We asked what you thought of the budget. Here’s what you said

We spoke to people about their thoughts and concerns ahead of, and immediately after, the budget.

Here’s what they had to say on the document that will shape the election campaign.

KATHLEEN DAVIES

Small business owner, 50, Sydney’s western suburbs

Income: Less than $100,000

Kathleen Davies, small business owner from western Sydney, in her Milperra warehouse.Credit: Louise Kennerley

Budget wishlist: Trading has never been harder for Kathleen Davies’ small online and wholesale Australian spirits business. She ran her business for five years through COVID-19 shutdowns and inflation.

“It’s funny to hear the government saying that everything’s on the rise and everything’s going well – it might be in big business, but definitely not in small businesses and the sector I work in,” Davies said. “I’ve been in the liquor industry for over 30 years, and I’ve never seen it this bad.”

Davies, who lives in the western Sydney suburb of Revesby, has received some assistance from the federal government, including a grant payment designed to support female entrepreneurs shortly after COVID-19 began.

She is not sure how she will vote.

The federal government has tweaked tax rules to help spirits manufacturers, but that comes after alcohol taxes have risen quickly in recent years due to inflation.

“I walk through the area that I live in, and there’s so many commercial for lease signs, I’ve never seen this many – ever – in the time that I’ve lived in this area,” Davies said.

Budget reaction: Davies was not impressed by the budget, saying the tax cuts were too small and showed the government was “out of touch”.

“It seems like another re-election budget campaign, with a whole heap of promises they can’t keep,” Davies said. She said Treasurer Jim Chalmers was delivering a budget speech with a smile while “the small business sector, we’re on our knees”.

Davies said other cost-of-living relief, including the $150 energy bill subsidy flagged ahead of Tuesday, would not do much for her but was not worried about a plan by Labor to restrict non-compete clauses.

“I’m sitting on the fence,” Davies said. “I’d probably lean towards minority parties at the moment ... [they] are the people who are actually speaking with us.”

MITCH AND CAITLIN BABBS

Copywriter and nurse, 33 and 31, inner-city Sydney

Income: About $170,000 combined

Mitch and Caitlin Babbs, and their dachshund Olive. The couple is paying off a mortgage on their Waterloo unit and looking for cost-of-living relief in the budget.Credit: Peter Rae

Budget wishlist: Copywriter Mitch Babbs wants to see some cost-of-living relief in the budget to secure his vote.

The 33-year-old and his wife Caitlin, 31, are paying off the mortgage on their unit in Waterloo, in Sydney’s inner south. The pair bought the unit in 2019 and with a variable-rate home loan have seen the impacts of previous rate rises on their weekly budget.

“We have definitely felt the squeeze,” Mitch said.

“To my mind, and I’m not super close to it, but I don’t think [Labor] are doing such a bad job, but I would like to see interest rates come down and inflation curbed more aggressively.

“I would find it difficult to vote for Dutton more for social reasons.”

The couple, who are expecting a child, have cut down on nights out with friends and subscription services like Netflix to help save money, and while budget measures to address housing affordability would be welcome, they want to see anything in the budget to help their hip pockets.

“It’s definitely a knuckle-down period of our lives,” Mitch said. “For us, it’s cost of living, we just need to survive and not foreclose on our place as well as keep food on the table.”

Budget reaction: Mitch said the tax cuts were welcome, but he said he wished the government had included more measures for immediate cost-of-living relief.

“People are under the pump now, and it takes a while for those things to come through ... I would have liked to see it go a little further,” he said.

Mitch said despite the budget “not rocking the boat”, he will vote for Labor.

ANTHONY AMATO

Bricklayer, 37, Victoria’s Mornington peninsula

Income: $120,000

Bricklayer Anthony Amato says that ordinary people have held the country together for years.Credit: Joe Armao

Budget wishlist: Anthony Amato runs his own business, Buildit Bricklaying, and said he was not politically engaged but would probably vote Labor in the federal election because he sees the party as representing working people.

“It’s the little people that have held this country together for the last five years, and it’s the building industry, to be honest with you,” he said.

“[But] I say to my friends, I don’t want to talk about two things: religion and politics, because no one can ever agree on it.”

Amato said at a local level, he voted for people he felt he could trust, but he did not have faith in federal politicians because they did not follow through on election promises.

“I don’t agree with the way they … use the budget because they say they’re going to do something in the budget, and they never get around to actually doing it,” he said.

Amato said he was interested in issues like childcare.

“Childcare is a major one because my partner and I are looking at having a child, so that’s going to impact my future in the next three to five years. So that would make a big difference to me,” he said.

“When it comes to the big things, like, do we want to put more money into hospitals? Do we want to put more into aged care? … I think that the people should be voting for that.”

Budget reaction: Amato was pleased with the budget. “Working towards education ... working towards your average person going to the GP ... and stopping the big guy from being able to make non-competes, I think these are all great things,” he said.

But he remained concerned about ballooning debt and whether Labor would follow through on its promises.

“I’d just like to see them actually pull through with some of these things that they say they’re going to do. That’s the biggest concern,” he said. “The debt to the country, to me, is humongous, because it just means that ... somewhere along the line, we’re going to have to pay. Is it going to be us, or is it going to be our children?”

TOM AND HUGO BORBILAS

Students, 18 and 22, inner-west Sydney

Income: Less than $18,000 each from cafe work

University students and brothers Tom (18) and Hugo Borbilas (22, right) have a social world where people lean left.Credit: Sam Mooy

Budget wishlist: Tom Borbilas hasn’t voted in a federal election before, but the 18-year-old musician has a clear view on what he expects from Australia’s political leaders: funding for the arts.

“These venues that support live music just can’t really function,” said Borbilas, who is studying at the University of Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music.

“Really creative venues just can’t stay afloat putting on the music and art they want to put on. The ones that stay alive have to sacrifice the artistic integrity in order to make it a business.”

Another priority for both Tom and his older brother, Hugo, 22, is more spending on affordable housing and other policies to help young people enter the property market.

“Neither of us is probably going to be able to afford our own house ever,” Hugo said.

Hugo, a creative writing masters student at Western Sydney University, and Tom plan to vote first for the Greens because of their environmental policies, then Labor.

Many of the brothers’ friends, particularly in Sydney’s inner-west where they live with their parents, share their left-wing politics and are opposed to Coalition plans such as the construction of nuclear reactors.

“Everybody I know, pretty much thinks the same way as me,” Tom said.

Budget reaction: Tom said he was happy with the government’s budget plan to wipe 20 per cent off outstanding student loan balances and increased repayment thresholds.

“With the cost of living now that is a very promising and exciting shift,” he said. He said the cuts relieved some of the pressure he feels about being able to afford to purchase a home.

“That’s a big plus, I think, not having a big loan, with what we’re going to be dealing with in the future with house prices,” he said.

While he still intends to vote for the Greens first, Tom said the move would be well received by people in his social circle.

EMMA AND CHRIS JANETZKI

Marketing manager, 36, and sales manager, 42, Melbourne’s western suburbs

Income: $230,000 to $250,000 combined

Emma and Chris Janetzki and their two children have had to cope with soaring mortgage costs in recent years.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

Budget wishlist: Emma Janetzki said interest rates are a key factor for her family of four ahead of the election.

The interest rates on the Altona North home she shares with her husband Chris have increased by about $1700 a month since they purchased the property in 2021.

The Janetzkis used to shop at Woolworths or Coles but recently switched to Aldi to save money.

“Childcare costs are also a huge thing,” said Emma, whose children are aged three and five.

“Most people who put their kids in childcare are also paying off a mortgage, so it would be great to see more support for that.”

Emma, who plans to find out about the federal budget via social media or the news, said she would also like to see more support for schools, public transport and infrastructure.

She said her “ears will prick up” if the budget “mentions things that are going to affect families”.

Budget reaction: After reading several news articles on the federal budget, Emma said she was “pretty happy” about the government’s priorities.

She highlighted the $17.1 billion tipped into major construction projects over the next decade, including costs to upgrade highways and roads. Janetzki said her local area needed more schools and was pleased to see more funding for public education.

“I think that a lot of people would be happy with it [the budget] … addressing energy bills and schooling and general things that families would be happy with,” she said.

KEVIN ARMSTRONG

Retiree, 69, Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula

Pre-retirement income: $200,000

Retired barrister Kevin Armstrong is concerned about climate change and health-related commitments.Credit: PENNY STEPHENS

Budget wishlist: Armstrong, a retired barrister, is concerned by Labor’s attempt to increase tax on big superannuation balances and says he would consider voting for a candidate with a “greater emphasis on climate change”.

“I think retirees are still very much interested in climate change,” he said. “We worry about our children’s and grandchildren’s future.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the budget, for political reasons, doesn’t have the same focus [on climate change] as it has in previous budgets that were in better times – financially and less proximate to an election … but from a more objective analysis, I’d be disappointed.”

Armstrong said he could look after himself financially and was more focused on how policies, such as Labor’s abandoned efforts to change franking-credit and negative-gearing rules, would affect others.

“I think that’s long overdue and obviously politically sensitive issue, so it’s a measure of the government’s social conscience [if they try to address that].”

“I’m interested in the government’s attempts currently to levy some sort of increased taxation on those with excessive superannuation balances because I think that’s a distortion of the original intention of the scheme.”

Health funding is also a key focus for Armstrong, who has a series of “significant health concerns” that require him to regularly visit GPs and specialists.

But he isn’t sure he supports the government’s commitment – matched by the Coalition – of $8.5 billion for Medicare to encourage more doctors to bulk bill appointments.

“I thought that was a good thing, with the rider that … if you make it completely free, it’s a little more open to less important visits and use of dwindling GP resources,” Armstrong said.

Budget reaction: Armstrong wasn’t surprised by anything he heard from the treasurer and said climate policy continued to be the issue that would determine his vote. He was unhappy to hear nothing substantial about climate in Chalmers’ speech.

“I do like the urgent care clinics … which I think are important to relieve the pressure on hospitals,” he said. “[The budget] seems to cover all the areas that were talked about as being necessary for additional help,” he said of the tax cuts.

“The bottom line for me is that I think that of the last 75 budgets, only 12 have actually been in surplus. But if it’s a cost-of-living crisis, which we have, then there’s no way a government can avoid spending money. And I am prepared to accept a relatively modest deficit from what I can see, in order to provide that extra spending.”

SABINA FASSALOVA

Graphic designer/administration worker, 33, Sydney’s lower north shore

Income: $50,000 ($170,000 when combined with husband’s)

Sabina Fassalova works from home and enjoys the flexibility to look after her children, but believes the government isn’t doing enough to support mothers to rejoin the workforce.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers

Budget wishlist: The cost of childcare and housing are top of mind for Sabina Fassalova who works from home and immigrated to Australia from Russia with her husband about 12 years ago.

Fassalova made the shift to working from home when her first child was eight months’ old, and she decided she needed to get back to work but could not afford childcare.

With two children now aged three and five, Fassalova said she felt the federal government was not supporting women to get back into the workforce after they had children.

The government’s commitment to subsidise childcare three days a week would offer some relief, but not enough to properly support mothers, she said.

“In Russia, daycares are not private – they are public, like the schools. Obviously, we paid something, but not as much,” Fassalova said.

“You’re not going to make all the existing centres now public, I understand that, but maybe … the subsidy can be changed.”

The 33-year-old was happy with her current work, but felt limited in her ability to grow while childcare subsidies were based on income. That essentially meant any extra money she did make would be poured back into daycare, she said.

“I’m not motivated to look for a better job, to make more money, to pay more taxes because along with more taxes, I pay more for the daycare,” Fassalova said. “It’s a bit of a weird system, to be honest.”

Fassalova hoped for budget measures to control the price of housing because her rent is rising, but the quality of properties is not. They were paying about $625 a week in rent in 2022, and $800 a week in 2025.

“Right now, we have to live in a place with no parking spot because prices are going up, but what they’re offering is not getting any better,” Fassalova said.

She said was not wowed by any of the government’s budget announcements so far, and would consider voting for the opposition if they came out with better childcare and cost-of-living commitments.

Budget reaction: Fassalova said her feelings on the budget were mixed.

She was happy to hear about the healthcare boost, especially for women’s contraception and was also glad to learn that student loans for university students would be wiped by 20 per cent.

“I studied overseas so it doesn’t really impact me, but it’s really good news for all those students out there,” she said. She said the government’s commitment to subsidise childcare three days a week would offer some relief, but she wanted to see “more action” to help young families.

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