Australian budget

By Leith van Onselen It seems you can’t keep a dumb idea down. Just when it appeared that the Rudd Government’s pie-in-the-sky high speed rail (HSR) project linking the major East Coast capitals died with the former Government, the Abbott Government has sought to resurrect it.

By Leith van Onselen John Daley, CEO of the Grattan Institute, has given a fantastic critique of the generational warfare inherent in the May Budget, which left untouched the ridiculously generous entitlements provided to richer, older Australians.

By Leith van Onselen Jago Dodson, Professor of Urban Policy at at RMIT University, has called on the Victorian Government to tax inner city residents so that infrastructure and amenities can be expanded in outer areas.

By Leith van Onselen US economics Nobel Laureate, Ed Prescott, claims that Australia’s top marginal income tax rate is too high, and threatens Australia’s growth.

From Fairfax: Treasurer Joe Hockey has warned Australians he may be forced to take “emergency action” and deliver Queensland-style austerity if structural budget reforms are not made.

By Leith van Onselen The Abbott Government appears to finally be giving ground on controversial Budget measures, flagging that it might accept compromise packages that water down the proposed $7 GP co-payment and Tony Abbott’s paid parental leave (PPL) scheme.

By Leith van Onselen The Government’s plan to make job seekers aged under 30 wait six months before receiving Youth Allowance or Newstart has taken another hit, with Family First Senator, Bob Day, declaring war on the Budget measure.

By Leith van Onselen The lobby group representing private childcare providers – the Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) – has slammed a proposed new activity test recommended in the Productivity Commission’s (PC) Draft Report into Childcare and Early Childhood Learning, claiming that it would spark a childcare “exodus”.

By Leith van Onselen Fairfax Media has stepped up its attack on Joe Hockey following the Treasurer’s hissy fit over the weekend in which he accused Fairfax of “malevolent attacks” in relation to its Budget reporting.

By Leith van Onselen Following a new audit report claiming that Labor’s National Broadband Network (NBN) was “rushed and chaotic”, communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has endorsed stringent new requirements for taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects worth more than $1 billion.

By Leith van Onselen After Fairfax Media revealed details yesterday of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request showing the Budget’s adverse impact on lower income earners, Treasury Joe Hockey cracked a tantrum, accusing Fairfax of “malevolent attacks”.

By Leith van Onselen In his meeting with Treasury Hockey over the weekend, Senate crossbencher, David Leyonhjelm, reportedly demanded the Government properly means test the aged pension.

By Leith van Onselen A Freedom of Information (FOI) request lodged by Fairfax Media has revealed Treasury modelling showing that the measures introduced in the May Budget would be highly inequitable and punish lower income workers.

By Leith van Onselen It was revealed over the weekend that the Government has shelved Tony Abbott’s signature paid parental leave (PPL) scheme for fear that several Coalition backbenchers would cross-the-floor and vote against the scheme, causing embarrassment for Tony Abbott.

By Leith van Onselen The Abbott Government has indicated that it will ditch its plan to apply real interest rates to outstanding student debts after it received advice from the architect of the HECS repayment scheme that it would unfairly punish to poor graduates.

By Leith van Onselen Business groups have taken aim at the Abbott Government’s road funding fettish, arguing that Australia’s dilapidated rail freight network is in desperate need of upgrading and is hampering the nation’s export competitiveness.

By Leith van Onselen It seems Tony Abbott’s paid parental leave (PPL) scheme, which was devised on the fly by Abbott and Rupert Murdoch, has no friends left and faces imminent defeat in the Senate.

By Leith van Onselen Former ACT Chief Minister, Kate Carnell, has joined the growing chorus of people against the ACT Light Rail Project, arguing that the population density along the proposed rail route linking Gungahlin in the North and Civic is far too low to make the project viable.

By Leith van Onselen ABC’s The Business last night aired a segment on the Defence discussion paper, released earlier this week, which questioned whether Australia should build defence hardware locally or instead purchase it off-the-shelf at lower cost offshore.

By Leith van Onselen I noted previously how the Coalition had flagged spending tens-of-billions of taxpayer dollars to local defence manufacturing, comprising locally built armoured vehicles, submarines and warships.

By Leith van Onselen The head of the doctor’s union, Australian Medical Association (AMA) president, Brian Owler, yesterday gave an address to the National Press Club, in which he raised concern that Australia is heading down the path of a US-style health system.