What we learned; Tuesday 9 May
After a disrupted budget cycle (because of the election, and Labor’s October budget last year) the 2023-24 budget landed when it should, on the second Tuesday in May.
See the whole budget in graphs here, or build your own news coverage here.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers kept some tricks up his sleeve for budget day, promising millions more bulk-billed GP appointments, a lift in the Jobseeker rate, rent assistance and more.
Lenore Taylor asked if the voters will keep faith with Labor treading the line between helping the vulnerable and fiscal restraint.
Low-cost loans for double-glazing, solar panels and other energy savers will help more than 100,000 households, while there’s $2bn for hydrogen projects.
Here’s how cartoonist Fiona Katauskas saw the 2023 federal budget.
There’ll be more budget nuggets in the days to come, but here are some non-budget stories from today:
Melbourne tower residents won $5m compensation over the Covid lockdowns.
A man who died at a NSW retreat after using Kambo frog toxin was ‘blue in the face’, the inquest heard.
And John Farnham has staged yet another comeback - he’s made a full recovery after contracting an infection in hospital for a tumour removal.
We’ll be back at sparrow fart to bring you more detail on today’s revelations, and a bunch of stories you don’t even know about yet.
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Some of what Mike Bowers has had his eye on today:
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