The treasurer has locked in his third budget and on Tuesday night Australians will find out what's in it. Income tax cuts will be the main feature and there may be some help with energy bills, too. But Jim Chalmers insists the budget will show restraint.
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00:00 The budget has been printed, the economic forecasts finalised and expenditure decisions
00:08 locked in.
00:09 The Treasurer is promising it will show spending restraint.
00:13 There's a really sharp near-term focus on the inflation fight in this budget.
00:18 But also vowing to help those struggling with rising costs.
00:23 The biggest help?
00:24 The rejigged Stage 3 income tax cuts, which even the highest earners benefit from.
00:30 A tax cut for every taxpayer is the foundation stone of the cost of living help in this budget.
00:35 Not every taxpayer is doing it really tough right now.
00:38 But we've found other ways as well to provide cost of living help to people who might not
00:41 be in the tax system, for example.
00:44 The government hinting that last year's rebates on energy bills could be extended, which saw
00:49 some households get a $500 saving this year and small businesses up to $650.
00:57 There's also help with health costs, aimed at getting GPs to bulk bill more of their
01:02 patients and funding for more urgent care clinics to improve access to a doctor on weekends
01:09 and after hours.
01:10 Free of charge, all fully bulk billed and taking real pressure off our crowded hospital
01:16 emergency departments.
01:18 We have seen a government that loves to spend.
01:20 I mean, it's their natural instinct.
01:22 The Coalition says Labor has been relying on high commodity prices to pay for spending
01:28 instead of growing the economy.
01:31 They should make sure that the economy grows faster than spending and that's the exact
01:35 opposite of what we've seen in the last two years.
01:37 Different energy and industrial relations policies would spur economic growth, according
01:42 to the opposition, which it would use to fund more income tax cuts.
01:47 The federal government's long-term vision for the economy is to take advantage of the
01:51 manufacturing opportunities that come with the global shift towards net zero emissions.
01:57 That's the future made in Australia policy that will be fleshed out in detail in Tuesday
02:02 night's budget.
02:04 But before it can deliver on that, the government has to deal with the more immediate problems
02:08 of getting inflation and growth back on track.
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