Budget 2012: A surplus at what cost?

The federal government made good its promise of a surplus in this year’s federal budget – it’s $1.5 billion which it is somehow going to deliver in the face of a $44 billion deficit this year.

But shadows have been cast on whether the government is capable of delivering on its promise with a further debt crisis in Europe looming, and whether they should have been pushing for a surplus at all.

Producers:

• Catherine Zengerer

Speakers:

• Federation Fellow in Economics and Political Science at the University of Queensland
• John Quiggin