Commentary “Mr Speaker, I am announcing tonight a schedule to increase Australia’s defence expenditure to three percent of GDP over the next 10 years. “This is a necessary response to the Defence Strategic Review which the Albanese government commissioned, the recommendations of which we endorsed recently. It is a realistic response to the threats to our…

Commentary There is more care than productivity in this budget. Literally, ‘care’ is one of the most frequently used words in the budget, with 20 mentions, while “productivity” has just four. Yet, if we are to pull ourselves out of the hole we have dug ourselves into, increasing productivity is the most important thing. Word…

Almost 12 million Australians will find visiting their doctor less taxing on the household budget as the federal government announced a $3.5 billion (US$2.4 billion) investment into bulk billing. The largest funding boost in bulk billing is part of the $6.1 billion package into strengthening Medicare and providing middle Australians, not just the most vulnerable,…

Treasurer Jim Chalmers will announce a small budget surplus on Tuesday evening, the first in 15 years primarily driven by record-high iron ore, coal, and gas prices. The $4 billion (US$2.7 billion) surplus for the 2022-23 financial year is expected to be short-lived, and the budget will soon dip back into deficit as commodity prices…

Commentary Sometimes there are signposts to what a government may be planning to do, and when it comes to the budget in Australia, the Grattan Institute is one. Its latest pointer is called “Back in Black” and is a submission on this May’s Federal Budget. As a centre-left think tank, sponsored by the Australian and…

Australia’s budget deficit will see a “remarkable recovery” this year on the back of soaring coal and natural gas prices, according to economist Chris Richardson. In September, Treasury said higher commodity prices improved the federal budget’s bottom line for the 2021-22 financial year by $50 billion (US$75 billion) from higher commodity prices, but warned that…

What the Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers tabled on Oct. 25 was not a budget in the traditional sense but a mini-budget or update. Unlike a regular annual budget there were few announcements of new policies or fiscal strategies. But it suited Chalmers to elevate it to the status of a budget for dramatic effect—to emphasise…

The Albanese government will invest $7 billion (US$4.5 billion) into making Australia a world leader in gender equality. Minister for Women Katy Gallagher said this was the first budget where the government could demonstrate they were serious about delivering on the promise to improve women’s economic equality. “Labor’s first Budget delivers on our election commitment…

Walking down a flooded road in Forbes, in central west New South Wales (NSW), Prime Minister Anthony Albanese smiled as Nationals MP Michael McCormack put an arm around his shoulder. During visits to disaster zones in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania this week, the prime minister greeted local emergency service crews, gumboot-clad locals, and a sheepdog…

While the value of the Australian dollar has fallen significantly against the U.S. dollar this year, the depreciation is expected to contribute “only a very modest uplift” to inflation, according to a senior Reserve Bank official. Christopher Kent, the assistant governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), said while the Australian dollar has fallen…