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.
