Off-budget spending nears $100b in Chalmers’ budget

Michael Read and John Kehoe

Mar 19, 2025 – 7.28pm

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Treasurer Jim Chalmers will spend nearly $100 billion off budget over the next four years, economists predict, as Labor piles taxpayer money into loss-making assets like the National Broadband Network and the Whyalla steelworks.

The warning comes as new Commonwealth Bank chief economist Luke Yeaman, who was Treasury deputy secretary until this month, said Labor and the Coalition would need to rein in spending after the election to help contain tax rises.

Michael Read is the Financial Review's economics correspondent, reporting from the federal press gallery at Parliament House. He was previously an economist at the Reserve Bank of Australia and at UBS.

John Kehoe is economics editor at Parliament House, Canberra. He writes on economics, politics and business. John was Washington correspondent covering Donald Trump’s first election. He joined the Financial Review in 2008 from Treasury.