I want to talk about the budget, the federal budget. We've got to get excited about it. Jason, are you excited?
Not really?
I don't understand. There's a lot in it for you.
Luckily, I've got someone standing by who can explain at all, and he does it very well on his Instagram.
Have you seen his Instagram? Yes, five hundred and thirteen thousand followers. What about that?
Not bad?
Chris Cola joins, it's my colleague and nine News finance editor. Good morning to you, Chris.
Morning, guys, there you going.
We're good. How had you been sore? You celebrate last night? Budget night for a finance guy will be big.
Yeah.
No, Famously, the nerds kind of let their hair down after the budget is wrapped up. You work till about ten and then a couple of beers. But no, I think it was pretty tame. Everyone behaved himself.
Does the treasurer let his hair down?
It's a good question. I don't know.
I mean, you don't want to be caught smoking cigars or anything like that anymore.
Joe got a cigar out? Did he post budget like I've done it?
Yeah?
I done the man. I am the big, big money man.
He sort of looked like the monopoly man as well. Hey, Chris, break it down for us, Like a lot of the time, we hear we're going to save here, and we're going to we're going to get more money back in our pocket here and there. Is it money this year we're going to have to apply for or is it more just going to affect our tax returns in a year's time.
Yeah, that's certainly the show piece of this one, Jason. I mean, the whole kind of secret with this budget was these new tax cuts that we're going to be getting. Now, when people hear about tax cuts, they want to know when, they want to know how much. Unfortunately, the news on those fronts is not that great. We're talking about them being phased in from mid next year, and once it's all fully up and running, we're talking about twenty dollars
a month for the average earner. So while it sounds pretty good when you stay at is you know, five hundred and thirty six dollars in your back pocket next year or the year after. I think for most people it's going to be just a little bit of help.
To keep it in mind, we've just had a tax cut, have.
We not yes we have, and the federal government's very keen to talk to you about the Stage three tax cuts that were coming in. They were implemented in first place from the Coalition and they just sort of roll on through, so people have been saving money. This was a bit of a sweetener. This is an election budget, this a do no harm budget, right, Yeah, so look,
the tax cut through a big one. The other thing they really wanted to talk about was non compete clauses, which is something that we hadn't really been thinking that much about. But it turns out apparently people like hairdressers, hospitality staff and tradees three million Australians have had these clauses in their contract that stop them looking for better paychecks at a competitor. Government wants to make that completely illegal. So that was another thing we weren't really expecting.
Yeah, right, just back on the if it applies to radio non compete cause.
We're not leaving. We're happy where we are weaving. We ain't leaving, We're not coming through that. Again, you mentioned how we won't really see this till mid next year, right and correctly if I'm wrong, does that mean they could come out this time? Say if Albo gets voted back in. Right, they could come out next year in the budget and totally change what they're promising again, couldn't they. So what they're actually telling us we're going to get now we may never see.
Look, they will stick by this.
The coalition, on the other hand, says that they're not going to do this tax cut. So it's very much a vote for us, and you get you know.
Because they get a reply, They get a budget reply.
Don't they. That's right?
So Angus Taylor is going to be handing that out pretty soon. He came out very hard last night saying that this is a terrible budget. Of course you'd expect him to say that, but interestingly he said we're not going to match these tax cuts, which is a bit of an odd move, some would say, in the.
Least use in their back pocket.
You would think.
So, we haven't heard any detail on that, but he says that this is not enough. I mean, the big thing for the federal government is that they don't want to get in the way of interest rate cuts. We've got potentially up to three more rate cuts coming before the end of the year. I mean that could be worth two hundred and seventy dollars a month. The last thing the government wants to do is spark plation, kick the whole thing off again.
Hey Chris, what about power bills?
Yep, there's going to be some energy rebates. They're going to roll that out further.
That means another one hundred and fifty dollars off your power bill this year, and they're going to keep that rolling. That's going to be helpful for households and small businesses. So certainly that's a big part of it. Bulk billing incentives was another one that's being boosted. So more free trips to the doctor.
Oh yeah, we're trying to find it. Sorry to cut you off for trying to find a doctor of bulk bills though, that's the challenge.
Well, that's the thing.
So they're trying to broaden this so that more doctors will be incentivized to do it. The problem is you can't find anyone who kills. That's just think that the government's trying to address.
What about childcare?
Because I know, I mean in our little circle of friends, and to be honest, we're sort of at this point as well. My wife wants to go back to work and we'll work. We're working it all out, and we're like, sometimes it's actually not worth going back to work because the money you're pulling away in childcare.
Yeah, they're deliberately targeting that one too. Jas they're saying secondary workers should be able to go back to work and not dump all of their money into child Yes, so they're trying to boost that subsidy and broaden it as well, which is already quite big. They're trying to make it sort of better. I suppose they're trying to sort of tweak it around the edges to make sure that it actually works and his stip for purpose.
So that's another big one for sure, because.
It's an issue that comes up. I mean, we've had three kids and we've we've jostled with this every time. And I know a lot of friends are in the same boat that you know, like my wife for a mental health wants to get out of the house and get.
Back to work. But it's sometimes it's not worth it.
You see there going, what do we make fifty bucks at the end of the week by the time we paid for It's crazy.
Absolutely, the whole income goes and then the problem is you spend time out of the workforce because you say it doesn't matter, and then by the time you've you've entered back in when the kids are a little bit older, you lose time in the workforce, you lose super It's not a good result. So the government's definitely trying to.
Chris is in the trenches himself now a dad for a second time, just a few weeks back.
Congratulations mate, thank you very much.
Yeah.
Look, you know I was in the lock up while they were going down last night and my wife, my wife was the one in the trenches, so she did very well to get everybody down.
Chris, you're you're old man, of course, a wise man. ABC finance editor for many, many years.
Does he still fund Christmas at your fos?
Chris, who is following in his father's footsteps? Was it?
Was it what he was doing on the telly that inspired you?
Yeah?
I grew up watching him. I mean I grew up watching which is a bit of a weird one. But look, yeah, he's done a lot of budgets in his time. My goodness. He wrote for newspapers, you know, back when they were doing it on on typewriters, so things have changed a little bit.
But imagine playing Monopoly at that family house. Don't buy park later, it's a bad investment.
You never swindled any cash from the bank.
Oh god, no, absolutely, Chris. We appreciate your time this morning, mate. We know it's busy, but thanks for breaking it down for us.
Anytime.
Chris Colin News on Instagram hit him up. He's very popular. He is very popular.
A lot of mums in the Burbs trying to save a bit of coin on let Me Tell.
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