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The Australian coalition government 's National Commission of Audit on Thursday released a report with recommendations to the federal budget, containing 86 recommendations aimed at saving the budget up to 70 billion AU dollars (64.94 billion U.S. dollars) annually.
Its 86 recommendations, detailed in more than 1,200 pages, address major structural changes that the commission said could save the budget tens of billions of dollars a year and achieve a surplus of 1 percent by 2023-24.
The recommendations, howver, were described as "a raft of potentially explosive spending cuts to government services and payments" by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Family payments, child care, health care, education, unemployment and pension payments, aged care and the National Disability Insurance Scheme "are all among those areas in the firing line."
The audit report also recommends "swingeing" cuts to industry assistance and public service and a radical shakeup of the way all governments tax and do business.
"After the last election we inherited 123 billion AU dollars ( 114 billion U.S. dollars) in projected deficits with government debt heading for 667 billion AU dollars (618.77 billion U.S. dollars), unless we take corrective action," federal Treasurer Joe Hocky explained Thursday.
According to him, the National Commission of Audit report showed that without remedial action, "Labor's spending trajectory continues to deteriorate beyond the current forward estimates."
"That is why we made a commitment before the last election to repair the budget," Hockey said.
Hockey told reporters in Canberra that he has no doubt that there'll be many issues that are highly contentious, and somewhat difficult for various stakeholders and some in the community to accept.
"But there is an overwhelming challenge here, and that is to ensure that the budget is structurally fit for the future," he added.
Hockey stressed it was a report to the government - not by the government.
"There are a number of recommendations that would be described as courageous. There are some recommendations that represent common sense."
According to him, some recommendations would be included in a federation white paper in discussion with the states and territories, while others would be taken into other processes, such as the productivity inquiry into child care.
This means that some of the suggestions will be adopted by the federal government, but some will require more analysis, and the others will be knocked back. But the government's full response will not be outlined until the May 13 budget is handed down.
The National Commission of Audit was established in October 2013 by the Australian government as an independent body to review and report on the performance, functions and roles of the Commonwealth government.
