From Schwartzmedia In seven am. I'm Ashlyn McGee. This is the cost inside the living crisis. Last night Treasurer Jim Chalmers delivered a budget that may decide the fate of the Albanesi government. There's billions of dollars in new spending, with another round of powerbell rebates for all of us, no annual price hike on PBS medicines, and a boost
to the rent assistance payment. But as so many Australians struggle to put food on the table or keep a roof over their head, has the government spent enough or has it spent too much? And are they're more rate hikes now on the cards today? Chief political correspondent for the Saturday Paper Karen Barlow and what support the government delivered and whether there's devil in the detail. It's Wednesday,
May fifteen. Karen, First of all, welcome to the show, our new chief political correspondent and we're talking on budget night.
Hello, great to be.
Here, mister speaker. This is a budget for the here and now, and it's a budget for the decades to come. It's a response.
So I want to begin with what Jim Charmers had to deliver in this budget, like what choices were the Albanesi government grappling with and how significant was it for the Treasurer to get it right?
Hugely important. We're in an election year without a date. Households are really crying out for cost of living relief and the Treasurer's main job is to not make it worse.
This uncertainty combines with cost of living pressures and higher interest rates to slow our economy, with growth forecast to be just one and three quarter percent this financial year and two percent next.
We have Jim Chalmers presenting also relief and reform and a lot of talk about promise and potential of a more prosperous future. But this budget, Jim Chalmers third is an economic and heavily political doctor speaker.
The number one priority of this government and this budget is helping Australians with the cost of living responsible relief that eases pressure on people and directly reduces inflation.
For Jim Chalmers, this is what he's been working on all year since the last budget. It has been taking his every waking hour. He's been spending a lot of time with the Finance Minister Katie Gallaher. But this is also while you know there's people screaming out for more cost of living relief, but at the same time urging that the inflation problem is not made worse by extra spending.
So, mister speaker, the story of Australia is more than a tale of the challenges that we have endured, and in our future we need to strive for something more than muddling through or making do so.
The biggest issue for many Australians in this selection will probably be that's sawing cost of living. So how big did the government go on support for people?
Look, it was a fair bit, but as I said before, it's tempered by not making the whole situation worse. But what we have here seven point eight billion dollars in new spending. We have the amended Stage three tax cuts that's worth twenty billion dollars a year over ten years. Remembering this is for all taxpayers and they kick in shortly on July one, and there's a benefit about thirty
six dollars a week. But what's new is three point five billion dollars in across the board energy bill relief over three years.
Just as every Australian taxpayer will get a tax cut every Australian household will get energy price relief From July one. Australians will receive an energy rebate of three hundred dollars and one million small businesses will get a little bit more.
There's some freezing of the maximum costs of medicines.
And we are freezing the maximum cost of people prescriptions for everyone this year and next year. No one will pay more than thirty one dollars sixty.
There's also common Wealth rent assistance that's being increased to further help young people and renters.
It's the first back to back increase to common Wealth rent assistance in more than thirty years, and more much needed help for young people and for renters of all ages doing it tough.
The budget papers insist that the energy bill relief and rent assistance will directly reduce headline inflation by point five of a percentage point in the next financial year. Every percentage point counts, as we know, but look, if it's possible. There's also another centerpiece of the budget in the reform of Aspiration. I guess the Future Made in Australia package.
So yeah, Doad, we more about that Future Made an Australia plan because Essentially, it was a bit of a slogan at the start and there wasn't much flesh on the bones. But have we now got a bit more detail around that, like is it a sizeable poly see that's going to have some serious impact on the country.
Our twenty two point seven billion dollar Future Made in Australia package will help make us an indispensable part of the global net zero economy.
It's seen as a bit of a slogan, but look, the Treasurer says, this is the big reform piece in the budget. It's been revealed as a ten year, twenty two point seven billion dollar package, but it's largely made up of tax incentives to attract and deploy they say, investment, and to get the nation of fossil fuels along the way.
We know that the global energy transformation presents a golden opportunity for Australia. The world is changing and the pace of that change is accelerating, and our approach to growth and investment needs to change as well.
What we have here are production incentives. There's a seven billion dollar critical minerals production tax incentive and there's also a six point seven seven billion dollar hydrogen production tax incentive and that's going to provide a two dollar incentive per kilo of renewable hydrogen.
If we hang back, the chance for a new generation of jobs and prosperity will pass us by, and our people will be poorer and our economy will be more vulnerable as a consequence.
And a real focus on batteries, renewable hydrogen, quantum computing, low carbon liquid fuels. So a lot to see, but there's also concern about like a risk to tax payers money and we're talking about a lot here. Chalmers is stressed that there will be protections built into the system to stop any abuse of the billions.
So, Karen, it feels like a lot of the detail in this budget has really already been spoon fed to us over the past week or so. And one of the headlines that the government's been really keen to talk about is its surplus. So in this economy, how did we end up with a surplus? And why is it such an important thing for the government.
Well, there's an incredible political imperative to this. It's the mantle of better economic manager. It's a key indicator of basic performance, I guess for a government. It's in most opinion polls, and it's something that we know is a vote winner.
Last year, our responsible economic management delivered the first surplus in fifteen years. We now expect another surplus of nine point three billion dollars this year. These would be the first back to back surpluses in almost two decades.
That's expected, and that comes after twenty two point one billion dollars the previous year. Chalmers is warning though, that there are pressures on the government that are only going to get worse, and while he and Katie Gallagher are working to reign it in, there's a sea of red about to pour in and the coming deficits are much larger than previously forecast.
After the break the hidden details that hinted what's coming in the next election campaign, Karen, So, for a lot of yesterday, you're in the lock up pouring over the budget of papers. Tell us about some of the more interesting things you uncovered in there.
Yeah, okay. So, even if the three hundred energy bill credit and the increase to comwealth rent assistance is not enough of a big election sign, there's a promise of more to come. But a promise this column on a table in the papers which the government does not want to focus on. Is a place where we find what's called the decisions taken but not yet announced and not for publication. A pretty weighty little set of words there. But it's about a figure that comes in at one
point one two billion dollars. So this is spending closer to an election when voters are starting to firm. But it is a very interesting number because we don't know what it's for. We have to have a guess. It is not for us to know just yet.
In the budget papers. Even though we know so much detail before the budget is actually handed down now there still can be some surprises. Did you find anything that was a.
Surprise for me? I think the surprise can be found in services for veterans. Three billion dollars has been found there and part of that is bolstering staffing at the Veterans Affairs Department.
And we've achieved all of this despite much smaller revenue upgrades in the budget and still providing an extra three billion dollars to ensure Australians, including our veterans, receive better essential services.
This comes after the Veterans Royal Commission and after the government has got through a claims backlog for veterans earlier this year. That's quite a bit of money that's been found related the Australian War Memorial had money more money found for it, another eight million dollars. After nearly all, just over half a billion dollars has been spent upgrading
the Canberra based site. And I did find that the National Mental Health Commission is being defunded and the money is going back into the health budget and they're going to delay the decisions on what to do with that particular area. But that's part of it across the board health spend and reprioritization, So that was particularly interesting. So for people.
Concerned about the cost of living, what do we know about whether this kind of spending we're seeing in the budget is going to make that better or whether this spending could actually make the situation worse. It could lead to more interest rate rises well.
So the budget papers tell us that the spending on cost of living relief is de inflationary and will amend the situation by point five of a percentage point.
Annual inflation has more than half from its peak in twenty twenty two, and it's now lower than anticipated in the media update. But we know that people are still under the pump. That's why we designed our cost of living policies to ease these pressures and take another three quarters of a percentage point off inflation this year and half a percentage point next year.
If you talk to the opposition, they've got other views and they expect that this is going to be inflationary, and they say that the government has been causing inflation to rise over the entire term. I think the jury is out at this stage. The RBA will be particularly looking at the outcome of this particular budget and it
will be factoring it into its next decisions. But there are some elements of spending that are what they call off the books, and so therefore there is that question mark about whether the new spending will add to the possibility of making inflation worse.
So finally, Karen, as you've said, this could be a really consequential budget for who wins the next selection. So coming out of tonight there's some pretty clear battle lines you can see that have been drawn with a coalition.
So Peter Dutton will officially have his say on Thursday night with his traditional budget, replies Opposition leader. But as you would expect he's not cheering charmers on Before seeing the entire budget, he addressed the Liberal and National colleagues saying this was a magic putting exercise by the Treasurer and he's not delivering hope rather broken promises. And the surplus has been denigrated by the Coalition as a windfall surplus and what they are seeking is a structural surplus,
one by design. And you do point out here that this is a coalition that did not deliver a surplus when it was in office over nine years. There's a blame game going on over inflation and that will continue. Dutton with his economic team of Angus Taylor and Jane Hume, saying this inflation is now home grown and it's the government's decisions of the past two years that have really driven it up. The government, of course nis this and it's budget measures are in fact deinflationary and it has
the budget papers to prove that. Dutton is hinting at alternative policies. Budget Day and the day after is not the day for that reveal, so we'll get to see what the Coalition is yet to provide. But traditionally oppositions don't give out too many things this far out from the election, but essentially what we've got here with this budget is game on and.
That's why I commend this bill, mister Speaker, and this budget to the House.
Yeah, Karen, thanks so much of your time today, Thanks very much.
Ash.
In other news, former military lawyer David McBride has been sentenced to nearly six years in jail for stealing and sharing classified documents with journalists. The files alleged Australian soldiers had illegally killed civilians in Afghanistan earlier this month. McBride spoke to us here at seven am and said he had no regrets about his actions, and the sentencing judge yesterday agreed he'd shown no remorse. Act Supreme Court Justice David Mossip said McBride had decided he knew best and
didn't want to follow the rules of the army. McBride will have to serve two years and three months before he is eligible for parole. And in another court, former Jetstar pilot Gregory Lean is on trial for the murder of campus Russell Hill and Carol Clay at an ice later Victorian Campsite in twenty twenty. Prosecutors Allegedlyn dumped the couple's bodies and burned the evidence, but Linde's defense teams say the deaths were a tragic accident in a dispute
over hunting in the high Country. The trial continues in the Victorian Supreme Court. That's all from us for today. Thanks for your company. We'll see you again tomorrow