Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said today that the 2011-12 federal budget, to be released next week, will get more Australians into jobs and maximise the opportunity of the country’s mining boom.

“It will get us back into the black in 2012-13, that’s the responsible course of action, well ahead of just about any other developed economy in the world,” Swan said.

“We are determined to bring our budget back to surplus in 2012-13 and the way we are going about that to provide room for important initiatives is to make savings elsewhere in the budget,” Swan said.

Export revenues of late have been affected by external factors, he added. “Growth this year is down substantially, because of the impact of the natural disasters, Cyclone Yasi and of course international uncertainty that flows from Japan.”

But Swan remained confident of a turnaround. “There is short-term softness in the economy caused by natural disasters and international uncertainty but there’s medium-term strength,” Swan said. “What we must do in the years ahead is not compound any of the inflationary and capacity pressures.”

Swan also added that the budget will focus on breaking welfare dependency and moving more people into the workforce.