Treasurer Scott Morrison has delivered an election eve budget;
there were changes to superannuation that will affect the top four per cent of income earners;
tax cuts for business;
and a small personal tax cut that raises the third income tax bracket from $80,001 to a new threshold of $87,001;
the government says it is a responsible budget but the opposition says it is rewarding the big end of town while doing nothing for the majority of families.
The election battlelines have been drawn.
My thanks to the always magnificent Andrew Meares and Alex Ellinghausen and to you for reading and commenting.
Okay this has been bugging me since question time but I can now clarify it. In the 3.17 pm post I said Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the government would close 17 detention centres. Several people pointed out that there are not 17 detention centres to close.
I have now checked Mr Dutton's budget press release which says the success of Operation Sovereign Borders means the government can "close four additional detention facilities, achieving savings of $39.1 million over four years".
"This will take the total number of detention facility closures by this government to 17," his press release says.
My apologies. I - clearly - was not listening closely enough.
Should you care to do so you can read Mr Morrison's speech in full here.
"By lining up the federal budget and then the federal election in such rapid succession, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison have chosen a manoeuvre with a high degree of difficulty. The risks are real because failure in stage one begets a potential disaster in stage two."
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So sweet.
She was not disappointed.
One of Mr Morrison's daughters could not wait to give the speech her endorsement.
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Big business, however, is happy.
"Australians are facing a choice between muddling along and accepting lower living standards, or seizing higher living standards which come from a budget which is not in permanent deficit and which supports a stronger economy," the chief executive of theBusiness Council of Australia, Jennifer Westacott, said in a statement.
"The best way to boost growth now is giving businesses greater capacity to invest in more productive enterprises, and giving workers a better reward for their effort. By acting now to carefully move towards more competitive business taxes and making inroads on bracket creep on individuals the government has given the economy a much needed shot in the arm."