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Articles on Budget 2011

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Good financial inclusion measures will protect consumers from predatory lenders. Flickr/rinkjustice

Giving credit where it’s due will ensure financial inclusion

The Australian government has begun to focus on the issue of financial inclusion, as reflected by an allocation of $60.6 million in this year’s federal budget. This follows earlier government support for…
Personal credibility is what convinces voters. AAP/Alan Porritt

Abbott comes out swinging but is light on detail

As a boxer Tony Abbott had a limited but effective method described by some as “the whirling dervish”. He was full of energy and on the attack with arms swinging. It was a tactic that could work for the…
Tony Abbott presented an alternate vision instead of an alternative budget. AAP/Alan Porritt

Abbott’s budget reply: alternate vision with just a hint of hit man

Tony Abbott has arguably outlined the most important public policy agenda for the next decade (no matter which side of politics forms government over that period). The major questions will now be: who…
People power and social media helped win a campaign to protect medical research from cuts. Photo: AAP.

How the war was won: the campaign to stop medical research cuts

One day in April, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research director Douglas Hilton called his communications manager, Penny Fannin, into his office. “He said he’d heard significant cuts were…
Treasurer Wayne Swan supervises journalists examining his budget. His tax plans are a “fiscal illusion”. AAP/Andrew Taylor

The trouble with ‘taxeaters’ (aka middle-class welfare recipients)

Thinking about tax policy gives individuals the opportunity to devise their own “great society”. As economics laureate James Buchanan explains “Many economists, along with other social scientists and social…
Changes to the charity tax rules could impact on Gloria Jean’s among other organisations. Flickr/Edwin Tang ET

Charity tax changes to help lawyers and accountants, but no-one else

Tonight’s budget is expected to tighten a tax loophole for charities which run businesses unrelated to their charitable work. The government thinks it will increase revenue for Australia’s coffers. It…

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