Where are the billions coming from? In part, from property. This financial year Treasurer Tim Pallas will get $6.6 billion from property stamp duty, up from $5.4 billion in 2015-16. He will get $2.4 billion from land tax, up from $1.7 billion in 2015.
Here’s something that should be in the budget but won’t be: an end to the outrageous assault on our wallets that is ever-increasing compulsory superannuation.
I am hearing that it nearly was in next week’s budget, until the government chickened out.
The Coalition wasn't merely asleep at the wheel when it came to the practices being exposed at the banking royal commission: it pulled out all stops to allow some of them to continue, including attempting to circumvent the will of parliament, in an extraordinary 12-month burst of activity that began within weeks of its election.
I had a sinking feeling in Sydney’s Four Seasons Hotel listening to Treasurer Scott Morrison guarantee that he would be able to deliver permanent tax cuts and properly fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme “in this year’s budget and beyond” without any longer needing an extra levy.
One of the architects of Australia's financial system has expressed doubts about the policing power given to one of the corporate regulators now under fire for failing to prevent fraud and deception by the banks.
I am going to say it. We are spending too much on infrastructure – on roads, railways, bridges and the like. We don’t try the cheap things first. And we are spending too much on the NBN.