The AFR View
The budget and budget reply will be failures if they do not include a genuine plan for fiscal restraint and do not explain how higher defence spending must be paid for by cuts in other policy areas.
The budget Jim Chalmers will hand down on March 25 was not part of Labor’s original election strategy, regardless of whatever anyone tells you.
As a result, his budget speech will, by definition, lay out an economic narrative he thinks will help Labor’s re-election chances. This is a great shame.
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Original URL: https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/australia-cannot-afford-a-phoney-budget-debate-next-week-20250315-p5ljt8
