Albanese Labor Govt Watch

[Booney]

I saw Albo and his inner Howard with his Cricket Australia tracksuit

Loved it when he filled half a sandbag for the media
First manual labour he’s ever done
The Labor online shrills are going berserk over it

He doesn't hold the shovel, mate.

[wenchbarwer]

I saw Albo and his inner Howard with his Cricket Australia tracksuit

Loved it when he filled half a sandbag for the media
First manual labour he’s ever done
The Labor online shrills are going berserk over it

He's a Spanish bullfighter, isn't he?

I love hard work, I could watch it all day.

[Booney]

Dutton.

Smelly.

[Jim05]

Dutton.

Smelly.

Amazing what happens when you try to be Temu Trump

His own party turning on him now

[Booney]

Commentators had him moving into the Lodge and for the life of me I couldn't see why. WA election reinforced the teals will get any swing away from Labor.

[shoe boy]

Dutton.

Smelly.

And a dodgy ex cop millionaire .

[RB]

While I think the 'teals' will probably retain most of the seats they hold, and potentially pick up one or two more, I think in a lot of seats - and in particular the ones which are likely to decide the election - that won't be much of a factor.

The government's position appears to be improving this year - incrementally - but I personally expect that if there's a swing away from the ALP on the primary vote in marginal seats, most of that is likely to go to the Coalition. And I wouldn't be surprised if Labor receives a slightly smaller share of preferences from non-ALP/Coalition primary voters (e.g. 58% rather than 62% per 2022, for instance).

WA state election primary vote swings from 2021 to 2025, FWIW:

ALP -18%
LIB +7.0%
NAT + 1.3%
GRN +3.7%
One Nation + 2.8%
Others (incl. independents) +3.4%

A couple of 'teals' got very close to being elected, but again weren't really a factor in the vast majority of the state.

[dedja]

18% swing against WA Labor, but they still managed to win 44, and likely 46 seats of the 59 in the lower house.

[tigerpie]

Jane Hume goes alright.

[Jim05]

Pretty poor budget IMO but I guess they are gearing up for the election

[RB]

Pre-election budgets tend to be exquisitely uninteresting, to enable the PM to make the big announcements during the campaign.

[Jimmy_041]

Pretty poor budget IMO but I guess they are gearing up for the election

$5.15 per week tax cut for all from middle of next year
$10.30 pw 12 months later

The bracket creep from the past 3 years is over 10x that

https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/7000- ... 01912.html

I am not sure what planet they're on thinking that's a vote grabber

[Jimmy_041]

Pretty poor budget IMO but I guess they are gearing up for the election

It is a budget that they did everything to avoid bringing down, but couldn't, so it's not surprising

$5.15 per week tax cut for all from middle of next year
$10.30 pw 12 months later
The bracket creep from the past 3 years is over 10x that
I am not sure what planet they're on thinking that's a vote grabber
And Albo says he's going to legislate to enshrine them in......... wait for it........ L-A-W.

Tax cut bill rushed in as PM aims to wedge Dutton
Phillip Coorey
The Albanese government will try to legislate its budget tax cuts this week in a bid to force Peter Dutton to go to the election promising to rescind them.

But, as Jim says, the real fun starts now
They are going to throw around $100's of billions to keep their jobs.
Forget the budget forecasts - that's based upon current revenue / spending

We are about to enter a twilight zone not seen since 2019 and, I suspect, even more dicpics on voting slips than even then
And the government (from either side) will be as bad as then
And Australia is ****ed for another 3 years

[Jimmy_041]

There are some doozies in here

Here are the 2025 winners and losers

Ronald Mizen and Andrew Tillett
Australian Financial Review
Mar 25, 2025 – 7.32pm

Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ fourth federal budget delivers a surprise election-eve tax cut for every working Australian, promises to bring down the cost of visiting the doctor, and targets tax-dodging multinationals and illicit tobacco gangs for harsher treatment.

Here are all the budget’s winners and losers.

Winners

Taxpayers
Tax cuts mean every worker will be better off by $5 a week next year. From 2026-27, the tax rate for the $18,201-$45,000 income threshold will be reduced from 16 per cent to 15 per cent, then to 14 per cent a year later. Every taxpayer will receive a tax cut of up to $268 in the first year, rising to $536 in mid-2027. This will cost the budget $17.1 billion over five years.

The Medicare levy low-income thresholds will be increased. More than 1 million low-income households, seniors and pensioners will continue to be exempt from paying the levy or pay a reduced rate. A single person will save up to $122 a year.

Energy prices
Electricity bills will be $150 cheaper after the government extended the $75 quarterly rebate until the end of this year, at a cost of $1.8 billion.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation will get an extra $2 billion to invest in renewable energy, energy efficiency and low-emissions technologies.

Non-compete clauses in contracts affecting up to 3 million workers will be banned for low- and middle-income earners, making it easier for people to join rival firms. The government says this could boost their wages by up to 4 per cent, or $2500 per worker annually.

Patients
The maximum price of prescription medicines will be reduced from $31.60 to $25 per script. Prices for pensioners and other concession card holders will remain frozen at $7.70. This Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme measure will cost $784.6 million over four years.
GPs will receive higher incentive payments to bulk bill patients, meaning more people will be able to see a doctor for free. This will cost $8.4 billion over five years.

An extra 50 Medicare urgent care clinics will be opened, providing free services to ease pressure on emergency departments. This will cost $644 million.

Public hospitals will receive an extra $1.8 billion, helping reduce elective surgery waiting lists and emergency department waiting time.
A $793 million women’s health package includes new contraceptive pills and menopausal therapies to be added to the PBS, and support for endometriosis sufferers.

Aged care nurses
An extra $82 million to further fund pay rises for aged care nurses ordered by the Fair Work Commission.

Students
Outstanding university student loan balances to be slashed by 20 per cent this year, subject to laws passing parliament, reducing the debt for 3 million people by $16 billion. About $3 billion has already been shaved off loans because of reductions to indexation rates.
Funding for schools to be lifted by an extra $7.6 billion between now and 2035-36 after agreement struck with the states and territories.
Free TAFE expanded to 100,000 places annually, with $1.6 billion in funding until 2035.
Home buyers

The Help to Buy scheme for first home buyers will be expanded, with $800 million allocated to lift the property price and income caps to make the scheme more accessible.
States will be given $54 million to encourage take-up of modular and prefabricated homes to speed up construction times.
Tradies

Eligible apprentices in the building industry will have incentives for completing their training increased to $10,000 to encourage more people into trades and boost construction rates.
A national licensing scheme for electricians will be introduced, allowing them to work seamlessly across borders. This will be the template for national licensing for other trades.

Spooks
Spy agencies to get $45 million following independent intelligence review.

Drinkers
Indexation of draught beer excise paused for two years.

Transport
Road and rail projects will get $17.1 billion over 10 years, headlined by Queensland’s Bruce Highway, which runs along the coast linking major population centres.

Maugean skate
The breeding program for an endangered Tasmanian fish at the heart of the “salmon wars” between environmentalists and fishers will receive an additional $3 million.

Pacific Islands
Solomon Islands to receive $164.6 million over four years to expand the crucial Pacific nation’s police force in response to security deal with China.
$570 million loan to Papua New Guinea to fill budget shortfall.
$119 million in foreign aid redirected to Pacific Islands and South-East Asian nations following Donald Trump’s withdrawal of US development assistance.

Pandas
Adelaide Zoo to get $3.8 million over five years to keep the giant pandas on loan from China.

St George Illawarra Dragons
One of the NRL’s biggest teams gets $13.6 million for new high-performance centre

Green metals
Smelters that switch to renewable energy will be able to claim $2 billion in green aluminium production credits, while $1 billion will be available for steel makers, including $500 million for the troubled Whyalla plant.
There will also be about $220 million to support the Whyalla steelworks during its administration.

Internet users
The National Broadband Network will receive a $3 billion equity injection to complete fibre upgrades to most premises in the country.

Musos
The government will extend funding by $8.6 million for its national arts program Revive to help live music venues.

Buy Australia
Australian producers will benefit from a $20 million advertising campaign to encourage consumers to buy Australian-made goods.

Patriots
National Australia Day Council gets $10 million to dish out community grants for Australia Day events.

Losers

Multinationals
The Australian Taxation Office will get $999 million over five years to extend and expand its crackdown on domestic and multinational tax avoidance, the shadow economy and the personal income tax system. This measure is estimated to boost the budget bottom line by $1.8 billion over the next five years.

Consultants & ASIC
Consultants such as PwC, KPMG, Deloitte and EY will continue to have their access to government work constrained. This will cut $720 million from spending on consultants, labour hire and lawyers in 2028-29, taking the total reduction since Labor won the 2022 election to $4.7 billion.
But the cut to spending on outside firms is not all good news. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission will have about $8 million trimmed from its budget in the same year, taking cuts to its budget for hiring outside lawyers and counsel to more than $20 million over the past several years.

Smokers
In a bid to solve an issue of its own making, the budget will include $156 million to disrupt the illicit tobacco trade. The trade was largely created by previous increases to tobacco excise that forced some smokers to seek cheaper, illegal alternatives.

Supermarkets
Amid outrage over supermarket price increases, $38.8 million has been given to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to enhance its investigation and enforcement activity for illegal practices in the sector.

NDIS shonks
The government will bolster efforts to rein in the ballooning costs of fraud at the National Disability Insurance Scheme with $175 million to beef up investigatory powers.

Foreign home buyers
A two-year ban on temporary residents buying existing homes will be imposed from April 1. In 2022-23, there were 5360 residential real estate purchases worth $4.9 billion with a level of foreign ownership. The ATO will receive $5.7 million on compliance.

Workplace sleazes
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency will be given $1.4 million to support work on public sector reporting requirements, including for workplace sexual harassment.

Russians and Belarussians
With Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine still under way, the government has moved to extend a 35 per cent additional tariff on goods that are the produce or manufacture of Russia or Belarus. The measure is expected to bring in “negligible” income.
Australia will also reopen its embassy in Kyiv at a cost of $36 million over the next five years.

[mighty_tiger_79]

Albo on AA this morning.
All he did was sound more like an opposition leader rather than a PM

[Booney]

Albo on AA this morning.
All he did was sound more like an opposition leader rather than a PM

Very ordinary performance.

[wenchbarwer]

Anyone else hear Elmer Fudd when Albo talks, or is it just me?

[Jimmy_041]

We really are in deep shite

Neither party are worthy of being in charge

[Booney]

Sooner Mali is in Canberra the better.

[mighty_tiger_79]

Sooner Mali is in Canberra the better.

He'll probably be handcuffed