This budget, led by Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull, will form part of the government’s repositioning as an advocate of equal opportunity and fairness.
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The Turnbull government is desperately trying to develop a more convincing economic narrative around good economic management, nation-building and fairness.
Treasurer Scott Morrison insisted this is ‘not an ordinary budget’, but a ‘plan’.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Having made a commitment to reduce spending, the federal government will have its work cut out with this year’s budget, which may require revisiting policy ideas that have caused it pain in the past.
The issue came to a head last year when the federal budget ripped billions of dollars of hospital funding from the states.
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State and territory leaders will meet in Sydney today to nut out solutions to health and education funding gaps. But what exactly is the problem they’re hoping to address?
The government tried to be egalitarian in arguing for these reforms. The trouble was the 2014 budget left voters feeling the government was anything but.
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The defeat of the Abbott government’s higher education reform package in the Senate adds another line to its long list of policy failures.
TERN operates a number of flux towers that measure energy, water and carbon dioxide fluxes and their drivers in the vast expanse of northern Australia.
The NCRIS-funded Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) benefits pastoralists, business, tourism and Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. Cutting it will hurt them all.
The Pre-election Fiscal and Economic Outlook is prepared by the Treasurer’s advisers, but the Intergenerational Report is the Treasurer’s document.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Forecasts released under the Charter of Budget Honesty are on the wrong time horizon and need greater transparency.
Facilities like the Australian Synchrotron are relied upon by scientists across the country, and could shut down if research infrastructure funding is withheld by the government.
Sandra Morrow
Cutting vital research infrastructure funding because the higher education reforms are stuck in the Senate could end up costing the country dearly.
Education minister Christopher Pyne has maintained that the higher education reforms must be passed in order for science infrastructure funding to be released.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The move to challenge the leadership of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, coming soon after the shock Queensland election outcome, has in some quarters been blamed on a lack of appetite for reform on the part…
The relationship between PM and treasurer can make or break a treasurer’s reign.
Lukas Coch/AAP
For a number of reasons, now is not a good time to be Australia’s federal treasurer. The resources boom has lost its mojo, the economy is faltering and the dollar is falling along with the terms of trade…
To prevent future pain, the government can’t put off tough decisions on tax.
Lukas Coch/AAP
The government’s recent budget outlook (MYEFO) confirmed that the Australian government budget is rotten at the core. The government is hopelessly living beyond its means, with expenditure greater than…
This government is fond of comparing the economy to a household budget - but there is one really major difference.
AAP/Lukas Koch
Treasurer Joe Hockey is experiencing difficult times. Deteriorating terms of trade and an uncooperative senate mean that he cannot deliver the surplus when he said he would and he cannot continue to cut…
The budget is projected to return to surplus in 2019-20, according to the budget update which shows this financial year’s deficit has blown out from less than A$30 billion to more than $40 billion. Treasurer…
Treasurer Joe Hockey and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann say the government’s mid year outlook sets the path to budget recovery.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The federal budget deficit will blow out to A$40.4 billion in 2014-15, up from the $29.8 billion forecast in May’s budget, according to the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) released today…
Australia’s children and grandchildren will not enjoy the fruits of the country’s prosperity as much as their parents.
Mate Marschalko/Flickr
Having enjoyed continuously increasing prosperity since the Second World War, Australians have come to expect that each generation will live a better life than the last. But this steady progress may be…
Mining magnate Andrew Forrest might be be down $2 billion, but the decline in commodity prices is just one of many factors hurting Tony Abbott’s budget bottom line.
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In the wake of a falling iron ore price that has cut his personal fortune by more than A$2 billion, Andrew Forrest has remained unperturbed, saying: “I didn’t count on the way up, and I’m not counting…
Some of the government’s agencies didn’t get the memo.
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In a democracy governments cop criticism: that’s a rule of politics. Opposition parties and politically-aligned organisations will always exploit opportunities to have a go at the government. But it is…
Indigenous land management jobs have been a popular, growing area of employment in recent years.
AAP Image/Peter Eve
Tony Abbott is spending this week in North-East Arnhem Land, part of his long-held hope “to be not just the Prime Minister but the Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs”. We asked our experts: what stories…