Chalmers is in the driver’s seat as another Labor government copes with an economic crisis – very different from the GFC, but similar in being driven by circumstances not of the government’s making.
A strong revenue flow, including from a pick-up in wages, appears to have made it possible for the government to do somewhat more on welfare payments than it originally intended
Tuesday’s budget will forecast a growth in real wages of three quarters of a percentage point over the year to June 2024. This is an upgrade of half of a percentage point since the October budget
While Albanese (who lands back in Australia on budget eve) basks in the international limelight, at home Treasurer Jim Chalmers this week has been feeling the heat of the spotlight.
The infrastructure pipeline includes rail and road projects in the capitals as well as rail and road construction and upgrades in regional and outback areas
Managing expectations before a budget is always tricky. Two committees are making this especially so for Treasurer Jim Chalmers ahead of his second budget.
Just as we have the country’s smartest legal minds on the High Court and our best health practitioners setting vaccine policy, the review wants the best economists to set monetary policy.
These include the establishment of a separate Monetary Policy Board and Governance Board, aimed at making both decision-making and governance arrangements as effective as possible
ANU economist Ben Phillips, a member of the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee, explains why it regards increasing JobSeeker as the most pressing priority for the Albanese government.
The Albanese government had no intention of giving the Low and Middle Income Tax Offset a further lease of life. It just would have preferred that a pesky journalist hadn’t highlighted the fact
Michelle Grattan and Mike Callaghan discuss the government's change to super, the complexities regarding it, and whether young people should be able to access it for a house deposit
Michelle Grattan and politics editor Amanda Dunn discuss the latest interest rate rise, the polling reaction to the Super tax hike, the PM's visit to India and the Monique Ryan/Sally Rugg court case
In policy terms, these are important debates. Politically, though, anything to do with superannuation is fraught, especially for a government already grappling with difficult economic issues
For average Australians, the stagnation of real wages has been the most tangible manifestation of the failure of neoliberalism. Yet “wages” are only mentioned four times in Chalmers’ Monthly essay.