What we learned today, Wednesday 10 May
And with that, we are going to close the blog. Before we go, let’s recap the big headlines:
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said he stood by the budget amid “predictable political responses”. He told the National Press Club he was “supremely confident” the budget would not add to inflation.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, signalled the Coalition was likely to support electricity rebates and the GP bulk-billing incentives.
The Senate rejected Labor’s bid to rush through the housing bill.
The Greens senator Jordon Steele-John responded to the $74.3bn cut from the NDIS.
The high court reserved its decision in the landmark Qantas case over the legality of layoffs.
The Queensland MP Barry O’Rourke cancelled a meeting with a former “patriots” group leader.
The chair of the Lehrmann case inquiry said he considered closing hearings to the media over “loathsome” reporting.
The federal government introduced a law to allow Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.
The NSW Liberal leader, Mark Speakman, announced state Coalition members would not be bound by their party on the voice.
Thank you so much for spending part of your day with us – go well.
Updated
Finally, the prime minister is asked about the push for Julian Assange to be released from prison.
Last week in the UK, he expressed frustration over the WikiLeaks founder’s incarceration, saying it needed to be brought to a conclusion. These comments were broadly backed by opposition leader, Peter Dutton.
Do you want Julian Assange back in Australia? And is this something that you will press home when president Joe Biden is here for the quad meetings?
Albanese says he doesn’t discuss private conversations with leaders of other countries but his “public comments are the same as my private ones here”.
We have made our views very clear to the US administration, we’ll continue to do so. And a solution needs to be found that brings this matter to a conclusion. Mr Assange needs to be a part of that, of course. I am hopeful that that will occur. It has been too long and in my view, as I said before, I see nothing is served from the further incarceration of Mr Assange.
On Tuesday morning, a cross-party delegation of Australian parliamentarians pressed for an end to the pursuit of Assange at a meeting with the US ambassador, Caroline Kennedy.
Updated
The prime minister is asked about the voice, and whether it’s a problem for advocates that “they can’t argue it’s really powerful and transformational, but they can’t say that it isn’t”.
Albanese reiterates what he’s said in the past, that it’s a generous and gracious offer which stemmed from the Uluru dialogue.
What the voice will do, is to provide an opportunity for Indigenous people to speak, to have that voice, but also for government to listen.
And we know that you get better outcomes when you listen … if you look at the programs that have been most successful, community health programs, Indigenous rangers programs, justice reinvestment, they have that in common.
It’s not about a third chamber, it isn’t about a veto about what government does, but it will give Indigenous Australians a voice, and I believe the government will have the opportunity to get better outcomes and close the gap. We’ve done it the other way for a long time. This is an opportunity to change Australia and I believe it is a significant change and it’s one for the better.
Updated
Continuing on with the Laura Tingle interview, which turns to Aukus, one of the big challenges ahead in terms of budget spending.
You’re at the financial mercy of a defence establishment which has an appalling record of profligacy. How can you keep track of what they’re doing … you’ve got hundreds of billions of dollars of contingency reserve, that shows how rubbery the numbers are, doesn’t it?
Anthony Albanese says by having the defence strategic review and national security and expenditure review committees meet regularly, proper scrutiny will be had over defence spending.
Tingle:
Paul Keating called the Aukus deal the worst deal in history. And he’s got a point, doesn’t he, that we’re the only Aukus partner spending any money.
Albanese:
That’s not right at all. The truth is that the United States and the United Kingdom are of course also spending, investing, in order to secure their national security interests … I see our defence expenditure being for this generation what the car industry was in the postwar period. That it will have a spin-off with high value manufacturing, that’ll add to employment, add to the economy.
Updated
Back to Bandt, who says the Greens will be fighting for renters, the climate and environment, and against handouts for coal and gas corporations.
The government has the power to tackle the inequality and cost of living crisis, but instead they make it worse. They say no one left behind, then betray young people and those in poverty. They say they are ending the climate wars, and hand out billions in fossil fuel subsidies.
Labor could work with the Greens to tackle the crises we face, but instead, Labor is betraying people and leaving them behind.
Finishing up, he says voters elected a progressive parliament to act on climate, the environment and the cost of living who have been short-changed by the government.
If Labor worked together with the Greens we could immediately stop all new coal and gas, lift people out of poverty, freeze rent increases and wipe student debt. This is what we will continue to fight for.
The PM has found a way to quote musician and left-wing activist Billy Bragg, perhaps in a nod to his bygone days of “DJ Albo” and hosting Rage.
Tingle:
To quote Jim Chalmers again, he said today he thinks there’s a generosity inherent in the Australian character, that if you’re doing it the toughest, you need the most help. We haven’t seen much of the generosity on display in repeat years, are you changing the politics or is the community changing?
Albanese:
It’s both. You need leadership and a government that doesn’t deride people who are not well off. Billy Bragg sang ‘just because you’re better than me doesn’t mean I’m lazy’. He’s right. We don’t have equal opportunity.
The job of the state is to intervene in ways to facilitate people to rise up, to be able to make the most and aspire to a better life for themselves, not just a better life economically, but also in the way they live their lives, hence our investment in arts and culture as well.
Bandt has vowed to fight to make large corporations, fossil fuel producers and high income earners pay more tax when budget legislation hits parliament to alleviate cost of living pressures hitting low and middle income earners.
Despite the treasurer failing to mention climate once in his speech, the Greens have secured more than a third of new climate spending, with a $2 billion package to help households, businesses and public housing get off gas.
However, Labor’s still spending $41.4 billion on fossil fuel subsidies, more than the $29.5 billion climate spend.
You can read about the energy savings in the budget from climate and environment editor Adam Morton here:
Albanese says Labor 'the party of aspiration’ in post-budget interview
The ABC’s Laura Tingle says Labor has moved into “traditional Coalition country” in a political sense with Tuesday’s budget, with the party moving further to the centre while the Liberals are “a bit lost”.
We’ve got a big change in our political stage going on at the moment, haven’t we?
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says the Coalition lost its way during almost a decade of holding government.
They produced a budget in 2014 that reflected their ideological viewpoint, a budget full of privatisation and cuts and harsh measures. That didn’t go down well. They were defined by what they were against. We want to be defined by what we are for.
He says Labor is for a “strong economy that creates opportunity” while leaving nobody behind, while also speaking loftily of aspiration and not holding Australians back.
Traditionally, Labor has been the party for the disadvantaged and last night’s budget reflects that. But also no-one held back. We’re the party of aspiration. We’re the party that understands that people want a better future for their children.
He cites a clean energy future, investment in TAFE, childcare and putting “women at the centre of economic reform”.
Updated
Tingle points to comments made by the treasurer that budgets are an opportunity “not just to reflect on the budget papers themselves but what is happening around them”.
When we look at this budget, what should it tell Australians broadly about where the government is taking the country?
Albanese says it should tell people we’re laying “the strong foundations for a better future” and “takes the commitments we took to the 2022 election seriously” (stage three tax cuts, anyone?).
We’re a government with a sense of purpose. We want to change the country for the better.
He points to “foundations” laid to deal with immediate cost of living pressures while balancing inflation, while “always having an eye on the medium and longer term”, including becoming a renewable energy superpower.
Meanwhile, the prime minister is appearing on 7.30 with Laura Tingle talking all things budget.
The $40-a-fortnight raise in jobseeker and 15% boost to the maximum rate of rent assistance is not enough to lift people out of poverty, Bandt says.
If you’re rich, Labor’s got your back. If you’re on income support, you get $2.85 extra per day. It’s hardly enough to buy a loaf of bread.
If you receive rent assistance, you will get an extra $1.12 per day. That’s not going to cover rent increases which are rising ten times that amount in capital cities. $1.12 a day to cover skyrocketing rents, while billions go to the wealthy property investors. And for 5.5 million renters, who are not on rent assistance, nothing at all.
Amid a thirty-year-high indexation rate to come into effect from 1 June, Bandt says the government is collecting more from student debt than changes to the tax on big gas corporations.
Labor boasts that they’re in surplus, but you can’t use a surplus to pay the rent or buy food. Every dollar of surplus is a dollar not spent lifting people out of poverty.
Including the single mothers excluded from Labor undoing the damage since their attack on single parents over a decade ago. And disabled people facing $74 billion in cuts to the NDIS. These aren’t tough choices, as the prime minister likes to say, these are just bad choices.
Bandt uses budget reply speech to lash tax cuts for the rich during cost-of-living crisis
Greens leader Adam Bandt has vowed to fight budget legislation when it hits parliament, using his reply speech to lash out at tax cuts for the rich amid a cost-of-living crisis.
Speaking this evening, Bandt will say the federal government’s budget appeases large corporations and the wealthy while leaving “millions behind”.
It is a betrayal of renters, students, jobseekers, young people and everyone doing it tough.
Bandt will say people are sleeping in their cars and worrying about food prices and rent rises at the same time Labor maintains its commitment for stage three tax cuts and $368 billion for nuclear submarines.
Labor wants to be the ‘superior economic manager’. But for who? It’s not young people, it’s not students, it’s not renters or first home buyers, it’s not those on income support or disabled people. It’s for their big corporate donors. Labor is managing the economy for Ceos, the billionaires and property moguls.
The treasurer Jim Chalmers today hinted at possible repositioning of the stage three tax cuts when questioned by our chief political correspondent Paul Karp.
Jim Chalmers: "Is there more than one way to do that? Of course there is." - hints of possible future repositioning on expensive stage 3 tax cuts. #auspol pic.twitter.com/Yaom2zDtMn
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) May 10, 2023
Updated
Caitlin Cassidy here on the blog.
I’ll be bringing you all the juicy bits from Greens leader Adam Bandt’s budget reply speech, coming up in about ten minutes.
From AAP:
The northern NSW community is scarred by catastrophic flooding that hit the area last year and has still not fully healed, newly-elected Nationals MP for Clarence Richie Williamson said.
The 2022 floods have left a scar on my community that has not healed, but is slowly healing.
Our area has been dealt some rough hands. If it wasn’t the drought, it was the fires, which destroyed hundreds of homes in my electorate.
If it wasn’t the fires, it was the biblical-sized floods that displaced thousands. Today hundreds still remain without a home.
The 2022 floods have left a scar on my community that has not healed, but is slowly healing.
Traditional owners call for shale fracking ban in Canberra protest
Protesters hit the lawns of Parliament House today to call on the federal government to listen to traditional owners and ban shale fracking.
Widjabul-Wiabul woman and GetUp chief executive Larissa Baldwin-Roberts told AAP they were standing in solidarity with traditional owners from the Northern Territory.
Baldwin said the Labor federal and NT governments had broken promises to Indigenous people:
For decades traditional owners across this country have been saying ‘no’.
They’ve been saying no to fracking on their country and they’ve been saying that they want to protect their cultural heritage and their water.
What we saw in last night’s budget was millions and millions of dollars going in to super-charge these projects and steamroll our communities in order to get fracking going.
Updated
Hawthorn AFLW captain comes out as non-binary
Hawthorn AFLW captain Tilly Lucas-Rodd has come out as non-binary in a heartwarming video for fans.
The midfielder, who uses they/them pronouns, said it took them years to finally feel comfortable with their identity, and they were now ready to let people know what they had been discovering about themselves.
Tilly has something to share 🫶
— Hawthorn FC AFLW (@hawthornaflw) May 10, 2023
Lucas-Rodd said when they let the team know they were met with a ‘huge amount of love’ and everyone was using the correct pronouns to refer to them.
They said being non-binary is a different experience for everyone, so being open minded and willing to learn is the first step, and try to respect people’s pronouns.
Lucas-Rodd has moved to Hawthorn from Carlton in the AFLW’s seventh season and has previously been named in the All Australian squad.
Carlton’s Darcy Vescio and Gold Coast’s Tori Groves-Little both shared that they identified as non-binary in 2021
Updated
Australia has the most expensive passports in the world
If stubbornly high air fares and the tyranny of distance weren’t enough to dissuade Australians from travelling overseas in droves, it should come as no surprise that we also pay the most for our passports.
Australia has the most expensive passport fees of any country in the world, with a 10 year passport costing A$325. Not only that, the cost of travelling is about to go up, with a A$10 hike to the passenger movement charge from July.
The cost data has been collated by insurance firm William Russell, who have ordered the most expensive passports in US dollar terms. Australia’s is most expensive at US$230, followed by Mexico at US$170, Switzerland at US$140, Italy at US$135 and the United States at US$130.
Czechia has the cheapest passports, at US$27, followed by Latvia at US$29, Spain at US$33 and Poland and Slovakia at US$35.
The data also found the USA charges the most for a tourist via, at an average fee of US$127, while South Korea charges the least with an average fee of US$3. Australia also charges the most for a student via, with an average fee of US$452, while Mexico has the cheapest student visas with an average fee of US$36.
Updated
Investors and (most) economists say budget won’t budge the RBA on rates
There’s a bit of debate today about whether the federal budget was inflationary and therefore would increase the chances of another Reserve Bank rate rise.
We noted here earlier that most economists don’t think it will prompt the RBA to hike another time - making it a 12th increase since last May:
And there’s a bit of support for that view from the markets, with investors also unfazed:
Did the budget increase the chances of another RBA interest rate rise? Investors assessed the odds of a rate rise as a 0% chance at the June RBA board meeting before the budget landed...and afterwards? Still 0% chance, with a cut pencilled for next March. pic.twitter.com/BLKloKs4Wa
— @phannam@mastodon.green (@p_hannam) May 10, 2023
Mind you, surprisingly strong economic data could still swing things. The next notable numbers will be the March quarter wage price index from the ABS on 17 May, just one week away.
From AAP:
Passengers who were aboard a cruise ship that sailed into the path of a cyclone have launched a class action seeking damages and a refund.
P&O’s Pacific Aria left Brisbane for a journey through the South Pacific but encountered severe weather spinning off category five cyclone Donna in May 2017, according to legal documents filed in the Federal Court.
The passengers say the journey was extremely rough, no activities were open aboard the ship and they were not given the option to delay or cancel their holiday.
Carter Capner Law filed the claim against P&O’s parent company Carnival PLC last week.
The law firm’s director, Peter Carter, claimed a cyclone warning was issued for Vanuatu and New Caledonia’s capital Noumea before the ship’s departure but it sailed anyway.
“This was truly a cruise from hell, with many passengers so scared they confined themselves to their cabin,” Mr Carter said in a statement on Wednesday.
He said passengers reported crockery and meals thrown off restaurant tables, bottles of wine and spirits falling off shelves, seawater sloshing down corridors and into some cabins, and the ship listing for about an hour.
Greens block Senate vote on Labor's housing fund this week
The Greens have voted with the Coalition to prevent a Senate vote this week on Labor’s housing fund.
Housing minister Julie Collins says Labor has addressed crossbench concerns and urged senators “to stop the delays and pass the bill this week”:
Since the election, and in this Budget, the Government has continued to add to our housing commitments to help more Australians secure a safe and affordable home. These commitments, together with the changes on indexation today, mean the Albanese Government has addressed every single concern raised jointly by the Senate crossbench.
We worked constructively across the Parliament, because we know how critical it is that the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund is passed.
Australia desperately needs the 30,000 new social and affordable rental homes the Fund will deliver in its first five years.
This bill can’t be delayed any longer. Senators who say they support more social and affordable homes need to stop the delays and pass the bill this week.
The Fund is backed by numerous stakeholders, including housing experts, community housing providers, Housing Ministers from across the country, and numerous crossbenchers across the Parliament.
Updated
No vote this week on Labor’s housing fund
The minister for finance, Katy Gallagher, has just tweeted that there will be no vote this week on the housing fund.
More to come.
BREAKING: The Greens have just voted with the Libs/Nats in the Senate to prevent a vote this week on Labor’s Housing Fund that would see 30,000 social & affordable houses built.
— Katy Gallagher (@SenKatyG) May 10, 2023
It makes no sense that the @Greens would block these laws from passing parliament this week!#auspol
Updated
Plug pulled on NSW water project as costs spill over
Hello everyone! This is Cait Kelly, I will be with you for the rest of the afternoon.
Let’s get started with piece from AAP:
The proposed new Dungowan Dam and pipeline in north-western NSW won’t go ahead after funding was withdrawn in the federal budget.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said on Wednesday the cost had blown out from $480m to more than $1.3bn.
The dam was designed to boost water security in the Tamworth and Peel regions, but the benefit to cost ratio for the project had fallen below the NSW standard of one to one and was recently assessed as one to 0.09, the premier said.
The Albanese government withdrew $899.5m over four years on several pieces of NSW water infrastructure in the budget on Tuesday, including for the Dungowan Dam and the Wyangala Dam wall raising in the central west.
The water minister, Rose Jackson, said the Dungowan Dam presented no cost benefits to the people of NSW, despite the area having major water security issues.
“I have always had serious concerns about the viability of the project because it would take 10 years to build and fill the new dam, putting the region’s shorter-term water security at serious risk,” she said.
Updated
I will hand you over to Cait Kelly who will take you through the rest of the evening. We still have stories coming for you, so stay turned and of course politics live will be back with you early tomorrow morning.
Until then though please, take care of you.
Greens accuse Labor of trying to ‘ram’ through housing bill
Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather says the Greens have no intention on bending on the housing future fund:
We warned the government not to bring the bill on before they’d come up with a real plan for renters and an increased guaranteed spend on public and affordable housing. Instead they tried to ram it through after only 45 minutes of debate.
Our message to Labor is we will pass this bill straight away if you work with the states to get a freeze on rent increases and guarantee $5bn to build public and genuinely affordable housing.”
… The only barrier is politics and a political establishment who are more concerned with the profits of the property developers and banks who ultimately benefit from our broken housing system, than they are about the hundreds of thousands of people sleeping in their cars and tents right now or one rent increase away from eviction.
Updated
Victorian MP welcomes decision to deny parole to serial killer Paul Denyer
Victorian MP David Limbrick has welcomed the decision to deny parole to serial killer Paul Denyer, saying it is a relief to the families and friends of his victims.
Limbrick had been in a relationship with Natalie Russell for six months when she was the final victim of Denyer.
Denyer was sentenced to three life sentences later in 1993 after pleading guilty to the murders of Russell, Elizabeth Stevens and Debbie Fream, all committed in the Frankston area during a seven-week period earlier that year.
The court of appeal overturned Justice Vincent’s decision and imposed a minimum sentence of 30 years.
Limbrick told reporters outside Victoria parliament Denyer had been denied parole:
This is the result that we were hoping for all along that parole would be denied so it’s good that that’s happened. We’ve been dreading this for 30 years. I think the thing that we need to do now is look at what happens going forward, because it’s my understanding that parole can be applied for as many times as they want in the future. This has been a really traumatic process for all of the friends and families indeed for everyone in everyone in Frankston. I don’t want people to have to be retraumatized by this over and over again.
Asked how he’d like Russell to be remembered, Limbrick said:
She was a young woman about to embark on one of the most exciting phases of her life. She had that snatched away from her so cruelly and senselessly. I just want people to think about what might have been and what was taken away from us.
Updated
Senate rejects Labor’s bid to rush housing bill
The Senate has rejected Labor’s bid to debate its housing Australia future fund bill and guarantee a vote by 1pm Thursday.
The vote went down 23 votes (Labor and the Jacqui Lambie Network) to 42 (with the Coalition, Greens, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, Ralph Babet, and independent David Pocock opposed).
Labor was pitching this as an early test for the Greens, and whether they will side with the Coalition – but given criticisms of the government that they haven’t offered enough in negotiations, there was some crossbench support for not rushing the bill.
The motion had proposed to restart debate on the bill at 6pm with a second reading bill, extend sitting hours tonight to 10pm and have a final vote tomorrow at 1pm.
If the Coalition won’t support an hours motion the bill might be in limbo this week.
Updated
Here is a little bit more from question time as seen by Mike Bowers:
Updated
Stuart Robert not in the House of Reps on Wednesday
So no, Stuart Robert was not in the chamber (that hole is where Robert, the shadow assistant treasurer would usually sit).
It is not clear whether he will be returning to parliament or not.
Updated
Lehrmann case inquiry chair considered closing hearings to media over 'loathsome' reporting
The chair of an inquiry into the prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann has slammed media reporting of his hearings, saying he considered closing them to the public because of “loathsome” stories that may have been in contempt and defamed Brittany Higgins.
Walter Sofronoff KC adjourned the hearing on Wednesday afternoon while he considered closing the proceedings to the media.
He returned a short time later, saying that he had decided with “some trepidation” that he would allow the hearings to continue, but that he would not hesitate to act if further acts of “scandalous”, “unjustified” and “prurient” journalism resulted from the inquiry.
Sofronoff said:
I have been made very sensitive to the damage that can be done and it will now take very little more for me to go about my work in a very different way.
He said the offending media outlets should do everything that can be done to remove the stories.
The inquiry continues.
Updated
Senate holds condolence motion for former Labor minister Stewart West
The Senate is holding a condolence motion for former Labor minister Stewart West, who died in March, just short of his 89th birthday.
Updated
‘The influence of Yunupingu was omnipresent in the community,’ Dutton says
And from Peter Dutton’s speech:
When I visited Arnhem Land in February, the influence of Yunupingu was omnipresent in the community. Indeed, the progress one sees in Gove in the Top End reminds us of what can be for people in other Indigenous communities. Yunupingu’s presence will always be felt in what he built. In what he did. In Arnhem Land. In the Northern Land Council. At Garma. Across the nation.
On the day of his passing – and in the days since – thousands of tributes are testimony to the nature and to the measure of the man.
He has rightly been described as ‘a giant’, ‘a titan’, ‘a national treasure’. As ‘wise’, ‘widely respected’, and ‘a beacon of inspiration’ As a ‘strong, deep and practical’ man.
And as ‘one of the greatest Indigenous leaders modern Australia has produced’.
Indeed, having received the highest of accolades our country can bestow being named an Australian of the Year and made a Member of the Order of Australia.
He is not just a great Indigenous Australian, but one of our greatest Australians. And he left our world too early.
But he would have taken comfort in the fact that he did so on his land and among his people for whom he fought his entire life.
Updated
PM pays tribute to Yunupingu
Here is a little more from the condolence motion ahead of question time:
With the passing of Yunupingu, Australia has lost a leader and a statesman. Our hearts go out to the Yolngu people, the Gumatj clan, and the great Yunupingu family.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) May 10, 2023
Yunupingu now walks in another place, but he has left such great footsteps for us to follow here in this one. pic.twitter.com/LFrrrea253
Updated
Question time ends
Anthony Albanese finishes question time with a rah-rah dixer on how the government is building Australia’s future – but everyone seems pretty tired by this point and it is nothing we haven’t heard before, including in press releases.
And with that, question time ends.
Updated
Rick Wilson, the Liberal MP for O’Connor asks:
People have said we expect inflation to be stubbornly higher than the Reserve Bank target until physical 2026. Why has the prime minister brought down a budget which makes inflation worse?
Jim Chalmers takes this one:
I will do something unusual, Mr Speaker. I will give credit to the Opposition tactic committee. It decided not to give that question to Angus.
The Liberal member for Petrie, Luke Howarth, seems to think his main role now is to make point of orders about reflections on members when there are no reflections on members. He does so here and Milton Dick has had enough.
The member for Petrie knows that is not a proper use of the standing orders.
He boots Howarth from the chamber.
Government tries to continue housing future fund debate in Senate
Over in the Senate, the government wants to extend the sitting time so it can continue the housing future fund debate.
Updated
PM says his budget ‘targeted the most vulnerable while not adding to inflationary pressure’
Anthony Albanese doesn’t answer the question and instead says:
The budget we brought down last night, I am proud of because it does provide a strong foundation we need going forward. Taking pressure off families, targeted the most vulnerable while not adding to inflationary pressure.
That is the task we set ourselves at the expenditure review committee, that was led by the treasurer and finance minister.
One of the things I said during the election campaign when I was asked about jobseeker is Labor is the party that will also look after the disadvantaged.
(He goes through the other measures including the Medicare changes.)
Those opposite scoff. It is about making sure you get access to a doctor with all you need is your Medicare card, not your credit card. It has been well received by state and territory governments across the country. As a result of the measures that we put in place they came in on January 1, already in the first four months of the year, Australia has paid $76 million less for their prescriptions. $76 million less. That is because of this budget, another six million Australians will pay less for their medicine.
As a result of this budget, 480,000 Australians will get access in total to the free Tafe. It is about getting people into employment, offering them the skills so that they get a job so they get off jobseeker.
Updated
‘How can this be enough?’ Kate Chaney responds to jobseeker increase
OK, after a lot of the same questions, we get to Kate Chaney, the independent MP for Curtin:
Jobseeker is trapping people in poverty. The economic inclusion [committee] … recommended returning jobseeker to its previous level at 90% of the age pension.
This has been backed by business, community, academics and politicians from across the floor.
That will be a $19 a day increase but the budget only found funding for $3 a day. If we can about giving people a fair go in Australia, how can this be enough?
Updated
Defence minister talks up defence spending in budget
Richard Marles, the defence minister, takes a dixer. It is mostly to plug the defence parts of last night’s budget – he says within 10 years defence spending as a share of GDP will be 0.2% higher than the trajectory Labor inherited from the Coalition.
If you want more details on this, you can see our news wrap from last night in which officials disclosed that more than $30bn had been provisioned to fund the increase in defence spending over the decade.
Marles says the planned nuclear-powered submarines will “give pause for thought for any adversary seeking to project power against Australia or our interests”. Marles says the government is not “spending for spending’s sake”.
He says “right now we are seeing in the world the biggest conventional military buildup since the end of world war two right here in our region”. (He means by China.)
Updated
Albanese continues selling ‘responsible’ budget
Angus Taylor is back!
UBS has labelled the federal budget as stimulatory and pushes back the timing when it expects the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates to 2024. Why has the government brought down a budget which makes inflation worse?
Anthony Albanese goes through what Taylor and members of the opposition have said previously, but before he can get through much, there is a point of order which is not a point of order, and Tony Burke has had enough.
Burke:
Mr Speaker, referring to your earlier rulings on points of order, if they [have] nothing to do with the standing orders they should not be made. Or just stand up and say I nominate myself as tribute. It is ridiculous.
Milton Dick agrees and tells the opposition to cool it with the points of order which are not points of order.
Albanese finishes with:
Having stood there, having stood at the dispatch box, Liberal treasurers announcing the biggest deficit in history, the second biggest deficit in history, having sat here for nine years, having promised a surplus in the first year and a surplus every year after that – they did not deliver any. They do not deliver any.
They produce the mugs when they are treating Australians like mugs.
All they had to show for it was empty mugs in surplus.
The only surplus they had was in Josh Frydenberg’s office, the mugs that they had to stop selling.
The fact is that we have been responsible, and that is on top of the fact that we had to find, in addition to that, $7.5 billion in essential programs that they stopped funding in June of this year or in December of this year.
Updated
Melissa McIntosh, the Liberal MP for Lindsay asks:
A local chocolate manufacturer in my Western Sydney electorate of Lindsay has seen their energy bill rise by $4,000 a quarter. The owner says this budget … will not mean much of a difference because he is still going to see his energy costs continue to rise. Why does this budget leave so many Australians behind?
The answer is pretty much the same as the one before. With a bit more emphasis on: “Why did you vote against the energy relief?”
Updated
‘Those opposite would say no’ to ‘whatever was in’ the budget: PM
Sussan Ley:
Charlie’s Fine Foods is a much-loved bakery bordering the Goldstein electorate. This morning it was said that … there was nothing [in the budget] that stimulates better productivity. No machinery here for the instant asset write-off. They don’t think it is good for their business. Prime minister, why does this budget leave so many Australians behind?
Albanese:
I must say, credit where credit is due. To be able to say there is too much and too little in the budget at the same time and one question is quite extraordinary.
The truth is there is measures including support for small business, encouragement of them to spend money on their business, tax incentives are there in the budget last night. We know whatever it was in there, those opposite would say no.
… One of the reasons why the deputy leader of the opposition got to ask a question about the Goldstein electorate [is] because the [member for] Goldstein is sitting up there … Because they rejected the negative politics of those opposite … Australians turned to a government that was prepared to make investments in a better future.
That is precisely what we have done last night. Whether it be Medicare changes, including the bulk billing that the minister for health was just talking about; whether it be the support for small business that is there in the budget last night; whether it be the support for energy price relief those opposite opposed.
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Queensland MP cancels meeting with former 'patriots' group leader
A Queensland MP has cancelled plans to meet with a former leader of a far-right “patriots” group who encouraged a mob to surround the Rockhampton home of an Indigenous teenager.
It comes after Guardian Australia revealed Torin O’Brien was once president of the Patriots Defence League, which regularly posted offensive anti-Islam content online.
O’Brien posted the names and photographs of two Aboriginal young people, believed to be teenagers, on Facebook last week and called for locals to attend their address. About 30 people attended the property on Sunday, requiring police to stand guard outside and prompting warnings about vigilante action.
Member for Rockhampton, Barry O’Rourke, confirmed on Tuesday he had invited O’Brien to attend a meeting “with police and other stakeholders” but said there was “no place for mob action”.
“That is why I have invited Mr O’Brien to attend a meeting with police and other stakeholders – it’s an opportunity for him to air his views the right way, and also an opportunity for police to emphasise the risks to himself and others from these actions. No one wants to see this escalate.”
However, on Wednesday, O’Rourke confirmed the meeting with O’Brien had been cancelled.
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LNP preselections for Stuart Robert’s replacement already open
A couple of secret squirrels have told me that there is some suggestion Stuart Robert won’t be returning to the parliament.
He hasn’t officially resigned as yet, so he remains assistant treasurer, but the LNP has already opened up preselections for his replacement, even though he has only indicated he plans to retire in the next couple of weeks and is still to set a date.
So perhaps we will be robbed of his valedictory speech. Which would explain why the statement the member for Fadden released on Saturday was so long.
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‘We have to be responsible’, PM says as Greens leader asks about ‘renters, students, jobseekers’
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has the first of the crossbench questions (I am paraphrasing here):
Why is Labor leaving millions of people behind and spending a quarter of $1tn on stage-three tax cuts while the renters, students, jobseekers and people are doing it tough?
Anthony Albanese runs through a list of measures in the budget, which we have heard plenty about, as well as manufacturing and renewable energy.
If we have cheaper, cleaner energy, driving advanced manufacturing, lowering emissions at the same time as creating jobs, making sure we skill up Australians for those jobs – which is why we created the 300,000 now fee-free Tafe places – that is our vision for the country.
Responsibly moving it forward while understanding that inflation has a much higher impact … Which is why we have to be responsible and make no apologies for targeting inflation as our major economic priority that we had to deal with in the budget. That is before we go to the considerable support we have made for Medicare [in the] budget as well.
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Labor tasked with cleaning up ‘steaming pile of fiscal irresponsibility’: Chalmers
Jim Chalmers:
[I know] why the shadow treasurer is so [confused] is because the fiscal discipline that we show last night is completely unfamiliar … completely foreign to those opposite.
Those opposite, they left behind the [bin] fire of and waste and economic mismanagement which was the hallmark of their almost a decade in government.
Those opposite promised a surplus in their first year and every year thereafter. They printed it in back to black mugs.
They did everything [other] than actually deliver a surplus.
Now in the humiliation, they get up here and they ask these questions about the inflationary impacts of the budget.
I will explain it one more time for the shadow treasurer, who has trouble getting his head around some pretty basic concepts in our economy. What we have done, particularly with the cost-of-living package, particularly more broadly with the budget we handed down last night, was to make sure that it was carefully calibrated and carefully designed to take the edge of cost-of-living pressures rather than add to inflation in our economy.
Chalmers quotes some economists in favour of the budget and finishes with:
When it comes to the spending in the year after … a big chunk of the spending that we had to do in 23/24 is because those opposite announced ongoing programs [and] only funded them in a temporary way.
We had to clean up the mess … Those opposite left a steaming pile of fiscal irresponsibility and we had to clean it up.
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Taylor’s question to Chalmers brings cheers to lower house
Angus Taylor asks a question of the treasurer, Jim Chalmers which brings about cheers (there is a running joke that Taylor never asks Chalmers a question):
Mr Speaker, the economist Chris Richardson said of the budget: ‘I had thought the Reserve Bank was done and dusted, but this has notably raised the chance that they will do another swing of the baseball bat.’ Why has the treasurer brought down a budget which makes inflation worse?
Chalmers looks energised by the chance to square up against Taylor.
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Opposition’s ‘hypocrisy knows no bounds’ on migration: PM
Anthony Albanese:
The hypocrisy knows no bounds. This is what the leader of the opposition said about migration on the 2 September about migration. He said this: ‘It is too little, too late. This is a decision that should have been made 100 days ago when the government was elected. But of course they did not do that.’
Just in case you think that was a slip of the tongue and was not thought through, this is what he said a month later. In a speech to the tourism industry.
On the 21 October 2022. This leader of the opposition said this: ‘We need migration. The government announcement to increase the permanent migration intake has been delayed because of union pressure.’ That is what he had to say.
There are interjections and a few jibes across the chamber and then Albanese finishes with a pointer to the speech that the home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, gave a few weeks ago.
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Question time begins
Peter Dutton kicks it off with the “big Australia” line the opposition is trying to push.
We all support planned migration, but … 1.5 million people over this five-year period is more than the entire population of Adelaide, and you have no plan. Every city is already congested. Infrastructure is cut in this budget.
There is no plan [for] where these people live during a housing and rental crisis.
Economists point out that this is inflationary. It will keep interest rates higher for longer. Why did the treasurer not make any mention of this in his speech last night?
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The chamber rises in a mark of respect for Yolngu elder Yunupingu and the speeches move to the federation chamber.
Question time is about to begin – the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, is away, so Michelle Rowland will take any questions for that portfolio.
I also can’t see Stuart Robert, who announced he would be retiring in the next couple of weeks. He wasn’t in the chamber yesterday either, from what I could see, but he is still to officially resign.
Updated
The speaker, Milton Dick, almost goes to move on when he realises the minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney is walking forward to make a speech.
Burney is given the dispatch box.
Updated
Peter Dutton is also giving a condolence motion.
He finishes with:
As a parliament today, we acknowledge a great life and even greater legacy. We remember a man who was deeply respected by all sides of politics and all prime ministers with whom he engaged. On behalf of the Coalition, I offer my heartfelt condolences to his family, the Yolngu and all Indigenous Australians. May he rest in peace.
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Yunupingu ‘left such great footsteps for us to follow’: PM
Anthony Albanese finishes his condolence motion with:
To all who loved him and all moved by him, to all those who gazed out to where the Gulf of Carpentaria meets the sky. We will never again hear his voice anew, but his words and indeed his legacy will keep speaking to us.
Galarrwuy Yunupingu now walks in another place, but he left such great footsteps for us to follow here in this one. I sincerely hope we do just that.
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Ahead of question time there is a condolence motion for Yunupingu.
Anthony Albanese:
He walked in two worlds with authority, power and grace. He worked to make them whole. Together.
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Here is what the Great Hall looked like for Jim Chalmers’ press club address:
Pyne and Marles (quite possibly one of the worst shows to be shown on Sky before dark) were reunited – Richard Marles is now defence minister and Christopher Pyne is a lobbyist.
So many smiles.
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Greens urge Labor not to force vote on social housing bill
The Greens are urging the government not to gag debate and force a vote on its contentious housing bill, with the minor party accusing Labor of a “stunt” with some procedural moves in the Senate today.
To recap, the housing Australia future fund bill would use the interest earned on a $10bn investment to build new social and affordable homes. It was rushed through the lower house earlier this year, but has stalled in the Senate because the government doesn’t have the votes at this stage – the Coalition won’t back it, while the Greens want it to go much further (including a guarantee that billions would be spent on housing, not just relying on the investment to generate interest).
The Senate’s notice paper shows the government plans to move a motion later today, mandating that the housing bill be the only topic of discussion tonight after 6pm; and if the bill isn’t passed by 1pm tomorrow, that “the questions on all remaining stages be put without debate” (ie they want to gag the debate and push it through).
The Greens say they won’t support it, at this stage. At a press conference earlier, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young called it a “stunt” and asked it not be brought on today; Greens leader Adam Bandt accused the government of “playing politics” on the bill, claiming they don’t have the votes to pass it.
There has been reporting and speculation the government would press on regardless in order to set up a “trigger” for a double dissolution election (if it was needed – to be used in future, not now).
The Senate motion is up for debate later on, when we should know more. It’s unclear if the Greens would actually vote against the bill, and may instead simply abstain (as they did in the lower house when the bill went through there).
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Kylea Tink criticises government’s ‘addiction to gas’, citing modest PRRT changes
Independent MP Kylea Tink is also not a huge fan of the budget:
We used to have an economy built on the back of the wool industry, we now have one built on the back of hardworking Australians.
In an act of irony, the government will make more money off smokers (tobacco tax $3.3 billion over 4 years) than off those extracting our limited gas resources (PRRT $2.4 billion).
It really does not pay to have an addiction to tobacco, but an addiction to gas seems to be something that will continue to be on our radar indefinitely.
Australians are looking for a courageous government with a vision for a prosperous and equitable Australia. The government that is prepared to step up to this ambition, will be rewarded.
Fence-sitting abrogates the responsibility to do the heavy lifting needed. At a time when North Sydney households are doing it tough, the community was looking for more than headlines.
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How the federal budget affects the generations
Late last night in the Sydney office budget lock-up, our colleagues were asked how the budget landed with them – by generation. See how that aligns with your thoughts.
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And that is pretty much it. Question time is in just over 20 minutes, so the treasurer has to motor back to that – there are questions from the opposition on explain why this isn’t inflationary and dixers to deliver on why this isn’t inflationary.
More robust measurements of progress ‘a huge priority for me’: Chalmers
The treasurer is asked a question about his wellbeing budget and his essay and says:
Whether it’s in the essay or more broadly, a number of you heard me talk about [the fact that] if we want to get better economic outcomes in this country, we need to think differently about how we measure progress and we need to renovate and revitalise our economic institutions as well.
A huge priority for me [is] I’d like to leave behind, whenever I’m finished in this role, a set of more robust institutions and more robust measurements of progress so that people – you know, governments in the future – are judged against some agreed metrics for national progress.
In the budget, I wanted to pay tribute to Andrew Leigh who’s over there, the fastest, longest runner in the parliament, for his work on what began as the evaluator general but has become the policy impact team.
What we have been able to do in the budget because of Andrew’s great work is to make evaluation a more central part of our economic policy levers and considerations. [There will be a] release measuring what matters, our equivalent of the wellbeing framework towards the middle of the year. There’ll been an intergenerational report this year as well.
There’s the employment white paper. We’ve got to bed down the changes to the RBA. I am looking seriously at renovating the Productivity Commission and all of this work is of a piece.
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Stage-three tax cuts also bring relief to lower and middle income earners: Chalmers
He finishes that one with:
If your question is: is there more than one way to do that? Of course there is. There is more than one way to return bracket creep to people in the tax system. But I think it’s too often lost that the tax cuts kick in at $45,000. There is relief in there for people on lower and middle incomes as well as people on higher incomes.
I think it’s important where we can that we provide relief to those people. Our position on the tax cuts hasn’t changed.
They weren’t a focus of the deliberations in this budget. What we have been able to do instead is to support people of modest means in other ways.
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Returning bracket creep to taxpayers not a new practice: Chalmers
Paul Karp from Guardian Australia asks:
This morning you said that you support giving back bracket creep to low- and middle-income earners, citing beneficiaries of stage-three tax cuts at the lower end earning $45,000. Now, most plans to redesign stage-three involve retaining the 37% tax bracket which currently kicks in at $120,000. So my question, please – are you as enthusiastic about giving bracket creep back to people earning 120, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170, and $180,000?
Jim Chalmers:
Well, first of all, the ideas that get put to us, which you reference in your question, Paul, I listen respectfully to those ideas that are put to me about, you know, people who want to recast the stage-three tax cuts.
Really, all I was trying to do this morning was to remind people, because I think sometimes it gets lost, that when you have got bracket creep, when you can afford to you should look to return some of that bracket creep to people.
That has happened periodically under governments of both political persuasions.
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Generosity of ‘Australian character’ prioritises most help for those doing it toughest: Chalmers
Jim Chalmers finishes that with:
I think that our country is better, frankly, than the kind of downward envy that we hear about from time to time from people like Angus Taylor.
I think the broader Australian community, they want a bit of help, they’re getting help from us in the budget – but I think there’s a generosity inherent in the Australian character that says if you are doing it the toughest, you need the most help.
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‘There is so much we’re doing for middle Australia’: Chalmers
[Continued from last post]
Because the key part of getting the wages moving again in this country are for a decade of stagnation is about middle Australia. So much of what we’re doing in strengthening Medicare is about middle Australia.
You know, so much of what we’re doing in making medicines cheaper, so much … of the benefit from the price caps in the energy market, are flowing through to middle Australia.
The cheaper early childhood education, which … some of you have given us stick for being too generous to middle Australia – that will be a gamechanger for working parents when that comes in on 1 July.
There is so much we’re doing for middle Australia in this budget. But when it comes to social security, I think there are good reasons why we prioritised the most vulnerable.
I’m not associating you necessarily with [the] piece of madness that I heard from Angus Taylor yesterday, but we’re in the same general area when he told David Lipson that what worried him about our changes in social security was that it meant that the broader Australian community would be funding help for the most vulnerable.
That is the whole basis of social security.
(There is applause in the room at this.)
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‘More help goes to the people of the most modest means, that’s a feature of social security’: Chalmers
Reporter:
Why do people on the dole get more money from the government out of this budget, but not a household on more than $160,000 a year – they don’t get the electricity bill relief. What do you say to those working full-time about why those on the dole get relief that they don’t? And if the answer is stage-three tax cuts next year, why were you seemingly too ashamed of them to mention them in the budget?
Jim Chalmers:
They weren’t mentioned in the budget for the reason that I just gave [in response to a previous question] That’s the first point.
The second point is that a key feature and a welcome feature of our social security system is that more help goes to the people of the most modest means, that’s a feature of social security.
The third part of an answer to your question – and … in fairness, I got it from a number of you around the room last night and this morning as well – because we have demonstrated, as Laura [Tingle] said frankly in her piece last night, that we haven’t had to choose between budget responsibility and compassion for the most vulnerable people, you know; that we have shown responsibility and compassion and empathy … and prioritised the people doing it toughest.
I understand that people will ask what’s in the budget for middle Australia and I’m so proud to get that question and pleased to get that question.
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Reporter:
Is the government borrowing to fund the stage-three tax cuts?
Jim Chalmers:
Well, before last night’s budget, last year, we were borrowing for all of this new – these new commitments that were coming into the budget and what Katy [Gallagher] and I and the team have been able to do is put the budget on a much more sustainable footing.
I was asked yesterday how much the stage-three tax cuts cost over the life of the forward estimates and I answered that question honestly. But the other honest part of the answer to your question is, you know, these weren’t – these weren’t a feature of our budget deliberations.
They come in in more than a year’s time.
They were legislated some time ago, they don’t get a specific reference in the budget they’re a decision already legislated. I understand the interest in them, but our position on them hasn’t changed.
The fiscal position is clear – the fiscal position is much, much, much better as a consequence of the decisions underpinning last night’s budget than they were in the October budget and especially the March budget before that. We still got structural challenges in the budget, and we’re attentive to them.
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‘Changes need to be made’ to NDIS to slow cost growth: Chalmers
Reporter:
[Does] the federal government intend on tightening eligibility for the NDIS?
Jim Chalmers:
Well, our intention here is to moderate the growth in the cost of the scheme [which is] growing about 14%. [It] would still be growing quite quickly at 8%, but a little bit less than what it’s currently growing. I think there’s broad recognition that changes need to be made in the NDIS and that the best way to do that is to work with the sector, to work with the NDIA and to work with others to moderate costs in the scheme.
I think it’s in everybody’s interest that we do that because if you go back to that primary objective that you were kind enough to reference, if your overwhelming objective here is to provide for people who are relying on the scheme that Labor designed, and it is, then you’ve got to make sure that it is affordable and so Bill [Shorten] and the rest of the cabinet will work closely with the NDIA and the sectors and the providers …
The cost of this scheme will grow quite quickly over the life of the next decade, but where we can, [we will] moderate those cost increases, because if we can do that, we’ll secure the future of the scheme at the same time we put the budget on a more sustainable footing.
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Rent assistance ‘will help people get through while we try to build more supply’, treasurer says on housing crisis
Reporter:
With fairly modest changes to improve housing affordability and boost housing supply in the budget, and the housing fund at risk of defeat in the Senate, have you got a plan B to tackle pressures on the housing market?
Jim Chalmers:
Well, we got three parts of plan A. We have got the Housing Australia Future Fund that you reference which has to pass the parliament. I mean, the idea that the parliament wants to vote against building more homes in a country where we got incredibly low vacancy rates, incredibly high rents, the idea that the parliament wouldn’t support the building of tens of thousands of homes really to me just beggars belief.
The second part is what you reference from the budget last night – some tax breaks for build to rent properties.
This is something I have been really focused on partly because of the housing accord I brought together in the course of the October budget, but these tax incentives with build to rent and for depreciation, they will make a difference. We will build more rental properties as a consequence of those policies.
And thirdly, we recognise that if you lined up the main pressures that are on people: out-of-pocket health costs we talked about with strengthening Medicare; energy costs, we got the bill relief and the price caps; the other one is rent, and so I was really proud, frankly, to include in the budget last night the biggest increase in rent assistance for three decades, and I know that that won’t make the pressures in the rental market disappear but it will help people get through while we try to build more supply which is our overwhelming objective when it comes to the housing market.
Updated
[Continued from last post]
When it comes to the cost-of-living pressures that people are confronting, you’ll see in the budget that the forecasts for inflation, that inflation is moderating, we think the peak was around Christmas time. It’s not moderating as fast as we would like, but it is moderating, it is coming off.
And the budget forecasts real wages growth a bit earlier, at the start of next year rather than the middle of next year.
And what we want to do and what we tried to do, in a budget which is otherwise really tight, is … we tried to make some room to provide a bit of cost-of-living relief, whether it’s in payments as we have been talking about in the first question, whether it’s tripling the bulk-billing incentive for out-of-pocket health costs. We’re trying to make life easier for people in the constraints of a responsible budget.
So people are still doing it tough, but they would be doing it even tougher were it not for a government which is working around the clock to try to support them and take some of the sting out of these pressures.
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Reporter:
John Howard had his battlers, Scott Morrison had quiet Australians, Kevin Rudd had working families. What do you call that group? And more importantly, given their taxes helped create that surplus last night, when will their household budgets get that bit easier?
Jim Chalmers:
Well, I don’t really want to carve up Australians in different groups and try to pit them against each other.
You know, I think when it comes to our priorities in the budget, we made them really clear last night.
We want to support people who are doing it especially tough. At the same time as we support the legitimate aspirations of middle Australia.
One of the things – you can say a lot things about our government, but I think one of the things that I appreciate when it’s said that we are genuinely trying to govern for the whole place.
Sometimes that means giving extra help to people who are doing it toughest, but typically, we are trying to be a good, decent, middle-of-the-road government which recognises [the] legitimate aspirations that people have in middle Australia.
And so many of us are from communities which recognise that this idea of aspiration shouldn’t just be limited to some Australians, it should be available to all Australians.
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‘Our priorities are largely elsewhere’, treasurer says on tax to GDP ratio
Reporter:
Are you mindful of the level of GDP, the proportion of GDP of income tax at all, or is that going to be a secondary concern when you come to repairing the budget?
Jim Chalmers:
I am focused on it, but as you rightly identify in your question, you know, we got structural challenges in the budget we’ve got to fund, and part of that is alleviating some of the growth in the cost of these programs, and part of it is making sure we can fund it. That’s really what sits behind the motivations on the PRRT and super and multinational taxes and some of the other compliance measures in the budget.
We’ve got a structural challenge in the budget. We made really good progress on it last night but we got more work to do. When it comes to the cap, I was standing right here, I remember it well, and you were standing right there, and I was upfront with people and I said that I thought that cap had been plucked out of the air. It had been. And so I wasn’t going to sign up to it.
That involved an element of political risk at the time but I was upfront about it. That still remains my view.
Even if you accept the old tax cap of my predecessor, [we don’t] breach it in the life of the forward estimates, we’re still south in the forward estimates of what the Howard government had tax to GDP. No doubt the opposition will make a lot out of all of this, but there are modest but meaningful tax changes in the budget. There is an upgrade to revenue as a consequence of people working more and earning more and that’s a good thing. And our priorities – we’re focused on it, but our priorities are largely elsewhere.
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‘We will have massive advantages in the future’ in hydrogen: Chalmers
Reporter:
How do you characterise our ambition as becoming a clean energy superpower when there’s so much money on offer elsewhere?
Jim Chalmers:
The view you have expressed is not the mainstream view. In the investor community I knock around in, and Chris Bowen and others interact with, as with [other] ministers … the mainstream view is that hydrogen is a big, big chance for Australia.
With the Americans piling in so much cash into grants and subsidies, the Canadians, the Europeans following suit in one way or another, we’ve got to work out what our slice of the action is here and hydrogen is going to be a big part of that. Because also what it means for green metals and the rest of it.
The overwhelming feedback that I get, you know, I convene and invest in a roundtable, Chris and Jenny McAllister were there last time we met. Investors see this as a big opportunity. And the hydrogen head start that was announced in the budget last night, the $2 billion that you referred to, is a production credit of sorts to try to envision an area where we will have massive advantages into the future.
If you said to me 10 or 15 years ago that $2 billion to contribute to this big opportunity, this big industrial opportunity was premature – maybe that was the case. But now I’m confident that this is a good part of the developments in clean energy technology that we should be part of. There will be a competitive process to bid for this production credit, very competitive process. So it will involve a lot of players, not just the ones you mentioned.
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Chalmers: ‘Our primary objective is not actually budget repair when it comes to the NDIS’
[Continued from last post]
Jim Chalmers:
Avoiding hundreds of billions of dollars in debt gets the interest bill down as you know, but also the work – I pay tribute to Bill Shorten who is here, the prime minister and the national cabinet. What we’re trying to do here is there’s been progress in the near-term.
The increased costs on the NDIS would have been something like $17 billion; instead, the decisions taken meant we took about $15 billion of that off the table, at the same time as we worked with the states and territories, and with the NDIA and the sector and others, to moderate some of the growth in costs in the scheme.
Our objective here, our primary objective, is not actually budget repair when it comes to the NDIS.
Our primary objective, as I heard Bill say eloquently time and time again, is to make sure that the money is going to the people the system was designed to serve. That’s our first priority. And in order to ensure that, we’ve got to make sure that the increase in costs are sustainable, that we get a handle on these costs. So that’s our motivation.
We also want to get a handle on the growth in costs, that’s what the 8% target is all about, and it’s making a difference in the structural position of the budget as someone like yourself would have noticed in the medium term graphs.
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This one has a bit of a long answer, so it will be broken up in two parts.
Reporter:
A major component of the self-healing budget over the coming decade is the big changes to the forecast around costs in the NDIS. It’s gone from almost 14% a year to a bit over 10%. How can you justify booking such a major saving on the NDIS over the coming decade without actually having taken the policy decisions to justify that saving?
Jim Chalmers:
Two things in response to your question. First of all, this notion of self-healing. When governments get an upward revision to revenue as governments of both political persuasions have at times over the 20 or so years I have been knocking around here, they’ve got a choice to make.
How much of that they spend and how much of that they bank – that is a really key decision, it’s a hard decision.
So it doesn’t feel self-healing when you’re sitting around the expenditure review committee table and colleagues have got terrific ideas, and you’ve got to work out what you can afford to spend because your overwhelming priority is spending restraint, to fix the budget, to avoid these debt interest payments as much as you can, so I reject the idea that there is something automatic about the restraint that we showed in the budget.
There are hard decisions associated with not spending much at all of the upward revision in revenue. When it comes to the NDIS, if you think about the five fastest-growing areas of the budget – which those of you who joined me in the blue room from time to time are probably sick of hearing about – the two fastest are the NDIS and interest costs. That’s where we made the most progress in the budget.
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Chalmers ‘supremely confident’ budget will not add to inflation
Reporter:
When the Reserve Bank meets next month, if they put up interest rates, will that be your fault?
Jim Chalmers:
Well, first of all, obviously I don’t pre-empt the decisions taking independently by the Reserve Bank board. Never have. Never will. I don’t intend to do that today.
But really, the defining influence on our decisions around the cost of living package, our decisions around the growth package, and the historic restraint that we have shown in spending has been this inflation challenge.
We are supremely confident that the budget that we handed down last night will take some of these cost-of-living pressures off without adding to inflation.
And, you know, really the main conversation that hung over all of the decisions that the expenditure review committee and the cabinet took was a version of this question and the very clear advice as I ran through in the prepared remarks a moment ago is that the fact that such a big proportion of that spending in 23-24 is legacy issues that we had to clean up.
The fact that the cost-of-living package only adds 0.1% of GDP in that period, the fact that our energy plan, the combination of the price caps and the bill relief takes three-quarters of a click off inflation next year, all of these things, I think, are important demonstrations for why so many of the bank economists in particular have come out today and said at worst the impact on the economy is neutral and many of them have said better than that.
There won’t be unanimity about that, you can always find if you look hard enough, you can always find a view on either side of the spectrum. We’re confident we got the balance right. We’re giving people a bit of help without making the cost of living challenge worst.
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‘Do we need to do more beyond that? Yes, we do,’ Chalmers says on addressing long-term unemployment
Reporter:
Treasurer, apart from your program for disadvantaged communities, there doesn’t seem to be much in this budget to try to use this time of a very tight labour market to get longer-term unemployed people into the workforce. Do you think this should be a priority? Are you satisfied with the employment services in attending to this? And will you make it a central feature of the jobs – the white paper on employment that is to come?
Jim Chalmers:
Yes, I will. Yes, we are. Workforce participation is one of the big driving forces behind so much of what we have done in the first 12 months and it will be a big influence on our thinking on what we do from here.
The employment white paper is the perfect opportunity for us to consider some of these questions.
There’s a committee being led by Julian Hill with other colleagues on it looking at employment services.
Clearly we can do better there. Because I have always been concerned about, if not obsessed about, the fact that even in a country that’s got 3.5% national unemployment, there are still pockets of our country and communities, including the ones that I grew up in and represent now, where we just haven’t been able to attach enough people to the opportunities that a growing, job-creating economy can provide.
There has been a mismatch for too long, and the place-based initiatives which you referenced in your question, they’re an important part of that.
I have seen how they work in local communities like mine and I want to expand them and lean more heavily on them. But you’re right, if your question is: do we need to do more beyond that? Yes, we do, yes we are, yes we will.
Our existing participation agenda whether it’s cheaper early childhood education or some other the other steps to make training more accessible, that’s part of the story but you will see more of it in the white paper.
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$40 increase given to lowest payments while income arrangements to be broadened for single parents: treasurer
To the questions. First one:
An issue that’s been buzzing around the building this morning, Treasurer, which would be good to get some clarity on is – you have done a lot for women’s equality in this budget, particularly for single mothers as you say, but for single parenting payment recipients, they haven’t been included in the $40 increase given to most other recipients, which seems to be unfortunate to say the least, given the pressures they’re under and what you have been trying to do for them by increasing the age limit. Why aren’t they included?
Jim Chalmers:
The $40 base rate increase to jobseeker and some of the other working-age payments was all about addressing the lowest payments in the system.
When it comes to Parenting Payment, Single – what we have done is quite dramatically expand the eligibility for that. I pay tribute to Anthony [Albanese] and Katy [Gallagher] and Amanda Rishworth for the work they have done on that but also the community advocates.
What it means if you’re on parenting payment single, the difference between that and jobseeker is about $177 a fortnight. And so Parenting Payment, Single is already a higher rate, about 95% of the age pension as I understand it. We’re expanding the eligibility for it and introducing more generous income arrangements for it as well.
So our motivations there … the way we went about making that decision was to give the base rate increase to the lowest payments. This particular payment, which more people are eligible for and [where they] can work more and still receive it, is already $177 bigger than jobseeker.
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Cooperation across state boundaries and with communities a uniting factor in budget, Chalmers says
And for those following along with the long-term approach Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese are taking:
In many ways, what aligns, what unites our approach to disadvantage, to growth – a lot of what’s in this budget – is an effort to cooperate across state boundaries and with communities, wherever and whenever we can, working together, so that what otherwise would pass as moments in time become staging points of progress.
I’m confident that that’s how this budget will be seen – just like the one prior and the one to come.
Points at which to reflect on what’s in the budget papers themselves and all that’s happened around them.
Because in this budget you can trace the throughlines of our first year in government.
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Treasury advised that ‘none of’ budget spending ‘will have a counterproductive impact’, Chalmers says
Jim Chalmers also addressed the numerous “is this inflationary?” questions:
There’s been a focus in the last 12 or 15 hours or so whether that package adds to inflation. Let me make a few things really clear.
One – of the total spending we announced for next year, more than a quarter of the net impact relates to keeping existing government programs going and extending pandemic support.
Two – in total, the targeted relief that we’re delivering in 23-24 costs around 0.1% of GDP.
And, three – it’s been designed to provide effective, meaningful relief to households throughout the year, not in one big hit.
For all these reasons, the Treasury advice to us was that none of what we’re doing here will have a counterproductive impact.
What’s more, our targeted interventions in those areas where price pressures are most acute will directly take the pressure off inflation by some three-quarters of a percentage point next year, and that means inflation will be lower in 2023/24 than what we forecast in October.
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Here are the three phases of the budget, as identified by Jim Chalmers:
Efforts to improve the budget.
Addressing inflation.
Plans for growth.
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Chalmers stands by budget amid ‘predictable political responses’
A lot of the treasurer’s speech has been covered in interviews and his address to parliament, so we won’t cover off all of it – we will focus on the questions and answers and include a little bit of the speech that sums it all up.
Jim Chalmers:
You have also seen the predictable political responses from our opponents - the people who made the mess and spent years trying to cover it up now complaining that the clean-up is taking too long. The same characters who now claim they have supported all along the energy bill relief that they voted against in the parliament just in December.
Now, as always, there are some who think that we’re doing too much in this budget, there are others that think we aren’t doing enough, that’s perennial.
The PRRT is a good example of that and so is social security. But our job is to make the right decisions for the right reasons. I think we have done that and I think we are doing that in the budget.
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High court reserves decision in landmark Qantas case
The high court has reserved its decision in the landmark case between Qantas and the Transport Workers’ Union over the legality of layoffs at the height of the pandemic.
The full bench of the federal court found that Qantas’ decision to lay off almost 1,700 ground handling staff at 10 airports in 2020 was unlawful and breached protections in the Fair Work Act.
The courts found the layoffs in November 2020 were designed to stymy industrial action and prevent the workers from balloting for protected action, an option that became available to them from 1 January 2021, after their enterprise agreement had expired.
The TWU successfully argued that taking action to prevent someone from exercising their workplace right in the future was unlawful.
But Qantas is appealing to the high court, arguing, among other things, that the law only prohibits adverse action to deny a workplace right that exists at the relevant time.
In other words, it argues that because the workers had no right to take industrial action when they were laid off in November 2020, the company cannot lawfully be penalised for taking adverse action to deny them that right.
The airline says its decision was motivated largely by a desire to save costs at a time of catastrophic financial pressure. The decision to outsource would save it $100m per year at a time of intense financial pressure for the airline, its lawyers say, and a proposal put forward by the TWU would only save $18m in costs.
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Treasurer delivers press club address
Jim Chalmers has taken to the stage and is about to start his speech proper, but first he has to do the thank yous.
He asks the room to thank Katy Gallagher, the finance minister and says that ‘frankly, I have never worked with a better person’.
Albanese government’s future housing fund still in limbo
The government is still working to push through its future housing fund in the senate. The Greens have accused the government of ‘bullying tactics’ to try and push it through – so far, the Greens are not budging and neither is the government, so the stalemate continues.
For background on this story, read Paul Karp’s excellent explainer here:
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The treasurer will deliver the traditional post-budget press club address in about 15 minutes.
Get your bingo cards ready now, which includes for how many times and ways ‘how do you know this is not inflationary?’ is asked.
By and large, journalists, myself included, are not economists and don’t have any training in economics. That’s not to say you can’t report on it – of course not. But it often means a lot of the wrong questions get repeated.
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Government introduces law to allow Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines
While a lot of the focus is on the budget today, the government has tweaked the law to pave the way for Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.
At issue is the fact that Australian law currently imposes a ban on civil nuclear power.
That plays out in numerous acts, including the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which says the minister must not make a declaration relating the construction or operation of a nuclear fuel fabrication plant, a nuclear power plant, an enrichment plant, or a reprocessing facility.
But the proposed new legislation will “clarify that the current moratorium on civil nuclear power does not prevent the relevant regulators ... from exercising their regulatory powers and performing functions in respect of conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered submarines”.
The explanatory notes say the amendments “are necessary to enable decisions to be made in relation to activities for the nuclear submarine enterprise” but “will not disrupt Australia’s moratorium on civil nuclear power”.
The government says the bill - presented to the lower house today but yet to be voted on - does not change the existing protections regarding the health and safety of people and the environment.
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Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young is very disappointed with the lack of attention on the environment in the budget:
It was very disappointing that the treasurer’s budget-night speech didn’t include the environment at all.
We are in an extinction crisis. Our native species need funding now. Yet, there was no new funding allocated to species protection and recovery in the budget, and what was promised last October barely makes a dent in what scientists say is required to address the extinction crisis we face.
There has been no attempt from the government to address the root causes of biodiversity loss and ban native forest logging.
If there was any hope left that the minister was serious about the commitments to protect 30 per cent of land and seas and achieve zero extinction by 2030, this budget has dashed it.
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Economist John Quiggin has some thoughts about the ‘inflation’ talk:
Despairing of the economic innumeracy of our press, describing $21 billion over five years as a "cash splash" etc.
— JohnQuiggin (@JohnQuiggin) May 9, 2023
Putting it in perspective
< $4 per Australian per week
< 0.2 % of GDP
< one-year's worth of Stage 3 cuts, which will go on indefinitely #auspol #Budget2023
Greens senator Jordon Steele-John has responded to the $74.3bn cut from the NDIS
The community have been blindsided by this decision. People expected cuts in a Liberal budget but expected more from The Australian Labor party, which promised to co-design decisions with the disability community.
This decision has broken Labor’s commitment to co-design and has pre-empted the findings of the NDIS review, whose findings are due in September.
… When it comes to the economics of the NDIS - let’s not forget that the scheme directly employs 270,000 people across 20 different professions. It contributes to tens of thousands of other people having indirect work. The return on investment for the NDIS is significant at $2.25 for every $1 spent. In 2020-2021 the economic contribution of the NDIS was $52.4 billion. These benefits need to be in any conversation about the cost.
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Bloomberg also asked the inflation question.
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher said:
Look, dealing with the inflation challenge has been front and centre in our budget considerations. Clearly, we don’t want to make the inflation problem worse. We’re very mindful of that in the decisions, but we had to arrange up a whole range of balancing priorities to be honest in this budget, and the budget is I guess hundreds if not thousands of decisions that seek to manage the inflation challenge, does what we can, where we can on cost of living, to invest in opportunities in the future and repair the budget at the same time, and I think that’s what the budget the treasurer handed down last night did.
We do have big improvements in the budget bottom line, but that’s because we’ve banked a lot of the upward revisions in revenue. We think that helps in dealing with the inflation challenge, and I guess where we have made investments, we’ve made them in a targeted, calibrated way and we’ve done it over a four-year period.
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Budget an 'embarrassment' on cost-of-living relief, Antipoverty Centre says
There is also a push, being led by anti-poverty advocates, to have working age fixed payments like jobseeker, disability pension and youth allowance set by an independent body – much like interest rates.
Kristin O’Connell who receives the disability support pension, is a NDIS participant and a spokesperson for the Antipoverty Centre said it was an “embarrassment” to call it a ‘cost-of-living relief budget’.
The jobseeker payment is $250 a week below the poverty line. So people are feeling quite insulted today with a $20 a week increase that leaves them worse off than they were six months ago, because of the extreme cost of living increases we’ve been forced to try and absorb.
The government has made a political choice to sacrifice the lives of people who are on the lowest incomes for the sake of a budget surplus. They say they’ve done to meet the needs of the economy, for numbers on a spreadsheet. But they have no care for our needs.
It is very clear that politicians cannot be trusted with the lives of welfare recipients. We need to take these sorts of decisions out of the hands of governments who make decisions about whether our basic needs are met based on political whims, and not based on what we actually need to survive.
We need an independent body with responsibility for developing a sophisticated poverty measure and setting Centrelink payment rates with a mandate to ensure that no person on this continent is living in poverty.
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Rent assistance increase receives mixed response
There has been mixed reaction to the slight increase in rent assistance in the budget, but overwhelmingly, people want to see some actual reform – which means getting national cabinet involved.
As AAP reports:
National Shelter chief executive Emma Greenhalgh said the nation’s housing ministers needed to bring back “meaningful” rental reform to a national cabinet meeting in October.
“We would like to see tenants put at the centre of that,” she told reporters in Canberra, pointing to the need to rein in rent rises and tackle unfair evictions.
Homelessness Australia chief executive Kate Colvin said it was “really urgent” for the government’s housing legislation to pass, but at the same time, a greater commitment was needed to deliver more homes.
On the rent assistance increase, Colvin said every extra dollar would make a difference, but renters would still be left struggling.
Colvin penned an article on this very issue for us today:
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There was then this back and forth between Karl Stefanovic – who is reported to earn more than $1m a year – and the treasurer about the stage three tax cuts (which will overwhelmingly help the top income earners):
KS: Can you make a pledge this morning that you aren’t going to make changes to tax?
Chalmers: Well, there are five main changes in tax in the budget last night - the PRRT and superannuation compliance and tobacco and the other changes that we’re making in the tax system.
KS: You know what I mean, though.
Chalmers:
Well, the stage three tax cuts are legislated. They haven’t been part of our deliberations. We haven’t changed our position on that. They come in in more than a year’s time and we’ve had other priorities in the interim. This cost-of-living package is particularly for the most vulnerable but also –
KS: Okay, so – sorry to interrupt. This is just the one thing I wanted to get squared away. You’re saying all of that, but you can’t close the door on any future change this morning?
Chalmers:
Well, I think I’ve been pretty clear, Karl. We haven’t changed our position on it. We actually haven’t discussed, in the context of this budget changing our position on that. They are legislated, they are in the budget, bottom line. I provided the costing of them when I was asked by one of your counterparts.
KS: You’re leaving the door open, Jim.
Chalmers:
I don’t think I am, Karl. I don’t think I am. We haven’t changed our view. We haven’t discussed changing our view. They’re legislated and they’re in the budget.
Updated
After four questions about ‘how is the budget not inflationary’ on the Nine network this morning:
Q1: Well, you know, there’s been lots of talk since it all happened last night, all the commentary following all of that, and still the questions persist about whether the budget is inflationary. Is it?
Q2: Treasurer, how do you reckon your mates at the RBA view this budget?
Q3: Okay. There’s a massive boost to immigration that clearly has to affect house prices. Rents have to go up. How is that not inflationary?
Q4: Hang on, housing prices will level off or go down and rents will level off and go down.
came this question:
Q: Obviously, with any of these budgets, treasurer, not everyone is happy. There is an increase to jobseeker and other payments to the tune of $40 a fortnight. Of course, that’s important, but it doesn’t seem like it’s enough. A lot of welfare advocates want more. With a $4.2 billion surplus, couldn’t some of that extra cash have been spent on welfare?
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From the senator who brought us alfoil microwaved eggs comes her next big blockbuster: opening a door
Budget 2023/24 #auspol #politas @AustralianLabor pic.twitter.com/eS6U0puOfX
— Helen Polley (@polley_helen) May 9, 2023
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NSW Coalition members will not be bound by party on voice
The New South Wales Coalition opposition will not take an official stance on the federal voice to parliament. Liberal party leader Mark Speakman announced that, after a meeting of the shadow cabinet, members would be allowed to campaign however they feel.
They will not be bound to a party position.
He said:
The NSW Coalition is committed to reconciliation and improving the lives of Indigenous Australians across our state. This is demonstrated in our record of investment in government through the national agreement on closing the gap.
We remain committed to working in partnership with local Indigenous communities to improve decision-making and deliver better outcomes.
Ahead of the March election, then premier Dominic Perrottet questioned “what the real concern is” from opponents to the referendum and said he fundamentally supported the proposal.
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This was more a ‘had to be there in person’ speech I think
Jacqui Lambie made a speech in the Senate yesterday on the dangers of AI that was written by AI.
— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) May 10, 2023
It's funny that the formatting of it is kind of a give away here. pic.twitter.com/d7xpC7tnMs
Lenore Taylor has also delivered her verdict:
Labor hopes the relief is sufficient for voters to keep faith with them, that people will notice the loosening by just a notch or two rather than their financial pain, which won’t really ease for years yet. It’s about “seeing our people through the hard times” says the treasurer, Jim Chalmers.
Anne Davies has looked at the ‘big Australia’ claims from the opposition in the budget and lets the numbers tell the story (spoiler, it is temporary and the big numbers are because there has been a correction after the pandemic)
If the budget as a whole seems a little overwhelming, you can cut out the noise you don’t want and focus on what matters to you with this interactive:
Having a look at some of the items in the budget which aren’t getting the headline attention this morning, there is this on household energy relief by Adam Morton:
About 110,000 households will be able to receive $1bn in low-cost loans for double glazing, solar panels and other energy improvements in changes the Albanese government says will make homes cheaper to run and easier to keep cool and warm.
It’s part of a $1.6bn “energy savings plan” announced in Tuesday’s budget that includes $300m funding to improve social housing and $310m in tax deductions for businesses that invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency measures.
The government also announced $2bn for a “hydrogen headstart” program that it said would help two or three large-scale renewable hydrogen developments bridge the gap to being commercially viable. Experts say “green” hydrogen is likely to be crucial in manufacturing some products currently made using fossil fuels, such as steel and aluminium.
OK. That’s how they mostly started and then there is the next question…
JobSeeker, $40 extra a fortnight, $2.85 a day. Is that really the best a wealthy country can do for its most vulnerable people?
Inflation a 'defining influence' on budget, Chalmers says
There has been a bit of a pattern to the interviews with the treasurer and prime minister this morning.
See if you can pick it.
Q: Going back to the inflation challenge, there is more than $20 billion worth of new spending. How is that not inflationary?
Chalmers:
Well, first of all, it’s over a four year period –
Q: But the bulk of it is next financial year, right?
Chalmers:
But it doesn’t all hit the economy at once. And even next year, if you take next year, for example, part of that is having to fund ongoing programs that were left unfunded by our predecessors. There is some cost of living help in there but carefully targeted, there’s the impact of the small business tax breaks that we announced last night as well. And so broadly, across the economy, we don’t expect to be adding to these inflationary pressures, in fact our energy bill relief combined with our price caps to get those price rises a bit down in the energy market - they’re actually taking some of the sting out of inflation next year.
Q: But they’re rebates. It’s not a cash splash, so to speak, but it’s $500 a year for people who get those concessions. They will still have $500 extra to spend, therefore potentially fuelling inflation. Is that a concern?
Chalmers:
When we sat around the cabinet table and put the finishing touches on this budget, the defining influence on the budget was inflation. It guided the way that we designed and carefully calibrated the cost‑of‑living package, the way that we’re investing in the supply side of the economy, and the substantial restraint and discipline that we’ve exerted on to this Budget.
And so what we’ve been able to do is hand down a budget which is designed to take some of the sting out of whether it’s energy prices, rent, with the rent assistance, or out-of-pocket health costs. Those are the three most problematic areas when it comes to inflation. We’ve dealt with them in a targeted way, in a way that takes some of the edge off cost‑of‑living pressures rather than add to them.
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The US embassy in Australia has announced (officially) that Joe Biden will visit Papua New Guinea while he is in the region for the Quad meeting later this month:
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. will make an historic stop in Papua New Guinea while traveling from the G7 leaders’ summit in Hiroshima, Japan to the Quad leaders’ summit in Sydney, Australia later this month.
While in Papua New Guinea, president Biden will meet with prime minister Marape of Papua New Guinea and other Pacific Island Forum leaders to follow up on the first-ever US–Pacific Island Summit in Washington, DC last fall.
The leaders will discuss ways to deepen cooperation on challenges critical to the region and to the United States such as combating climate change, protecting maritime resources, and advancing resilient and inclusive economic growth.
As a Pacific nation, the United States has deep historical and people-to-people ties with the Pacific Islands, and this visit – the first time a sitting US President has visited a Pacific Island country – further reinforces this critical partnership.
For background on the Quad, who’s involved and how it came about:
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Budget a ‘slap in the face’ for young people, Tomorrow Movement says
The Tomorrow Movement, a group which advocates for young people, is also not impressed with the budget and what it provides for the next generation.
Organiser Jas Walker said the budget release crushed a lot of hopes:
After the release of the federal budget Tuesday - young people are disappointed and angry that the rate of jobseeker has not been raised above the poverty line. If the government doesn’t raise all support payments above the poverty line, thousands of young people will continue to face increasing instability in a vital part of their lives.
If the government can find billions of dollars for stage three tax cuts that will only benefit high-income earners, they should be able to find the money to increase income support above the poverty line for everyone.
Three dollars a day is a slap in the face to those struggling to get by.
Updated
The house is now acknowledging Father Bob Maguire.
Opposition likely to support electricity rebates and GP bulk-billing incentives
The Liberal leader, Peter Dutton, has signalled the opposition is likely to support electricity rebates and the GP bulk-billing incentives in Tuesday’s budget.
Dutton told the ABC that “more needs to be done in the bulk-billing space” and “in principle we support more assistance for doctors to help them see patients with acute needs”.
But the opposition is still deliberating on the jobseeker increase and increase to single parent payments for parents of kids aged 8 to 14, with their position to be announced in Thursday evening’s budget reply.
Dutton told the ABC:
There are millions of families who aren’t getting any assistance in this budget, who thought they were. An average family with a mortgage and three children is $25,000 worse off under Labor in this budget.”
Fact check: not really. This appears to be a figure blaming the May budget for the 11 consecutive interest rate rises ordered by the Reserve Bank.
Pressed to say if the opposition was “not supporting” the jobseeker raise, Dutton said “we will make an announcement tomorrow night”.
He said:
We’ve spoken a lot about trying to provide support to people on lower incomes but there are millions of Australians who have missed out in this budget – they’re the ones who are going to be hurting in this budget.”
Updated
The house has moved on to speaking about Barry Humphries.
Tony Burke said when Humphries died, it was like the nation lost “a crowd” of people.
Updated
Here is how photographer Mike Bowers has seen the morning:
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The house is speaking on condolence motions – there will be one for Father Bob Maguire within the hour
Albanese on stage-three tax cuts
This is what Anthony Albanese had to say about the stage-three tax cuts to the Seven network:
Host: Yeah, but your tax take is increasing. You’re heading towards being one of the highest taxing governments for decades unless these stage-three tax cuts come through. Can you guarantee that they will come through to alleviate bracket creep that every single working Australian is feeling?
Albanese:
Well they’re legislated, Kochie, and I know there’s been speculation up to budgets.
Host: So l-a-w law?
Albanese:
We gave no consideration to that. What we focused on last night was the measures that we announced in our budget. And we have not changed our position on that.
Updated
Andrews confident of Commonwealth Games funding
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says he’s confident the Albanese government will be a partner with the state in funding the $2.6bn 2026 Commonwealth Games despite no money allocated for the event in Tuesday night’s budget.
The Albanese government committed no funds for the sporting games in the federal budget on Tuesday night. The budget committed more than $1bn for Brisbane’s 2032 Olympic Games.
Speaking to reporters, Andrews said he believed the Albanese government would help shoulder the financial burden of the sporting event but would not comment on if the commonwealth would contribute 50%:
We won’t let them off the hook.
The Commonwealth Games are expected to cost at least $2.6bn to host in Victoria, with the government expecting the federal government to contribute half
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‘Well done Jim’
It is safe to say that independent senator Lidia Thorpe is also not a fan of the budget
“Well done Jim. You delivered a budget that is in surplus and you’ve done it while giving tax cuts to the rich. The slow clap you hear is from the millions of Australians who have been told their battles to put food on the table and a roof over their heads is their burden to bear
— Senator Lidia Thorpe (@SenatorThorpe) May 9, 2023
The cries of despair you hear are from the hundreds of thousands of First Nations people who now know that their hardships will increase, their incarceration will increase and their suffering will increase. But don’t worry, we’re gonna have a Voice...
— Senator Lidia Thorpe (@SenatorThorpe) May 9, 2023
The word justice receives only six mentions in this budget and indeed it is a budget poor in delivering justice. This budget fails in delivering First Nations justice, social justice, environmental justice, what you call criminal justice, justice for refugees and housing justice.
— Senator Lidia Thorpe (@SenatorThorpe) May 9, 2023
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Parliament today
The parliament is officially sitting for the day.
Expect the budget to dominate pretty much all of it, so if you are already sick of it, I am sorry.
There is also the fight in the Senate over the housing future fund though, if that counts.
Updated
Daniel Andrews welcomes bulk-billing funding for Medicare
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has backed the Albanese government’s $3.5bn injection to improve access to bulk-billing doctors for children and concession card holders.
Under funding commitments in the federal budget, more than 11 million Australians will be able to access free appointments with their GP.
Speaking to reporters, Andrews said more needed to be done but Tuesday night’s budget investment was an important start:
“It’s a significant investment and significant reform of Medicare.”
Andrews has long called for the commonwealth to overhaul the Medicare system to improve access to bulk-billing doctors.
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‘The opposition is not happy with the budget’
A little more from that Sussan Ley speech – Peter Dutton’s line is that the opposition will examine the measures in the budget and respond on Thursday, when he delivers his budget reply.
Ley:
It should not surprise anyone here that the opposition is not happy with the budget.
But Australian households and businesses will ultimately be the judges of it because budgets are about priorities and delivering on promises and the prime minister has promised he will not leave anyone behind.
So if your power bill goes up this winter you know who to blame, Anthony Albanese.
If you can’t afford your rental bill and you end up on the streets, you know who to blame, Anthony Albanese.
If your mortgage goes up again and again, you know who to blame, Anthony Albanese.
If you can’t afford to run your business and have to lay off workers you know who to blame, Anthony Albanese.
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Sussan Ley on the attack
Remember how we said that as part of the “great softening” of Peter Dutton, deputy leader Sussan Ley has been anointed the Liberal party attacker-in-chief?
(It’s an old trick, not limited to the Liberal party – in opposition, most leaders back away from straight up attacks of their political opponents, lest they been seen as “too negative” or not prime ministerial enough, which means that someone else has to step into the role of chief criticiser. It is usually the deputy, and in recent times, often a woman – Kristina Keneally fulfilled the role in the 2019 election campaign, for example)
Well here is part of Ley’s speech to the Institute of Public Accountants and Canberra Business Chambers budget breakfast:
When I was growing up, I went to school just down the road from this building across the lake at Campbell high school and down at Dickson College.
So as someone who has spent a fair bit of time in Canberra in my youth and now as a politician, I hope you can see that this government has taken Canberra well and truly for granted.
I understand Senator Pocock will be on a panel later, maybe you can ask him why he wasn’t able to secure Canberra a new stadium like Tasmania.
To borrow a term from rugby, maybe Senator Pocock needs to be more effective at the breakdown.
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‘This is a responsible budget,’ Albanese tells Sky News
If the RBA decides to make another interest rate rise, does that mean the budget has “failed” Anthony Albanese is asked on Sky News and says:
Well, what this budget does is hand down a responsible series of measures. The first projected budget surplus that we’ve had in 15 years, we’ve made $40bn of savings over the two budgets, last October and then last evening.
We have put 87% of the revenue gains straight to that bottom line, to reduce debt, to reduce the interest payments on that debt, to take pressure off inflation.
This is a responsible budget which at the same time has found space in order to provide support through measures like the energy price relief plan, together with our price caps on gas and coal we introduced in December last year, are estimated by Treasury to take three quarters of a per cent off inflation.
So, we could have done what some suggested, which is to hand cash out to provide that support. Instead, we designed a mechanism to reduce people’s power bills, that provides that support to families, whilst at the same time it therefore is deflationary as a measure. So, this is a well thought-out budget.
We’ve been working hour after hour, day after day, week after week to put together a responsible budget that provides that support where it’s most needed whilst not adding to inflationary pressure.
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Pocock’s budget critique
Independent ACT senator David Pocock is not a fan of the budget. Here are some of his thoughts:
Almost a year into their term, and despite a windfall in both political and budget capital, we’ve seen yet another budget that’s a step in the right direction but lacking in ambition.
This is against the backdrop of an acute cost-of-living crisis where more and more Australians are struggling to afford the cost of essentials and make ends meet.
Australians are also seeing the effects of climate change and demanding more leadership and action to protect the people and places we love. This challenge can only be turned into an opportunity if we make smart investments now.
Now is the time to take bold action. This budget contains nothing of the scale needed for a substantial step in the right direction. Tonight the government had a budget chance to adopt expert advice and embark on the reforms needed to build the kind of future we want.
This is a budget of missed opportunity, on both the revenue and spending side of the equation.
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Morning TV marathon
For those who are not aware, the morning after the budget is delivered, the TV networks set up their breakfast TV hosts on the lawns of parliament (or in front of the budget tree) and the main crew selling the budget, or selling the budget response wander from marquee to marquee in what is essentially a news production line.
There are a lot of comments about how chilly it is and the MPs usually say something like ‘welcome to Canberra’ and then they are off.
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Coalition to announce welfare spending priorities tomorrow, Dutton says
Will the Coalition support the $40 a fortnight increase to jobseeker, Austudy and youth allowance?
Peter Dutton:
We’ll make an announcement tomorrow. We have certainly spoken a lot about trying to provide support to people on lower incomes and but there are millions of Australians who have missed out significantly in this budget. They’re the ones that I think are really hurting at the moment and we’ll have more to say about that tomorrow night.
(Tomorrow night is when Dutton will deliver his budget reply speech.)
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Dutton’s verdict on the surplus
What does Peter Dutton think about the forecast surplus (wafer thin – $4bn – but it is predicted to be there).
He told the ABC:
If they have been gracious they should acknowledge they inherited a good set of figures. They obviously had a surge of income and they have spent some of that wisely but there’s a lot of extra taxing spending that is going to be inflationary and, as Chris Richardson points out, he thought the Reserve Bank Governor had already finished with the baseball bat, but he thinks there is likely another interest rate increase out of this. So I worry for those families who have been missing out and who are really hurting at the moment.
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Is the budget inflationary?
Anthony Albanese also spoke to ABC News Breakfast about whether or not the budget is inflationary.
Host: But there is that extra spending out there. An independent economist, Chris Richardson, reckon it is [that the] RBA was ready to lay-off further rate rises until last night. He says they’ll look at these new spending measures.
Albanese:
He’s going to get a run on ABC, doesn’t he? If he didn’t say something dramatic, you wouldn’t give him another run.
Host: He makes a valid point, doesn’t he?
Albanese:
Come on. We are producing the first projected surplus in 15 years. We’re banking, putting 87% of the revenue gains to the bottom line. We produced $40bn of savings over two budgets. This is a responsible budget that deals with the pressure of inflation which is there, whilst also understanding that we need to assist people who are under pressure. Which of the measures did Mr Richardson say we shouldn’t have done?
Host: Let’s talk about one of those measures, jobseeker going up by $40, that equates to $2.85 a day. Independent Senator David Pocock describes that as both laughable and embarrassing. Are you embarrassed to offer such a small rise in jobseeker?
Albanese:
Here’s a great contradiction you put. In the first two issues you raised with me, you said we’re spending too much in your first question, and the second you say we’re not spending enough. The truth is we got the balance right. We understand that people are under pressure. But we needed to make sure that it was a responsible budget. So, this $40 increase is something that will make a difference to people.
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‘We have tried to do as much as we can, without blowing the budget’
Jim Chalmers, on ABC News Breakfast, was also asked about the base rate of the working age payments given a small increase in last night’s budget (jobseeker, Austudy and youth allowance) and said:
It is important that we increase the base rate of jobseeker in the budget but in addition to that, extra money for the max rate of commonwealth rent assistance, energy bill, the relief we were talking about and we have tried to do as much as we can, without blowing the budget and adding substantially to the inflationary pressures in the economy. I understand and respect there will be people who say we should do more, people will say we shouldn’t have done any of this. We have done what we can and a lot of people who are eligible for one of the payment increases in Budget would be eligible for two or more of the increases. Look across the cost of living package.
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More staff for MPs and senators
There was about $160m for additional staff for parliamentarians. Anthony Albanese cut the number of staff independent MPs were given soon after winning government. At the time, he said it was because additional staff had been given to crossbench MPs by the Morrison government as part of negotiations to pass bills, but that party backbenchers didn’t receive the same help.
Patricia Karvelas asks Albanese whether the court case Sally Rugg, who had worked for independent MP Dr Monique Ryan, contributed to the decision, given what she raised about the pressure on independent’s staff to do practically everything.
Albanese says:
It is the right thing [to do]. What the Morison government did was unbeknown to anyone. You had two people sitting next to each other – the member for Bennelong would have had four staff and the member for North Sydney next door have doubled that with eight staff Guess what? They got the same number of constituents, the same number of pressures to deal with which is what electorate staff are for.
So one of the things that has happened though, there used to be 80,000 odd people in an electorate when I was first elected. Mike Freelander has almost 150,000 people so it’s one added pressure which is there.
So for some people, it’s almost doubled.
He says it is about the “number of constituents” and the “nature of the work”.
Previously, you would get letters in the mail when I was first elected, now you have emails you have social media, you have so much pressure on electorate staff, and that is across the board.
And one of the things that that court case was about of course, was pressure on staff of members of parliament. So that that is why the treasurer made that comment, but that pressure is there across the board. Independents, Labor, Liberal, National, and this is across the board has not singling anyone out for any favours. And this is necessary because of that pressure.
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Albanese asked why cost of stage-three tax cuts wasn’t in the budget
There was a short back and forth between Patricia Karvelas and Anthony Albanese about why the figure for the stage-three tax cuts wasn’t in this budget when it was in the October budget.
Albanese just says that the government’s position hasn’t changed, but that the legislated measure “wasn’t a consideration for this budget”.
Stage three is legislated to come into effect from July next year.
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Paying down debt will help inflation – Albanese
Given the $20bn in spending in the budget, why does the prime minister think this won’t make the Reserve Bank’s job harder? (which is another way of saying – is this inflationary?)
Anthony Albanese:
We’ve got $40bn of savings. And if you compare what we’ve done with the revenue gains: 87% to pay down debt to reduce those interest payments to take pressure off the economy compared with 40% under the former government, and just 30% under the Howard government, so they had in last year’s budget if you want to look at the alternatives, look at what the last Morrison budget brought down, which had a whole range of cash injected into the economy, which added to inflationary pressures, but didn’t address any reform as well as leaving these budget black holes where funding just ended on June 13.
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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.
Albanese says there is a review into employment services and the government will consider and act on the recommendations from that review in due course
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‘You can’t do everything in every budget’
Is there real to increase the base rate for the single parent payment down the road?
Anthony Albanese:
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.
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Albanese defends not raising the single parent payment
Over on ABC radio RN Anthony Albanese is asked why his government is not increasing the single parent payment given how much he speaks about being raised by a single mother.
You can’t say Patricia, in a budget in which we are providing – $176.90 I think is the figure for single parents whose child might be today between the age of eight and 14 – that makes an enormous difference to them. We did listen to people, and we’ve responded and it will make a real difference to women in particular, but also their children.
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A stage-three loophole?
The bit to pay attention to in Paul’s post? That last section about the treasurer saying nothing about a flat tax rate.
That’s because numerous commentators and economists, including Danielle Wood at the Grattan Institute think that the government could revert the stage three tax cuts to what was originally passed under the Turnbull government and restore the 37% tax break.
It was the Morrison government which created a flat tax rate for people earning between $45,000 and $200,000 – and that’s one of the reasons stage three became so much more expensive in terms of foregone revenue.
So there is a school of thought now that the government could re-introduce the 37% tax bracket and keep the rest of stage three
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Chalmers asked for stage three guarantee
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has been asked on the ABC and Channel Seven Sunrise about stage-three tax cuts.
On 7, David Koch asked if Chalmers would guarantee the stage-three cuts in order to counter bracket creep.
Chalmers acknowledged that “people are working more and earning more and in aggregate that is good for the budget” – so yes, there is bracket creep.
He then noted that stage-three cuts kick in at $45,000. “We do support giving back bracket creep to low- and middle-income earners,” he said, but the stage three cuts haven’t been “a central part of deliberation for this budget”.
Koch took this to mean that stage three is here to stay – but note Chalmers only focused on the lower end of beneficiaries. Nothing in his answer defended people earning between $45K and $200K having the same marginal tax rate.
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Good morning
Hello and welcome to the morning after the night before where everyone is a little tired and just a tad over it but there is still plenty to do.
A very big thank you to Martin for the overnight update – you have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day.
With the budget having been delivered, it’s time for the government to begin the sell. And that’s underway with gusto. Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese will be everywhere this morning attempting to spin the coverage – their message being that this is a “responsible” budget that “gets the balance right”.
Ultimately though, how the budget is perceived is up to you. So let’s get into it.
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Ratings agencies give their budget verdict
As a government, if you want to keep your debt bill down, you need to keep the ratings agencies happy.
The major ratings agencies delivered their budget verdicts overnight, Australian Associated Press reports.
S&P says the improvement in the budget’s bottom line is positive but inflation remains stubbornly high.
S&P Global Ratings has had a AAA rating on Australia since February 2003 and the agency confirmed the rating in January, a few months after the Albanese government’s first budget.
The agency said strong commodity prices, low unemployment and population growth had improved Australia’s deficit but it also warned the handouts in the budget may add to inflationary pressures.
Labor’s commitment to banking more than 80% of its revenue upgrades from the strong labour market and high prices for exports was critical to maintaining the AAA rating, S&P director Anthony Walker said.
Moody’s Investors Service rates the government as AAA with a stable outlook.
Vice-president Martin Petch said the surplus for 2022-23 and shift down in gross debt was in line with the agency’s earlier expectations.
He said the review of large spending areas such as infrastructure was positive.
“More broadly, productivity growth remains a key vulnerability for Australia’s long-term economic and fiscal outlook.”
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Read the budget changes you care about
Feeling a bit overwhelmed by the torrent of budget news? Fear not, we’re here to help.
We’ve got a handy budget interactive where you can read the whole lot, if you like, or filter and prioritise it according to your state, age, interests, even family situation.
Just want to read about defence policy? Click the button. Want to drill down on what the budget does for Indigenous Australians. There’s a button for that.
Dig in!
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Economists differ over impact on interest rates
Jim Chalmers has rejected concerns his cost of living budget will fuel inflation and trigger more interest rate rises, writes AAP.
The treasurer’s second budget juggled several priorities, namely keeping a lid on inflation while offering some cost of living support to those most in need.
But independent economist Chris Richardson said the budget lacked the hard decisions needed to let the central bank keep interest rates on hold, and would pump money into the economy.
“I had thought after the surprise rate rise from the Reserve Bank last month that they were done and dusted. I’m less clear now that that’s the case,” he said.
However, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s chief economist, Stephen Halmarick, said the budget would not jeopardise its forecasts of inflation returning to the RBA’s target range by mid-2024.
“The move to surplus in 2022-23 represents a fiscal contraction that is helpful in moderating the inflation pulse through the economy,” he said.
“But the move back to deficit in 2023-24 represents a loosening of fiscal policy.”
Welcome
Good morning. How was it for you? Such a huge day yesterday for political and news junkies, but also for the nation. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll be bringing you the top overnight lines before Amy Remeikis takes over.
The treasurer will address the press club in Canberra at lunchtime to explain his budget strategy and take questions from the media. Expect more explanations about how he is trying to walk a balance between fighting inflation and fighting the cost of living crisis. Did he get it right? Economists disagree over whether the budget might mean more rate hikes. More coming on that soon.
We’ve got a stack of budget content for you, of course, including a newly launched story about millions more dollars going towards closing the gap, help for central Australia and Alice Springs, and mental health for Indigenous Australians during the voice referendum campaign. We also have details of a $1.9bn package for the Australian defence force to expand links in the Pacific.
The independent inquiry into how the ACT’s justice system handled rape allegations made by Brittany Higgins against fellow former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann’s resumes in Canberra. The ACT’s director of public prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, will expand on his claim that police investigating the rape claims tried to convince him not to press ahead with prosecution via a series of “gotcha moments”.
