Brendan Nelson’s deeply self-contradictory Budget Reply last night leaves Australia stuck without a credible Opposition, writes Bernard Keane.
Budget 08
Nelson’s petrol price cut = embarrassing farce
Aping Clinton and McCain’s ideas on cutting petrol price is laughbaly bad politics, argues Adam Schwab.
Beware the wrath of the stay-at-home mum
Wayne Swan’s budget failed to mention stay-at-home mums at all amid grandstanding about increasing child care rebates for PM Kevin Rudd’s much vaunted “working families”, writes Neil Walker.
Comitatus Column: The Tarago Tax
Brendan Nelson’s rage against the ‘Tarago Tax’ needs a bit of a reality check, writes Possum Comitatus
Get stuck into the wine, penny-pinchers!
Spirit drinkers are being slugged considerably more for their booze than beer drinkers. But it’s the winos who win the excise wars, writes Richard Farmer .
Eva Cox: How the Budget demonises rich women
The two minor income tests to Family Tax Benefit B and the Baby Bonus have been puffed and discussed as though the recipient were Cruella de Ville, writes Eva Cox.
Family tax benefits still a mass of contradictions
Tinkering around the edges of the existing layer cake system of family benefits will not fix the problem of middle class welfare, writes Jessica Brown of the CIS.
The Future Fund — why they can’t just give it back
Let’s accept that, as good “fiscal conservatives”, the government cannot just “give this money back”. Then how are they going to spend it? Writes Peter Saunders.
Arts funding sticks to status quo
There’s no grand Labor arts agenda in sight just yet, but Peter Garrett has left the door open for more youth and regional programming in future, writes Nick Pickard.
Budget boredom for schools but watch this space
The budget may have held only boring news for schools, but the new quadrennial funding agreement due later this year will have a far greater impact, writes Jennifer Buckingham.
Oh the humanity! Tonight’s Brendan Nelson budget reply today!
A distraught Brendan Nelson this evening confronted the Rudd Government, writes Bernard Keane .
Altman: Closing the gap rhetoric buys into Howard legacy
There are 37 new measures identified “to help begin the process of closing the gap” in the Budget but most of the major commitments are from the 2007–08 Howard government budget, writes Jon Altman.
Boost for Housing Supply: HIA chief
The first Swan budget is a step in the right direction for solving the problem of housing supply, writes Chris Lamont from HIA.
Comitatus: not much wriggle room for Turnbull
Snookered – it’s the only way to describe what the ALP has done to the Coalition writes Possum Comitatus.
Milne: The great climate betrayal
For those who thought the Rudd government was serious about climate change, Tuesday night’s budget was a rude shock, writes Australian Greens Climate Change spokesperson Christine Milne.
Thornton: What education revolution?
What happened the the ‘public’ in ‘public university’, asks Margaret Thornton?
Mayne: Infrastructure funds hide state bailouts
With the Feds rolling in cash and the states hurtling down the debt path, something had to give, writes Stephen Mayne.
Graham: A missed opportunity for Indigenous affairs
For Indigenous affairs, it’s not exactly bad news though Wayne Swan’s a bit of a miser, writes Chris Graham.
Errington: Wayne and the ghosts of budgets past
The largest single measure in the budget – cuts in income tax – was authored by John Howard, writes Wayne Errington.
MacCallum: Swan delivers where it counts
If budgets have ceased to be pivotal economic occasions, they can still be important political turning points, writes Mungo MacCallum.
Quiggin: Swan avoided the hard decisions
Unlike previous incoming governments, the Rudd government did a good job in keeping its promises, even if households on incomes over $150, 000 may feel unhappy, writes John Quiggin.
Keane: Budget plays Malcolm Turnbull for a fool
Earlier this year, the Prime Minister used declarations of bipartisanship to play Brendan Nelson off a break. Last night, it was Malcolm Turnbull’s turn, writes Bernard Keane.
Wayne Gump balances the soft and hard centres
Just call Wayne Swan Forrest Gump. He’s delivered a boring, cautious budget that won’t offend too many people but which will prove a hit with the punters, writes Bernard Keane.
Hamilton: Will the budget remake Howard’s Australia?
The budget, and the reaction to it, are a good test of the extent to which the Howard Government really did transform Australian society, writes Clive hamilton.
Davidson: A Pinocchio, not Robin Hood, budget
The Rudd Government’s first budget did not deliver Robin Hood, but has almost delivered Pinocchio. The Swan inflation narrative is now entirely discredited, writes Sinclair Davidson.
