This week's political news

With thousands of businesses in distress during the coronavirus restrictions, the Federal Government has moved to reform the insolvency process to enable more small companies to stay in operation. Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced a new debt restructuring process for incorporated businesses with liabilities of less than $1 million, drawing on features of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy model in the US. The proposed model would allow eligible small businesses to restructure their existing debts while remaining in control of their business. The Treasurer said the reforms would cover around 76 per cent of businesses subject to insolvencies today, 98 per cent of whom had less than 20 employees.

Emily Minson25 September 2020LunikCOVID-19, political news, news, politics, treasury, insolvency, tax cut, corporations act, income tax, recession, retail trade

Hard road back to a Budget surplus

After announcing $259 billion in emergency rescue packages, the Federal Government is looking at years of budget deficits as the nation slips into and then emerges from, a looming economic recession. It won’t be an easy task to deliver the next budget surplus, as previous recoveries have shown. Governments typically spend up big to reverse or avert, an economic slowdown.

Budget papers from the Department of Finance underline the hard slog required in returning to a budget surplus after a recession.

Emily Minson14 July 2020COVID-19, finance, recession, budget