Coalition Senate threat angers govt

A possible Senate threat to a third round of economic stimulus measures in the May
budget has angered the Rudd government.
The opposition has flagged it will vote down any measure it considers a waste or bad
policy.
"It's a bit like somebody trying to tear the wheel out of the captain's hands on a
ship that's in the middle of a storm," Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said.
Earlier, his opposition counterpart Joe Hockey reaffirmed the coalition would oppose
any stimulus measure it considered wasteful or mismanaged.
"We have always opposed bad policy and we will continue to oppose bad policy," Mr
Hockey said.
That applied to measures contained in budget legislation or appropriation bills,
raising the spectre of another showdown between the two houses of parliament.
The government will need the support of all seven crossbench senators to gain
parliament approval for its budget and further stimulus measures.
It was forced to negotiate its second stimulus package through the upper house after
the balance-of-power senators bartered their votes for additional measures.
Mr Tanner reminded Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull that he wasn't in government.
"He should abandon this notion that he can somehow run the country from opposition
and use the Senate as a way to sabotage the government's efforts to sustain the
Australian economy at a moment of international crisis."
The government is projecting budget deficits for the next three years totalling
almost $100 billion, saying there was a good chance that figure would be revised
upwards.
"Our primary (budget) focus is inevitably going to be constraining spending," Mr
Tanner said, adding the government could not continue "indefinitely" to run large
budget deficits.
The nation's largest business group agreed, saying returning the budget to surplus
would be an important national challenge.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the May budget should include
measures to ensure a future surplus.
While it was acceptable that the budget had fallen into deficit in response to the
global financial crisis, a return to a surplus was needed as soon as possible, ACCI
chief executive Peter Anderson said.
The prospect of a paid maternity scheme looks increasingly like a budget casualty,
along with education and innovation funding.
"It is going to be difficult to fund all of those things all at once," Mr Tanner said.
"Some of the ambitions that we had at a time where the economy was much more robust
and the global circumstances where much more benign, we will have to delay; we will
have to work out a priority order."