Paul Bongiorno: Expensive, temporary and targeted – and likely to fail

The federal budget is unlikely to impress many, Paul Bongiorno writes. Photo: TND

The death rattle of sinking governments is the sound of billions of dollars being shovelled out the door in a last-gasp attempt to buy the votes of an increasingly unimpressed electorate.

John Howard’s treasurer, Peter Costello, did it before that government’s demise in 2007 and Scott Morrison’s fiscal sidekick is flogging the same horse.