Labor Party has planned a $1.18billion foreign aid increase over four years. Pictured: Opposition Leader Bill Shorten with his wife Chloe Shorten
Labor has also pledged an increased $380million in funding to UNHCR (The UN Refugee Agency) over four years.
They would also boost funding for the humanitarian intake to $96million in the same time-frame, but starting in 2020.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten declared his party would deliver a ‘better set of books’ than the Coalition if elected on May 18.
‘We’ve been up-front with the people of Australia,’ Mr Shorten told reporters in Cairns on Friday.
‘We are going to reverse the cuts to schools and hospitals. We are going to provide tax cuts on 1 July for 10 million working Australians and we will have a better set of books.’
The costings are expected to show a return to the black in 2019/20, as well as a surplus of one per cent of GDP by 2022/23.
Mr Bowen said further tax relief beyond what Labor had already promised could be provided when the budget is back in healthy surplus, if the economic and fiscal circumstances allow.
‘We’re not saying here’s the number of dollars that every taxpayer gets – that’s the silly game Josh Frydenberg and Scott Morrison are playing,’ he said.
Five areas of tax reform – dividend imputation, negative gearing and capital gains tax, trusts, multinationals and accountant deductions and superannuation concessions – will raise $154 billion over 10 years.
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen (right) and Shadow Minister for Finance Jim Chalmers (left) talk with the costings panel in Chris Bowen’s office ahead of the Press conference on budget costings at Parliament House in Canberra on Friday