Budget must aim to protect jobs: ACTU

The federal government must put off a return to a budget surplus if the economy weakens to the point that jobs are at risk, the ACTU says.

Handing down the ACTU's budget submission for 2012/13, its secretary Jeff Lawrence says priority must be given to creating and protecting jobs.

Mr Lawrence said the Australian economy had been the "stand-out performer" among developed nations for the past five years and had survived any shocks thrown at it.

"But with much of Europe mired in recession and the high dollar hurting manufacturing and export industries, there was no room for complacency," he said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Given the uncertain global economic environment, the government must stand ready to adjust its fiscal priorities and its plan to return to surplus in order to protect jobs."

He said while he was not suggesting the government abandon its fiscal rules, the timetable for tightening fiscal policy should be contingent on macroeconomic conditions.

The government has promised to bring the budget back into the black in the 2012/13 financial year and is currently forecasting a $1.5 billion surplus.

Mr Lawrence said the 2012/13 budget must prepare Australia for life after a commodities boom that will not last forever.

He said the government must also provide ongoing support to assist industries under siege from the high dollar to transform and remain competitive.

"To secure the gains from the boom for the next generation of working Australians, we need to put long-term sustainable job creation at the centre of economic policy," he said.

"Secure jobs that pay decent wages and have workplace rights can be built on our economic strengths."

The ACTU is calling for the budget to include funding for wage increases in the aged-care sector, a commitment to fund the national disability insurance scheme, and raising the Newstart allowance towards parity with the age pension.

It said revenues could be raised by removing excessive tax breaks for large companies, reducing tax avoidance and evasion by very high income earners, and cracking down on sham contracting and unreported earnings, which cost billions of dollars in lost tax revenues.