Home featured Australian Budget 2020 Featured News Australian Budget 2020 PM unveils blueprint for Australia’s economic recovery in pre-budget speech Ann Wen October 1, 2020 Today the Prime Minister Scott Morrison delivered his pre-budget speech on “arguably one of the most important” budgets since the end of the second world war. The 2020-21 budget, which will be announced next Tuesday, comes at the heels of Australia’s worst economic contraction after being hit by the global pandemic, bushfires and drought. “This year, the global economy is forecast to contract by around 4.5 per cent. The world economy during the GFC declined by 0.1 per cent. So in simple terms, the economic contraction we’re expecting this year in the global economy is 45 times greater than the GFC,” said Mr Morrison. The Prime Minister outlined three broad principles guiding next week’s budget: cushion the blow from the pandemic-induced recession, recover the jobs and incomes that were lost, and rebuild the economy for the future. A focus on manufacturing The pre-budget speech revealed that the manufacturing industry will play a key role in the Government’s economic recovery plan. Mr Morrison spent the large majority of his speech outlining the $1.5 billion budget plan to sustain local manufacturing. “[Key national priorities] are the resources technology and critical minerals processing, food and beverage manufacturing, medical products, clean energy and recycling, defence industry and the space industry,” said Mr Morrison. This plan centres around creating “a stable and competitive business environment through our jobmaker plan.” Despite