The Federal Treasurer, Scott Morrison, is a strong advocate of both cutting income taxes and reducing the budget deficit. These two goals appear contradictory, since reducing government revenue would lead to a larger budget deficit. The Treasurer gets around this by making exaggerated claims about the economic benefits of income tax cuts. While there may...

Estimates the extent of corporate wrong-doing in Australia. Summary A new report analysing findings from across several corporate regulatory bodies and related agencies finds widespread wrong-doing in the Australian private sector. Meanwhile the six major regulatory bodies and other agencies have seen 3,926 staff cut (or 14.9%) between the 2013-14 and 2015-16 budgets – meaning...

The Commonwealth Budget is typically the most important annual policy statement by the Government. This guide identifies information and key concepts that are used in the Budget Papers and other resources that are available to analyse the Budget. Contents What occurs on Budget night? What occurs after Budget night? What is in the Budget Papers...

The Charter of Budget Honesty Act 1998 (the Charter) outlines arrangements under which the Secretaries to the Treasury and the Department of Finance (the Secretaries) may be requested to cost election commitments during the caretaker period prior to a general election. The Charter also allows for the Secretaries to jointly issue written guidelines recommending approaches...

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews claims hospitals have been shortchanged by the federal Coalition Government's new three-year funding deal, which he says does not return billions of dollars taken from the states and territories by the 2014 budget.