The Institute’s tax counsel, Yasser El-Ansary, says the government is expecting the health of the non-mining sectors of the economy to rapidly improve over the next two years, but based on current indicators, there’s no guarantee that will happen.
http://www.charteredaccountants.com.au/News-Media/Media-centre/2011/Return-to-surplus-built-on-optimistic-assumptions
A useful summary of the budget provisions has been prepared by the Institute together with Thomson Reuters: https://www.charteredaccountants.com.au/~/media/Files/Industry%20topics/Tax/Current%20Issues/Federal%20budget/Weekly%20Tax%20Bulletin%20Special%20Budget%20Report%202011ICAA
"Tough as Tofu": Stephen Long, economics correspondent for the ABC commented on Budget night:
The Government's found savings of $22 billion over the four years of the forward estimates, but there's only about $17 billion or so in genuine cuts to expenditure - the rest are tax increases and levies.See: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/10/3213131.htm?section=business
The reality is that, over the course of the forward estimates, the genuine cuts to expenditure are pretty much offset by increases in expenditure