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President of the FBAA Peter White has said Tuesday’s Budget was “tough but necessary” for the sake of future generations.
Mr White, who attended a post-Budget meeting in Canberra on Tuesday night, told The Adviser that Australia’s debt – presently sitting at $660 billion – needed to be addressed, and the Budget went some way to doing that.
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“There are some bitter pills to swallow, but I think it’s the right moves,” Mr White said.
“I think that if we want our country to be stronger economically, then we don’t have much choice. Otherwise, all we’re doing is passing on a debt from our era to our children and I think that’s very wrong.”
Mr White added that while some measures were disappointing – such as the fuel excise and a cost to visit a GP – others would be beneficial to the housing industry.
“There are some good things that came out of it, like money going into infrastructure projects which are going to create jobs all around the country. And of course that’s good for our industry, because it means they’re going to borrow,” he said.
Reactions to this year’s Budget have been mixed, and not everyone was as optimistic as Mr White. Senior economist Dr Andrew Wilson of Australian Property Monitors said that tough cuts to jobs could have a harmful effect on an already weak job market.
“Canberra has been reeling from these job cuts over the last three budgets, and this is another addition to that. It’s no surprise that the Canberra housing market is the underperformer at the moment,” he said.
