FED: PM resurrects budget razor gang - report

AAP General News (Australia)
12-22-2008
FED: PM resurrects budget razor gang - report

Prime Minister KEVIN RUDD has demanded his ministers produce proposals for significant
spending cuts.

He's warned the economic slowdown has choked corporate profits .. and .. as a consequence
.. cut government tax receipts.

The Australian newspaper says Mr RUDD has resurrected his budget razor gang to slash
government spending to counter the global financial crisis .. and ensure he can deliver
his promise to boost pensions next year.

Finance Minister LINDSAY TANNER revealed the austerity drive yesterday .. in an interview
with The Australian in which he also failed to rule out new or increased taxes.

He says the government has to trim waste so it can deliver to priority areas .. including
pensioners .. and battlers struggling in the face of the global economic crisis.

The razor gang is a group of about 10 Department of Finance officers whose line-by-line
examination of the budget earlier this year produced more than four billion dollars in
savings in the 2008-09 budget.

AAP RTV ao/psm/

KEYWORD: SPENDING (SYDNEY)

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