Budget Thoughts

A good solid budget by the government last night with nothing large or surprising. Which was exactly what was needed. A few quick observations:

✅ Great to see some fiscal responsibility after the wild excesses of the last government. Very little in the way of extra spending and banking most of the tax windfall from inflation and resources will make the RBA’s job battling inflation easier. 

✅ Extra funding for tax enforcement and compliance is long overdue and fantastic to see. Unfortunately, opportunities for more substantive tax reform were passed over in this budget. 

✅ Improvements to both childcare funding and paid parental leave are excellent and should be a tiny step in the direction of reducing genders based imbalances in the workforce. 

✅ Not at all surprising given the parliament enquiry that is ongoing, but no changes announced in the budget for Australia's insolvency regime.

The framing of the budget was very much setting up for tax increases and spending cuts over the rest of Labour's term. While it's never nice to contemplate paying more tax, given the budget position Australia has, more tax revenue is going to be an unwelcome necessity.

On the positive side, this budget nicely balanced new spending with cuts in other areas. I'm hopeful this presages a similar approach in future budgets rather than a return to a tax and spend mentality.