This report gives interested readers greater access to the complex workings of the Defence budget and promotes informed debate on Defence budget issues. Introduction And so it begins. Not with a bang but with a whimper. Despite the fanfare accompanying the release of the 2016 Defence White Paper, defence spending will decline by 0.5% in...

Two weeks into the 2016 election, Labor Opposition health spokeswoman Catherine King claims the Government has cut billions from public hospital funding.

Labor Opposition Leader Bill Shorten claims the 2016 federal budget will boost the take-home pay of millionaires while cutting payments for working mums, arguing that a mother earning $65,000 with two kids at high school would lose more than $4,500 in gov

This opening statement provides an update on forecasts for the Australian economy contained in the 2016-17 Budget Estimates. The Budget forecasts indicate that the Australian economy continues to transition from mining investment-led growth to broader-based growth. But real GDP growth is forecast to be below potential over the next two years at 2½ per cent...

In his official Budget reply address last night, Bill Shorten laid out Labor's plan to get the country moving in the wake of the mining boom. It's an agenda with an emphasis on education and clean energy. The Opposition leader rejected the Government's Budget blueprint of investing in small-to-medium businesses and giving tax cuts to...