Australia’s last chance Budget

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After a year of fiscal deterioration, last year’s Budget “emergency” has vanished, from Peter Martin:

Tuesday’s budget is genuinely new. Two of the six-member expenditure review committee that put it together weren’t there before – the new Social Services Minister Scott Morrison and the new Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg​. The three top bureaucrats who put it together are new in their jobs – Michael Thawley​ in prime minister and cabinet, John Fraser in treasury and Jane Halton in finance.

This time the Prime Minister Tony Abbott chaired almost every meeting. The nominal Treasurer and deputy chair Joe Hockey played less of a role.

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About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.