Aussie rolls out the welcome mat

The Australian Treasurer has said Kiwis who want to earn more money and pay less tax are welcome to come to Australia – especially if they can also play rugby union.

This is somewhat undiplomatic of Treasurer Costello and Cullen will be furious at him for saying it.

Incidentially here is a comparison of the Australian and NZ budgets:

Australian Surplus
03/04 – $4.8b 0.6% of GDP
04/05 – $10.8b 1.2% of GDP
05/06 – $16.0b 1.7%
06/07 – 1.0% onwards

NZ Surplus (OBERAC)
03/04 – $6.6b 4.7% of GDP
04/05 – $8.8b 5.9% of GDP
05/06 – $6.9b 4.5% of GDP
06/07 – $5.7b 3.6% of GDP

Yes the NZ surpluses are three to four times as large as the Australian surpluses. And in Australia no-one is saying the tax cuts are unaffordable. In fact they are saying they don’t go far enough!

How about the rest of the world? Let’s go to the OECD. They have a series on Government net savings as a % of GDP. We are the third highest in the world at 5.6%

Australia has a far lower surplus than NZ, yet is delivering very significant tax reductions. Almost every country is the world has smaller surpluses than NZ yet many if not most of them reduce tax rates over time.