Economist Chris Richardson says figure well above earlier forecasts is a reminder of ‘how lucky the Lucky Country has been’
The federal budget is on track to smash its earlier surplus forecasts as the government rakes in much more revenue.
The underlying cash balance for the 12 months to May was $19bn, well above the $4.2bn surplus flagged for the 2022-23 financial year in the last federal budget.
Continue reading...Anthony Albanese records strong approval of his performance, but only about one-third of voters thought the budget would help families
The Albanese government has a commanding lead over the Coalition, 53% to 42% in two-party-preferred terms, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.
Taken after the release of Labor’s first full-year budget on 9 May, the poll also found that less than one quarter of respondents (24%) think the budget will be good for them personally, although that is up eight points since the same question was asked in November, after the October budget.
Continue reading...Peter Dutton has proposed betting advertising be restricted but prime minister says review into the issue is under way
Anthony Albanese has declared he finds the barrage of betting advertisements during sporting matches “annoying” after opposition leader Peter Dutton proposed a ban because “footy time is family time”.
In an interview with Guardian Australian, the prime minister said he would not directly comment on any plans to ban this advertising, saying there was a review under way.
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Chalmers grilled about potential rent freeze
Chalmers is asked three times whether he has any views about a potential rent freeze. He says he has been focused on cost-of-living measures at the federal level.
My thoughts are we’re better off trying to encourage supply. While doing that we’re trying to take some of the edges off the pressure people are funding, that’s why I funded the biggest increase in rental assistance.
What we’ve been able to do, and I acknowledge the work of Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese working with the states and territories to do this, is to try and moderate the costs. It’s still a demand-driven program. It still will be growing very quick, the quickest growing in the budget but we need to moderate some of these costs.
In the near term that’s about cracking down on fraud and money going where it’s not supposed to be going. We also need to be making sure that we are moderating costs in – growth in costs in services and equipment, for example.
We don’t have enough homes and so whether it’s the build to rent tax breaks, the housing Australia future fund or the housing accord or some of these other measures, it recognises if we need - if we’re going to make housing more affordable, we need more supply.
But Anthony Albanese, to his credit, has shown leadership at the national cabinet level to see how we can work with the states and territories on issues like renters’ rights and that’s really important. When it comes to the agreement with the states and territories, we will do what we can.
It wouldn’t be the best negotiating tactic, David, to nominate a number today but we have said we’re prepared to extend it.
Continue reading...Treasurer says government won’t rule out adopting Peter Dutton’s proposal for social security recipients to be able to earn more before being penalised
The Albanese government has kept open the option of taking up the opposition’s proposal to increase the hours jobseekers can work before losing their payments.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, declined to rule out adopting the idea, saying the government was “always looking for ways to make it easier for people to participate in work”.
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Continue reading...Albanese government will spend $28bn on schools in 2023-24, but unions demand more to improve retention rates
Public schools in Central Australia will meet the minimum education funding benchmark for the first time in about a decade under the new federal budget, but the Greens say more needs to be done to close the gap between public and private education.
The Albanese government will spend a record high of $28bn on schools in 2023-24, Tuesday’s budget confirmed, rising to $31.4bn in 2026-27.
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Treasurer pushes ‘middle Australia’ benefits in budget
Jim Chalmers says the big program changes – cheaper medicines, tripling the Medicare bulk billing incentive and childcare subsidy changes (which come in July after forming part of the last budget) will help middle Australia.
And kids under 16 … there are kids right throughout middle Australia and they will benefit substantially, but also we’re making medicines cheaper.
Also … we’ve put these caps on gas and coal and that’s the big reason for the moderation in the … electricity price increases, the household energy upgrades funds, the home guarantee scheme, the Tafe and training places, the fact that we’ve got wages moving after a decade of deliberate wage suppression and stagnation.
I think the divisive commentary is coming from the opposition. I mean … Peter Dutton is a divisive figure, but he’s not a credible figure.
He takes his cues from Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison. The rest of Australia has moved on from Abbott and Morrison but he hasn’t. And we’ll see that tonight in his budget reply. He is trying to divide people against each other in this budget.
Continue reading...Bill Shorten says savings possible through tackling rorts, spiralling costs and rip-offs, but disability advocates remain sceptical
Ambitious plans to claw back $15bn from national disability insurance scheme (NDIS) spending, without changing eligibility criteria, has disability advocates worried that services will be cut in other ways.
The government says it can reduce costs from $17.2bn to $1.9bn over four years – that’s enough to pay for the government’s budget centrepiece, the $14.6bn cost-of-living package.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Palmer’s Zeph Investments could receive compensation if successful in second and potential third dispute beyond existing $296bn case
Clive Palmer’s company Zeph Investments has given notice it intends to sue Australia in a fresh case in addition to the existing $296bn investor-state claim, with a potential third claim in the works.
The two new prospective investor-state claims are revealed in budget papers, released on Tuesday, as contingent liabilities that could cost the budget bottom line.
Continue reading...Industry says the Albanese government is ‘defunding space programs without explanation’
Australia’s first national space mission – building satellites to detect and respond to bushfires and floods, and to undertake maritime surveillance – is up in the air.
The former Coalition government announced $1.2bn for a National Space Mission for Earth Observation (NSMEO), designing, building and operating four new satellites, in March last year.
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Continue reading...Treasurer to resume spruiking his budget today at the press club in Canberra. Follow the day’s news and budget analysis, live
What about the jobseeker rate?
Anthony Albanese:
Reform is never done.
What we do as a Labor government is focus on what we can do for people, but we focus as well on doing it in a really practical way. I think one of the things that we need to examine, for example, with people who are on jobseeker, is how we improve employment services to get those long-term unemployed into work quite clearly. When you have an unemployment rate of 3.5% but you have a whole lot of people who are just stuck in, in unemployment, then what you need to do is to focus on how is it that the system can be reformed so that we provide those people with employment opportunities, because that’s the key.
You can’t do everything in every budget. And if I did that, you would be asking me questions about inflation. You’d be asking me questions about whether the deficit was too large. As it is what we’ve done is produce a projected surplus. We’ve got the balance, right, providing support, doing, I think, very significant changes.
Continue reading...Treasurer also finds $492m for Closing The Gap plan and $250m for programs to tackle antisocial behaviour in Alice Springs
The government will devote $492m to the Indigenous Closing The Gap plan and $250m for a new strategy for central Australia and Alice Springs, but nearly $95m of that remains in a contingency fund pending further co-design processes with local communities.
The federal budget also allocates $336m to the Australian electoral commission to manage the referendum on the Indigenous voice to parliament, including $10m to print and deliver the official yes and no pamphlet to every household, plus millions to support mental health for Aboriginal people throughout the campaign. The government will also press on with developing regional voice groups before the national voice referendum is held.
Continue reading...Most of the increase is attributed to the return of overseas students, skilled temporary visa holders and working holidaymakers
Australia’s surge in net overseas migration, forecast to be 400,000 in 2022–23, is a catchup from the pandemic and is expected to be temporary, the budget papers reveal.
The forecast for 2024–25 is 260,000, broadly in line with the long-term historical average of 235,000.
Continue reading...After big-spending Aukus and defence announcements, Labor switches focus to diplomacy
The military and police will expand links with Pacific Island countries as part of a nearly $2bn budget package aimed at boosting Australia’s influence across the region.
After two months of rolling out big-spending defence announcements – including the Aukus nuclear-powered submarines – the Albanese government used Tuesday night’s budget to signal renewed interest in diplomacy and regional engagement.
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Greens accuse Labor of designing budget surplus ‘for political reasons’
Greens treasury spokesperson Nick McKim is next on ABC radio RN Breakfast and he is still not happy with the changes to the petroleum resource rent tax.
This surplus has been designed for political reasons, by Jim Chalmers. And again, what we are seeing in this budget is an acknowledgment rhetorically that the government needs to do more to help people who are doing it really tough, but they are not taking the action they need to actually deliver help at the extent that it is desperately needed.
Continue reading...Report finds that not only is CRA inadequate in alleviating rental stress, but that the way it’s calculated neglects those most in need
An increase in commonwealth rent assistance has been mooted as a budget measure to ease the housing crisis for those on lower incomes, but Anglicare Australia has warned the payment is not “fit for purpose” and has no effect on affordability.
As a result of the way the payment is designed, rental assistance payments for nearly 300,000 people may have fallen this year as a direct consequence of the cost of living going up.
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Continue reading...Labor will cap deductions to collect $2.4bn more in petroleum resource rent tax over four years. Follow the day’s news live
Jane Hume: Coalition government would offer ‘real savings’ and not ‘offsets’ in budget
The Liberal senator and shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, is now speaking to Patricia Karvelas on ABC RN Breakfast, rebutting everything Jim Chalmers just said.
The most important thing we would do is rein in expenditure … And I’m not saying that we would make cuts. I think that that is far too simplistic a term. But when something gets tight, for instance, we probably wouldn’t put on an additional 8,000 public servants which is what we’ve seen from this government just in the last 12 months …
We would make sure that the guardrails were on the budget so that we had a tax to GDP ratio, so that not only do we have offsets for your expenditure – which is of course, what this government is talking about when it says savings – we would have genuine savings and bank those savings to make sure that you don’t just deliver a surplus in one year, but you deliver it sustainably in future years.
The previous Coalition government spent $20.8bn outsourcing more than a third of public service operations, an audit has found.
The federal government released the findings of the Australian public service audit of employment on Saturday, which examined the hiring practices and associated costs of 112 public service agencies, excluding the CSIRO, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and parliamentary departments.
It’s nonsense to say that consultants aren’t needed to assist with public service responsibilities. All governments need external expert support and advice and often it’s a more efficient means of having access to that expertise.
Continue reading...From September, single parents to receive extra payments until their youngest child turns 14, Anthony Albanese announces
Single parents will now receive extra payments until their child turns 14, as the government moves to wind back a controversial Gillard-era move which pushed parents on to lower welfare rates.
The children’s age cutoff for the Parenting Payment (Single) payment will be boosted from its current eight years, giving the cohort – overwhelmingly single mothers – an extra $176.90 per fortnight.
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‘It’s tough’: Taylor on whether LNP can hold Fadden after Stuart Robert retirement
Taylor is asked whether the LNP can hold Fadden at the upcoming byelection to fill the spot left by Stuart Robert after he suddenly announced his retirement and says “it’s tough”.
That’s the nature of modern politics.
But the point I would make is the real test right now is this inflation test.
The more the treasurer talks about restraint, the more we know he’s planning to spend. That is the double speak we are getting from Labor right now.
I think it is a test of whether inflation is being dealt with. The truth of the matter is we know there is no bigger conversation around the kitchen table right now than this inflation that’s hitting. It is a tax on everyone and everything. We want to see a budget that deals with that.
Continue reading...Treasurer Jim Chalmers and finance minister Katy Gallagher announce changes ahead of budget tipped to be at or near surplus
Labor will cap deductions to collect $2.4bn more in petroleum resource rent tax over four years and boost community services by $4bn through fairer indexation of wage costs.
The two major measures were announced by the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and finance minister, Katy Gallagher, ahead of Tuesday’s budget, which is expected to be at or near surplus.
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