Thumbs up or down for the budget?

The Conversation asked five experts if this was the right budget for these economic times. Only two agreed, with three saying much more is needed to address long-term structural debt and meaningful economic reform.

The straight bat budget

The Albanese government’s fourth budget is a pitch for the votes of a sour and alienated electorate, framed against a background of extraordinary international uncertainty.

Betting each way on the Budget

This week’s Federal budget will have to balance short-term election giveaways with long-term national needs to boost Labor’s chances in the forthcoming general election.

Labor’s first term report card

The Albanese government’s electoral strategy has constrained it to do little more than tweak the policy settings it inherited from the previous government, and adopt them as its own.

Chalmers’ budget giveaway

Jim Chalmers has produced a benign third budget aimed at soothing hard-pressed voters agitated about their high cost of living and punishing interest rates without making things worse by over-stoking the economy.

A budget for Labor’s battlers

A big incentive for doctors to bulk bill, a modest $40 a fortnight rise in JobSeeker and extra rent assistance are highlights of a Labor budget that juggles targeted cost-of-living relief with containing inflation.

Budget politics

The economic backdrop for the May 9 budget is grim, although when it comes to the budget itself, things are probably not as dire as the Federal Treasurer sometimes paints them.

Steady as she goes, but rocky times ahead

Jim Chalmers’ inaugural budget plants its feet as solidly as possible in the shifting sands of difficult and unpredictable international and local conditions.

Labor’s muted budget reply

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese’s Thursday night budget reply shows the differences between the parties lie not in macroeconomic settings or in the amount of spending, but in what it is spent on.

A cash for votes budget

All governments attempt to bribe electorates with their own money in the budget before an election – before pleading austerity as soon as they’re elected. The current coalition follows this well-trod pack at unprecedented scale.

Contrasting budgets in Australia and New Zealand

On the surface there are similarities between the recent budgets in Australia and New Zealand, but differences emerge in how the budgets are framed and what they try to deliver.

The post-election reckoning ahead

The Coalition ditched its mantra of ‘fiscal responsibility’ during the pandemic, but a financial reckoning may be on the horizon – as soon as the next federal election is won.