The only economic issue in the coming election should be household income and how wages policy can lift it.
Pulling in a budget surplus from tobacco excise has knock-on effects that need to be considered
The crisis in neoliberalism that marked the last three years has shaped the electoral contest that will unfold over the next five weeks.
The government's panic over the Adani Carmichael project is driven by five wasted years that have seen unemployment spike in Townsville and surrounding regions.
If budgets were about addressing actual economic problems, this one would be a failure — but not a total one.
Mathias Cormann has been crucial to the return to surplus forecast for next year. But so too has the Liberal Party's addiction to taxing Australians.
Governments staring down the barrel of an election tend to write budgets that try to be all things to all people. This one is no exception.
The government is making a tactical gamble.
The government has adopted a firefighter approach to its political troubles, aiming a hose of money at at-risk seats or areas where Labor is threatening it.
Tonight's budget is a major piece of political theatre for the government, but it doesn't have a lot to do with fiscal policy or the economy.
