The challenge of this Budget was to meet the short-term threat presented by an unprecedented world recession, but to devise a way to re-balance the budget and address a decade of fiscal drift.
Budget 09 analysis
Crikey Says: A Budget that has it two ways
Dan Warne: Splashing around the tech cash
Beyond the broadband network, there were plenty of other nuggets of welcome funding in the tech space…
Robert Gottliebsen: Two nasty blows
The Swan net has been extended over a very wide number of people by changing the definition of income for health fund contributions and by changing the way Australians must save for retirement.
Duncan Riley: NBN and censorship
New funding for the NBN itself in this years budget was….wait for it….$0.
Peter Hannam: Swan is going for the Guinness Book of Records…
Swan’s budget is one for the record books…
Malcolm Maiden: Swan’s Pollyanna moment
The Government’s revenue and growth projections are pretty optimistic.
Shaun Carney: An aspirational bail out
In only its second budget, the Rudd Government has rolled the dice on its future policy options and its political fortunes. Short-term, the outlook is bleak.
Ben Eltham: Economically sound, politically risky
Despite the countless strategic leaks in the lead-up to Swan’s speech, the budget still contained some big, risky announcements.
Malcolm Farr: Brave budget promises generational change
This is a Budget designed to introduce long term structural reform. It is a generational change Budget the previous government knew was needed but could not, or would not bring about.
Michael Harvey: There goes the retirement plan…
Middle-aged workers planning their retirements will be hit with a phased-in rise in the pension age to 67.
Michael Brissenden: You call that tough?
For all Swan’s tough talk, this budget was like being beaten with a limp lettuce leaf.
Paul Kelly: A test for Wayne’s glass-half-full outlook
This budget is very much about optimism.
2008 to 2009: A tale of two wordles
Nothing quite so illuminating as a word picture. Here’s the 2008 budget speech in living colour… and 2009.
The 2009 Budget mirage
The centrepiece of the Budget is a debt-funded increase in the old age pension, writes Alan Kohler from Business Spectator.
Overintonc: toast, tea and parental leave
Caroline Overington says Wayne Swan’s paid parental leave is not a budget announcement, it’s an election promise.
Budget coverage can’t predict the future
Most of the Budget had already been leaked so is it even worth turning up?
