And on that note, we will wrap the blog up – but we will be back with you at sparrow’s tomorrow morning with more reaction, missed opportunities, as well as what is happening in the senate as the government tries to ram through its environment gutting laws.

What a time.

Thank you so much to everyone who came along for the ride today – it is humbling to be joined by thousands of you so soon in this little project. We couldn’t do it without you and we hope it is adding some complimentary value to your day.

Get some sleep – we ride at dawn (ish).

Do good – and take care of you. Ax

And in other news of what happened today:

The Greens have also responded to the budget:

The Australian Greens have said today’s budget was a missed opportunity to deliver real cost of living relief by getting dental into Medicare, and to pay for it by making the big corporations pay their fair share of tax, which would have delivered more help than tiny tax tweaks that are 15 months away.

In a wealthy country like ours, everyone should be able to afford the basics – a home, food, and have access to world class health and education.

Instead, many people are struggling to afford the essentials while one in three big corporations is paying no tax.

Labor’s budget has delivered $56 billion in fossil fuel subsidies and $176 billion for wealthy property investors, but failed to deliver the bold reforms needed to support people being smashed by the skyrocketing cost-of-living.

The two new tax cuts announced by the government will barely scratch the surface for people struggling to pay for food or rent, and won’t come into effect for 15 months, with low income workers saving only 73 cents a day, which wouldn’t even cover one cup of coffee per week. 

Meanwhile, the government’s previous stage three tax cuts delivered $4,500 in tax cuts for billionaires, with these new cuts increasing those savings to more than $5,000 for billionaires like Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer.

There are no increases to Job Seeker or Youth Allowance in this budget, meaning the more than one million on these income supports will remain in poverty.

And the government has forecast billions more in cuts to the NDIS.

On housing, the government has fixed some of the problems the Greens have highlighted in the Help to Buy scheme, but there is nothing new for renters, who didn’t even get a mention in the Treasurer’s speech.

Climate and the environment got zero mention in the Treasurer’s speech as well. Perhaps this is not surprising as Labor has approved over 30 coal and gas projects in this term of Parliament alone and is gutting Australia’s environment laws.

The government is also continuing to pour billions of dollars more into nuclear submarines as AUKUS costs increase, with funding in this budget blowing out from $12 billion to $18 billion.

Labor has also broken its promise on refugees, by failing to increase the humanitarian intake.

So the Coalition is against the Labor tax cuts, but not against tax cuts, but against THESE ones, but maybe support tax cuts, but not THESE ones, but yes tax cuts.

(That was Angus Taylor’s genius on display, in case you needed a hint)

Chief economist Greg Jericho and Senior economist Matt Grudnoff have done some quick back of the envelope calculations to see if the Liberals could not do these tax cuts Labor has proposed, but instead try and come up with their own. Which the Coalition is hinting at, with Peter Dutton now going on about the biggest fight since Fightback! The 650-page economic document Liberal leader John Hewson came up with in the early 1990s (he lost, by the way). Also Hewson is an economist. But why let those little things get in the way!

Anyway, the pair have done very quick calculations and the answer is….No. Unless they just want to do a tax cut for people earning over $135,000 they can’t do it with this budget. “Everything else is far too expensive,” said Grogs (after some expletives).

On the unemployment: Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and Disability Support Pension recipient Kristin O’Connell said:

This is an irresponsible budget that once again has betrayed millions of welfare recipients and left us in deep poverty.

This budget puts the nail in the coffin of Anthony Albanese’s cruel, false promise to leave no one behind.

The government needs to stop pretending to help poor people with more handouts for big business, landlords and corporate charities

For people on Centrelink payments life is harder now than it was three years ago, and this budget does nothing to change that.

• Those on the lowest incomes will benefit most from the new tax cuts. 
• More people will have access to bulk-billed visits to the doctor and cheaper medicines. 
• The budget predicts that the inflation rate will remain in the Reserve Bank’s target range.

The bad:

*While there’s funding for disasters caused by climate change, there is nothing to reduce emissions.

*There is nothing meaningful to ease the housing crisis. 

*The budget does nothing to address growing inequality.

The ugly:

*Australia is unlikely to hit its emissions reduction targets and nothing in this budget will stop that.

*The free ride for gas companies continues, with revenue from the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax predicted to fall.

*There is nothing to prevent the ongoing environmental harm being caused by the salmon industry.

Who’s cashing in?

*Those who earn between $18,200 and $45,000.People who go to the doctor often and buy a lot of PBS medicines.

*Beer drinkers, with a two-year pause on indexation increases on the draught beer excise. 

*Gas companies, which are projected to pay less PRRT over the next 4 years.

*Wealthy people who use the superannuation system to avoid paying tax, with no change to super tax concessions.

*Wealthy people who use the tax system to speculate in the housing market, with no change negative gearing.

*Fossil fuel companies, who use a lot of diesel. The fuel tax credit, which is what the government pays to organisations like mining companies for the fuel they use in their vehicles, is growing. The government will be handing them $10.8 billion this year, rising to $13.1 billion in 2028-29. 

Who misses out?

The unemployed, who have to live on an income which is around 38 percent below the poverty line, as there was no increase in Jobseeker in the budget. 

The Maugean Skate, which – thanks to this budget – is a step closer to extinction. On a day the government rammed through legislation to protect multi-national salmon farmers polluting the skate’s only home, the government allocated $2.4 million for a skate breeding program, over 2026/27 and 20-27/28. The skate could be extinct by then. 

The environment. The Treasurer did not mention climate change once in his speech. He did, however, cut the Department of Environment and Climate Change by $2.4 million. Would-be homeowners are further away from the great Australian dream after this budget.  Negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount help investors. For buyers, there’s some money being spent on shared equity, but it’s all just fiddling on the roof – a burning roof.

The Tasmanian senator is asked for her budget thoughts, but then is asked about the salmon industry and the legislation the government is trying to ram through the parliament so that it (and other industries) can avoid environmental protection laws.

Lambie does not hold back. David Speers might need a bit of a Bex and a laydown after this:

Both the major parties have not backed the right sides when it comes to the AFL stadium that they want built and want to generate money, wasting taxpayers’ money and salmon farming. They’re on the wrong side, there are 65% of Tasmanians that do not want salmon farming going on in Tasmania, they want it pushed into the coastal waters further or doing it on land.

It’s not a lot for ask for multi-nationals that have been down there, three years they’ve paid no tax and in the mean time your taxpayers money is spending $37 million because we don’t have a problem in Macquarie Harbour according to the PM but we’re spending $37 million of your money over the next 12 months to put oxygen into it and we’re not making the multinationals pay for the crimes and the dirt and filth in the harbour in Tasmania.

But Angus Taylor’s brain does manage to activate and stop him committing the Coalition to raising defence spending until he has the OK from his boss. He won’t be committing to anything ahead of policy announcements all of a sudden.

Angus Taylor then basically confirms (whether he knows it or not) that the Coalition want to sack 41,000 public servants.

We have said that we will get back to where we were before Labor government when we were last in power that is what we aim to get back to, and we have seen a substantial increase in the numbers tonight and that is adding to the cost that all Australians are having to pay and it is one of the reasons why we have got red ink as far as the eye can see

We all then lose precious minutes from our one and only precious lives as Angus Taylor does his best Clarke and Dawe impression over the tax cuts.

Q: So no requirement for tax cuts?

Taylor:

What we think is a better way to make sure we restore prosperity in this country, we get back to the standard of living that we had when we were last in power and ahead testify. That’s what Australians are used to. That’s not what Labor is offering in this budget. We don’t get back to the standard of living, as I said, that Australians had when Labor came to pew until the end of the decade.

Q: Let’s be clear, the Opposition will not be supporting the tax cuts as part of…

Taylor:

That’s not what I said. I said we do not support what Labor is putting forward today. We have already announced important tax cuts. We have said that small businesses should be given

Q: Sure, let’s be absolutely clear. We’re not talking about specific taxes related to…

Taylor:

Sarah, can I challenge you on this. I’m not saying it’s unimportant. That raises the prosperity of all Australians over time. That’s how you get productivity. That’s how you make sure we’re geting ahead. That’s how you get a standard of living that is rising all the time

Q: I just wanted to get some clarity on personal income taxes. You are not in favour – you will not be offering personal income taxes as part of the election?

Taylor:

That’s not what I said. I said we will not be supporting what Labor has proposed in this budget and that’s what we’re responding to tonight