What we learned: October budget 2022-23
And that was the 2022-23 budget. (Again.) There was lots of talk of inflation, promises of loads of houses, and a smattering of talk about how boring it was.
The Joe Hockey/Tony Abbott 2014 budget was the last one that really blew everyone’s socks off (and not in a good way). Since then, governments have played it relatively safe. And as Katharine Murphy points out, for a range of reasons, this was one of the safest budgets yet.
Today saw more dire warnings about the global and domestic economic outcome, after the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the floods and other factors rendered the pre-election Coalition March budget all but redundant.
We already knew that inflation was going crazy, but the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, put a forceful emphasis on the resultant need for “restraint”.
In that restrained environment, though, he put together a cost of living package, the highlight of which was the government’s ambitious, not-yet-fully-formed plan to aim for a million new homes within a decade.
There was some unforeseen revenue, some “reprioritisation” of spending, and the news that cumulative deficits over the four years of the forward estimates now total $181bn, which is an improvement of more than $40bn over what was forecast before the election.
And we learned that future tax reforms and energy regulations are on the cards. Chalmers delivered some pretty strong hints that we should stay tuned.
The Guardian Australian team will keep on ferreting and fossicking away, so we’ll see you here again tomorrow as we unspool more of the budget. In the meantime, catch up here.
Updated
Here’s Daniel Hurst again, this time with the defence update and Australia’s help for Ukraine:
