Set aside the politics, focus on the economy's immediate needs, and this is a good budget – though, with less politics and more economics, it could have been better, writes 1RossGittins
Add an economic perspective, however, and it's a budget that does the right thing for the wrong reason.
That being so, now is not the time to have the budget taking a lot more money out of the economy than it's putting back in. The tax cuts he is promising are a poor substitute for a decent pay rise, but they will help consumers keep spending and turning the wheels of the economy. By far the most expensive change to last year's seven-year tax cut plan – the change that does most to double the cost of the cuts to a staggering $302 billion over 10 years – is the decision to cut the middle tax rate from 32.5¢ in every dollar to 30¢ from July 2024.
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