And that is where we are going to end tonight, before we all turn into pumpkins.
But don’t worry, we’ll be back early tomorrow morning for all the fallout. Plus, you know, parliament.
We are itching closer to the election being called, which I am sure you can all feel in your waters now, given the big spending sweetener budget. It’s almost like the budget emergency of 2014 wasn’t actually a thing!
A massive thank you to Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp, Greg Jericho, Gabrielle Chan and Mike Bowers for everything they do. Special mention to Chris Knaus and the rest of the Guardian brains trust for pulling all of this together. It is literally a mission and I don’t think we can ever actually explain what it is like.
We’ll be back in just a few short hours. Thank you for following along with us today – and as always, take care of you.
Josh Frydenberg is congratulated by Scott Morrison after he delivered the 2019 budget. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
It's been a very important Budget for the people of Warringah and the Northern Beaches. Proud of the work the Liberal Party has done to deliver essential funding for the projects our community needs most. #Budget2019#BuildingOurEconomypic.twitter.com/x6F1z9WBI9
By the way, there is only $400k for an electric car strategy, but $11m in luxury car tax rebates. There is also an extra $1.8 billion in fossil fuel subsidies to Gina Rinehart and her mates.#Greens#Budget2019
The Law Council of Australia chief executive, Arthur Moses, is furious at the lack of money in community legal centres. Community legal services, which provide legal support and advocacy to low-income Australians, are already desperately underfunded.
A 2014 Productivity Commission report on access to justice found legal assistance services were already struggling to meet demand, with overstretched resources.
The Productivity Commission recommended federal and state governments provide an extra $200m each year to help the sector meet demand.
But Tuesday’s budget provided only a $20m increase.
“14% of Australians live below the poverty line, yet only 8% qualify for legal aid,” Moses said.
“You cannot have two classes of justice in this country – one for those who can afford it, and one for those can’t.”
Aboriginal organisations have expressed frustration with the budget, asking why there are tax cuts while there’s a $129m expansion of the controversial cashless debit card.
Aboriginal health organisations have expressed frustration that there’s $12m in the budget for a Captain Cook memorial, but only $15m to address Indigenous youth suicide.
“We welcome 15m for suicide prevention but that amount is just a starting point, and we have no detail on how it will be allocated,” chair of Naccho (the National Aboriginal community controlled health organisation) Donnella Mills said.
“The treasurer kept on about how we are geared towards surplus. We need to focus on the most vulnerable and marginalised in our community, but this budget does nothing for my mob.
“I don’t need another reminder that colonisation is still living. I don’t need to be reminded of that; we see it every day. I need to be reminded of the Uluru statement from the heart.
“It just shows we have a long way to travel toward real equity and real social justice outcomes.”
The Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Sally Loane, chief executive officer of the Financial Services Council, welcomed the surplus as well as the increased funding of $550m over four years for the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
She alss welcomed the changes to superannuation that allow people aged 65 and 66 to make contributions without meeting the current work test.
“We welcome the fact that older workers do exist in Australia, people are working well into their sixties so they have been given some flexibility in putting more money into superannuation,” Loane said.
Paul Vesteege, of the Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association, said the “tax cut was the unkindest cut of all”.
“$158bn over ten years will be ripped out of the public purse to give tax cuts to people who are working while Australia’s social services are fraying at the edges – they are threadbare,” he said.
He said the government failed to address aged care, the home care package waiting list, any public dental schemes, affordable housing and ignored the gross inadequacy of Newstart.
Mark Purcell, of the Australian Council for International Development, said the budget confirmed the Australian aid program continues to freefall and Australia’s relations with Asia were at risk because of the decline.
“What’s really worrying is the government’s Pacific step-up seems to be built on a policy of losing Asia,” Purcell said.
“Australia’s aid is not just about alleviating poverty but it’s about investment in good relations in the region.”
The budget confirms net debt has more than doubled on the Liberals’ watch (up from $175 billion in 2013 to $373.5 billion this year). Net debt under the Liberals amounts to nearly $15,000 for every person in Australia. After doubling the debt, their promise to pay it down is laughable.
The Liberals will say anything over the next six weeks to cover up for six years of cuts and chaos.
Labor will support the tax cuts that begin on 1 July for working and middle class people – this is essentially a copy of what we proposed last year, and they are simply catching up to us.
But the Liberals are so out of touch that they’ve given a much smaller tax cut to two million Australians earning less than $40,000. Labor will fix this and give these working people the tax relief they deserve.
A composite image of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen. Photograph: MICK TSIKAS/JOEL CARRET/AAP
The official line from the government, as per the press release from Josh Frydenberg and Mathias Cormann, is:
The budget is back in the black, with the Morrison government delivering the first budget surplus in more than a decade.
This year will see a surplus of $7.1 billion. A $55.5 billion turnaround from the deficit we inherited six years ago.
In 2020-21, a surplus of $11.0 billion.
In 2021-22, a surplus of $17.8 billion.
In 2022-23, a surplus of $9.2 billion.
A total of $45 billion of surpluses over the next four years.
Surpluses will continue to build toward one per cent of GDP within a decade.
Through disciplined budget management Australia is again well-positioned to respond to challenges both here and abroad.
A strong economy means we can deliver lower taxes, guarantee essential services, invest in congestion‑busting infrastructure and keep Australians safe and secure.
And with the budget moving into surplus, it means the government is strengthening its commitment to pay down debt.
The government is reducing debt, not through higher taxes, but by good budget management and growing the economy.
By paying down debt, the government will put the nation’s finances on a more sustainable footing and reduce the burden on future generations. Net debt is projected to be eliminated by 2029-30.
Reducing debt will ensure that the next generation does not pick up the tab for the last.
In delivering a surplus budget, the government’s economic plan is giving Australians more opportunities, and creating a stronger economy.
Kelly O’Shanassy, chief executive of the Australian Conservation Foundation, says the budget has comprehensively failed to take action on climate change. She says spending on climate action is still inadequate.
The ACF says the budget spends $4.36 on subsidising polluting activities for every dollar it spent on climate action.
“Since 2013, the Coalition government, for every dollar they have spent on climate action, they’ve spent $2.45 on subsidising climate pollution, mainly through subsidising the use of diesel fuel.
“In this budget tonight, in the next year, for every dollar that the Coalition will spend on climate action, they will spend $4.36 on subsidising climate pollution.”
An inflatable planet earth is bounced around the crowd during a Climate Change Awareness rally at Sydney Town Hall. Photograph: Don Arnold/Getty Images
Foreign aid is going up ... and then it’s going down again, more than it went up.
The budget papers reveal foreign aid expenditure is expected to increase in real terms by 6.6% from this financial year, 2019-20, before decreasing by 11.8% between 2019-20 and 2022-23.
Foreign aid has been a vexed issue among non-government organisations who have criticised successive cuts or cuts to planned increases by successive governments.
This year’s budget revealed the $2bn Australian infrastructure financing facility for the Pacific will be funded out of the aid budget.
The money is being redirected away from Asia to fund Australia’s push in the Pacific, which is now taking an unprecedented 35% of the aid budget.
Pakistan the worst hit with bilateral program more than halved. Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Nepal also cut.
The government pledged last year to maintain foreign aid spending at $4bn annually, before recommencing indexation in 2022-23.
Chief executive of the Australian Council for International Development, Marc Purcell, told Guardian Australia before the budget he expected a steady overall decline, which would put Australia even further away from international goals to commit 0.7% of gross national income to foreign aid. Some countries, such as the UK, have already achieved the goal but Australia has dropped in the rankings of OECD countries from 13th to 19th.
He said the establishment of projects like the infrastructure facility - which was given an additional $12.7m over the forward estimates in the budget – put us at risk of losing influence in Asia.
The budget said the dramatic changes year-on-year reflected the payment cycles of Australia’s contributions to multilateral funds such as the Asian Development Fund and the World Bank’s International Development Association.
The Department of Foreign affairs’ statements reveal this year had $76.7m in multilateral payments, while the following three years required more than $1.86bn.
Finance minister Matthias Cormann had previously flagged around $80bn in savings from the foreign aid budget between now and 2028-29.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale has given the budget an F for fail on climate change.
“We are facing an existential threat and the government can’t even bring themselves to commit anything when it comes to tackling the climate challenge.”
He said the $189m committed over four years from the climate fund was an insult to scientists who are trying to understand the changing climate.
“A few bucks on electric vehicles doesn’t make a climate policy. We need to spend billions to modernise our grid to take advantage of renewable energy resources.
“This is a huge failure by the government. There is no plan, no vision.”
Greens leader Senator Richard Di Natale. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
An overall environment budget of $900 million for 2019-20.
$40 billion for the diesel fuel tax credit subsidy across the forward estimates, nine times the total budget for the environment.
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) said budget 2019-20 fails by devaluing the environment that sustains all Australians, while increasing the climate-damaging diesel subsidy and paving the way for public money to be used to support coal and gas projects.
ACF’s chief executive officer, Kelly O’Shanassy, said since 2013-14 investment in protecting and restoring the environment has been cut by nearly 40 per cent, while the overall federal budget has grown by 17 per cent.
“While Australians live through multiple environmental crises – record-breaking heatwaves, bushfires in forests that were considered too wet to burn, a million fish dead in the Darling River and mass bleaching on the Barrier Reef – the proportion of the overall budget invested in the environment is just 0.2 cents on the dollar,” Ms O’Shanassy said.
“This budget devalues the environment that sustains all Australians, while paving the way for public money to be used to support new coal and gas projects and boosting fossil fuel subsidies. Coal mining companies alone will receive more than $1.5 billion a year in diesel fuel subsidies over the forward estimates.
“In this budget the government plans to spend $4.36 subsidising pollution for every dollar it spends on climate action.
“We welcome new investment in the emissions reduction fund, but the scheme needs an overhaul to get rid of rules that allow payments to big companies to burn more fossil fuels. Renaming it the climate solutions fund is no substitute for substantial policies like regulations, caps and trading schemes. Five years of rising emissions are testament to that.
Adrian Pisarski, of National Shelter, said while the government was giving away tax cuts, there was no money for new social housing for the 500,000 Australians who need it. “This budget does bugger all for those who need it,” he said.
Ian Yates, chief executive of the Council on the Ageing, said the budget was missing vital action to address the waiting list for home care packages, increase the Newstart rate, support oral dental health or review retirement incomes.
“These are four gaping holes for people who are ageing,” he said.
Michele O’Neil, president of the ACTU, said the Coalition had failed to do anything to address loopholes and rorts.
“We have a tax system which means [of] the very largest companies in this country, one in three of them paid no tax last year. The budget does nothing to address that.
“We also have a tax system where 69 people who earned over a million dollars last year paid $0 tax, not even the Medicare levy.
“It fails to address the fact that we have had stagnant wages for the last six years.” O’Neil said a living wage would set a standard to improve wages, as would an improvement in the bargaining system to allow workers to come together and bargain.
Christmas Island detention centre to close just weeks after it was opened
The government has announced it is going to close Christmas Island, just weeks after opening it, and before it has received a single refugee or asylum seeker.
And it turns out that, despite the blusterous pronouncements when the medevac bill passed, it’s not costing anywhere near $1.4bn. The government reopened the detention centre earlier this year in reaction to the passing of the medical evacuation bill ensuring refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru could be evacuated to Australia for treatment if required.
The bill sparked furious partisan disagreements over Australia’s medical obligations to those it sent to offshore processing centres, as well as border security and asylum seeker policy.
Tuesday’s budget reiterated the government’s intention to repeal the bill, and also announced it would close the centre before 1 July.
A view of the Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre, Christmas Island. Photograph: Andrea Hayward/EPA
“Any illegal maritime arrivals on Christmas Island will be returned to Nauru and Papua New Guinea, and the… detention centre will be returned to a contingency setting,” it said.
The government’s health contractor, IHMS, has been engaged to provide health workers and specialists on the island – where limited services exist.
At the time the centre was reopened, the government claimed the cost would run to $1.4bn over four years.
But the budget papers revealed the cost of that to be $161.4m this financial year, and $23.7m next financial year – taking into account the plan to close the centre.
The budget includes $178.9m to manage the transfer of people from Nauru and Manus Island to Christmas Island for treatment, $3.2m to increase the presence of Australian federal police on the island, and another $3m to “reinforce” the Operation Sovereign Borders offshore strategic communications campaign.
Buzzfeed reports $106m of the cost is on garrison and welfare services (including healthcare, which isn’t treating anyone yet, and won’t be made available to Christmas Island residents).
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