Today I invite Australian families, individuals, business and community groups to submit their ideas for the 2009-10 Budget.
While the fundamentals of our economy remain strong, Australia is facing an unprecedented set of economic challenges. The global financial crisis is impacting on our economy as well as on Australian households and businesses. At the same time we also face the long-term challenges of tackling climate change, reforming the pension, tax and retirement-incomes systems, delivering a world-class education system, and modernising our infrastructure.
The views of individuals, business and community groups are a central consideration for the Rudd Government in forming policies to strengthen and modernise our economy.
For the 2008-09 Budget, we received over 5,000 submissions from a broad range of individuals and groups. These submissions provided a valuable insight into the challenges we face, as well as the opportunities for the Government to help improve the living standards of Australians right across the country.
In order to allow views to be properly considered in the Budget process, interested parties should lodge submissions as soon as possible, and not later than Friday, 16 January 2009.
Lengthier submissions should ideally include an executive summary of no more than two pages, and be accompanied by an electronic version, either on disk or CD, or emailed in Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat format.
Submissions should be forwarded to the address below:
Budget Policy Division
Department of the Treasury
Langton Crescent
PARKES ACT 2600
Or email to: prebudgetsubs@treasury.gov.au