(ALARM BLARES)
Treasurer!
What's wrong now?
Why do you always think there's something wrong when I come in here?
Because there is, isn't there?
Yeah. OK...
Look, the economy is...
The economy is in a bad way.
Treasurer!
The economy is in a bad way.
That's what I just said. Oh, dear.
Well, there's only one thing we can do now.
Who you gonna call?
(GHOSTBUSTERS MUSIC PLAYS)
(ALARM BLARES)
Oh! It's recess!
It's recession... Recession!
That's not good.
A recession basically means the economy has gone backwards.
You see, because of COVID-19,
people haven't been spending as much money,
businesses have been making less money,
which means people have been losing their jobs,
which means they've been spending less money.
It really is a vicious cycle,
so the government's been doing its best to keep the economy going.
The JobSeeker's running out! We need to try something else.
Ah.... Ah, get the budget!
The budget - yeah, of course. Get the budget.
Let me bring you up to speed.
If you didn't already know,
the budget is a long and, let's be honest,
usually pretty boring document
outlining all of the money the federal government plans to spend
over the next year
on things like education, hospitals, the defence force, welfare and so on.
And that's been particularly important now due to...
BOTH: COVID-19!
You get the picture.
In this year's budget,
the government's trying to fight the recession
by encouraging people to spend more money,
and it's doing that with...
Tax cuts!
Tax cuts for tax payers or people who work,
which the government hopes will give them more money to spend.
Business stimulus.
In other words, a bunch of tax write-offs for businesses
so that they can spend their money on other things too
and hopefully hire more people.
The budget also announced some new programs
to help businesses employ and train young workers.
Is it going to work?
Well, the government and the rest of us are certainly hoping so,
but it's going to come at a cost.
You see, all of this spending means Australia is recording
record levels of debt,
and that's something the government really didn't want to do.
COVID-19 will see our deficit reach
$213.7 billion this year.
This is a heavy burden, but a necessary one
to responsibly deal with the greatest challenge of our time.
Plus, the government's plans come with some big expectations.
The budget assumes that there'll be a vaccine for the coronavirus in 2021
and by this time next year,
things need to be pretty much back to normal.
Not everyone is happy with the budget.
Some people think the government hasn't done enough for refugees,
climate change, or people who don't make a lot of money.
But when it comes to the budget,
it's pretty rare that everyone's happy.
And with so much on the line,
a lot of people are hoping that this budget will work.
Thank you, Budget Busters.
When you need us again, you know who to call.
(GHOSTBUSTERS THEME SONG PLAYS)