SYDNEY (AAP)

An attack by Federal Treasurer Peter Costello on Labor's $4.7 billion broadband initiative will be blunted by a Treasury report to be released next month, The Australian newspaper reports.

The report will show the ageing of the population is becoming far less burdensome for the next generation.

An increasing birth rate and the number of older men remaining in the workforce are reducing the need to set aside government budget surpluses.

The report will be at odds with Mr Costello's attack on Labor's plan to use $2.7 billion from the proceeds of selling Telstra shares, held in the Future Fund, to pay for a broadband network to cover 98 per cent of Australia.

Details of the looming update of the Government's intergenerational report came as Labor Leader Kevin Rudd reserved the right to make further uses of the Future Fund to pay for other infrastructure projects, provided they were capable of generating an economic return.

Numbers being assembled by the Treasury for the report's five-year update suggest future generations might be able to fend for themselves.
23/03/2007 05:44:53 AM