Albo and Chalmers' cozzie livs dilemma
Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers are damned if they do and damned if they don't on cost-of-living relief.
Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers are in a bind.
Amid an alarming slide in the polls, some jittery backbenchers want the government to announce additional cost-of-living relief measures in next month’s mid-year budget, over and above its already announced 10-point, $23 billion cost-of-living plan.
While Chalmers has agreed to meet with a group of MPs to discuss the government’s plans for the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO), which will be handed down the week starting 11 December, he has hosed down suggestions it will include new cost-of-living measures.
"There won't be heaps of new initiatives like we saw in the main budget or the October budget before that. It will be more like a traditional mid-year update," Chalmers told the ABC this morning.
The problem is that if the government puts additional cash in Australians’ pockets, it risks making inflation worse. And sending interest rates higher.
