Julie Bishop asks the UK to divert more aid to the Pacific after Brexit
Australia has cut its aid to a fraction of what the UK donates but now it wants its ally to devote more to the Pacific.
Federal Budget news
Australians don't want to spend more on foreign aid, admits minister
Julie Bishop has made massive cuts to the foreign aid budget and a junior minister has told a London audience why.
The political battle to address housing affordability is not over
John Alexander predicts a "war to come" unless the Turnbull government takes decisive action.
West Australia, Victoria gain in GST carve up at the expense of NSW
"Yet again, we are seeing the hardworking taxpayers of NSW being ripped off by a perverse and unfair distribution model".
The Turnbull government is mulling more cuts to overseas aid
“Surely not again" - Advocates call on the government to spare overseas aid further cuts
How much extra will you earn a year from personal income tax cuts?
How much would it cost to deliver personal income tax cuts worth more than a sandwich and a milkshake a week?
Malcolm Turnbull signals tax cuts as he fends off leadership questions
Tax promise comes as Prime Minister fends off leadership questions
Budget could be a 'poison pill', Deloitte Access Economics warns
A Turnbull government "battlers budget" risks undermining economic stability, a leading economic forecaster has warned, as the government lays the ground work for personal income tax cuts this year.
Cost of tax breaks soars on profits selling family homes
Government spending on tax breaks is set to hit a record $170 billion in 2017-18.
Why Treasury thought Turnbull was wrong on negative gearing
Malcolm Turnbull knew or ought to have known that the claims he made about Labor's housing policy were likely to be wrong.
Business will abandon Australia while we are at the beach, warns Morrison
Treasurer Scott Morrison has warned international companies will flee the country while Australians are sitting on the beach this summer in the wake of the biggest tax cut in US history.
Fresh push to ram through company tax cuts as economy lifts budget $10 billion
Fresh government forecasts have slashed $10 billion off federal deficits for the next four years, including $5.8 billion in the current financial year.
More money, but nowhere near enough to fund tax cuts
Scott Morrison wants you believe the budget's strong enough to fund tax cuts. It isn't, as the update makes that clear.
Turnbull government to release budget update a week before Christmas
Treasurer Scott Morrison will deliver a better than expected mid-year budget update a week before Christmas, as company profits and high employment figures stir the economy back to life.
Enormous rise in tax take to power return to surplus
Australia's return to budget surplus will be built on the back of a 14 per cent increase in the income tax take.
The fallacy of 'efficiency'
Without robust government, nothing stands between citizens and a rapacious corporate sector.
Happy birthday, GST – time to grow up and tax more food
There are still good people crunching the numbers to show that it would be possible to adequately compensate the disadvantaged while changing the GST mix and/or the rate.
When profits eat wages we all pay the price
It's too early to be sure, but not too early to suspect that, if we and the other developed economies keep travelling the way we are, conventional wisdom about what constitutes good economic policy may soon need to be turned on its head.
Chifley versus the banks
The big banks won the last great war against government interference, 70 years ago.
Our impoverished 'debate' on tax
When Australian leaders speak about tax, their words tend to be utter tosh.
We've forgotten why we spend public money
So much government aid goes to people who don't need it, and politicians seem helpless to stop it.
How the budget scare was $150 billion too big
Before the budget Treasurer promised 'good debt' and 'bad debt'. What we got was more sensible.
Meet the real high taxpayers. They're not high earners
The budget pushed low-income earners' marginal tax rate up towards 100 per cent.
Budget squeezes women without NDIS cover
The Turnbull government's budget measures may hit women earning below-average wages with an effective marginal tax rate of 100 per cent.
A long time ago, in a budget reality far away ...
The economic future that the Treasury has forecast for Australia is, sadly, a nonsense.
ScoMo's economic fairy tale doesn't add up
Scott Morrison's budget projections rely entirely on orthodox economic thinking about what drives wages. Unfortunately that orthodox thinking is demonstrably wrong.
Labor-lite budget ticks all the boxes for Turnbull
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For students of the politics of economics – my special subject – this clothes-pinching budget has been a feast. Oh no, it's "Labor-lite". Shocking! Actually, it's a budget that ticks all the boxes for Malcolm Turnbull and, by extension, his parliamentary followers – something their silent acquiescence suggests they realise.
ACT short-changed by federal budget, says Labor
The infrastructure budget doesn't even deliver the Coalition's pledged Barton Hwy upgrade, MP says.
'We should celebrate our victories': Albanese critiques Shorten's budget reply
Anthony Albanese says Labor should have claimed victory after Coalition's 'ideological surrender'.
The 2017 budget's inconvenient truth
Adjusted for tricks, there's no chance of a surplus for a long time.
The five pain points that wrote the budget
Repairing the damage of the Abbott Total Opposition years, will take time. But the budget is a big and quite calculated start.
Illusion of action in the absence of thoughtful policy
Scott Morrison's hit on banks shows his preference for stunts over meaningful policy development.
Liberals paying for Labor's bigger government, as usual
The Liberals have always been right to portray themselves as the party of smaller government.
Budget 2017: Insider trading fears grow over bank levy leak
Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson has joined calls for an investigation into the leaking of plans for a levy on Australia's biggest banks, saying it is possible insider trading took place.
The shocking reason budgets are soft on drinkers
Tobacco hurts men, alcohol hurts women. Surely that can't be why we're soft on drinkers?
Labor would force ATO to give details of deals it cuts with big business
Labor would require ATO to reveal details of companies the Tax Office cuts deals with as part of plan to recoup $5.4 billion from multinationals.
Will Scomo's big budget give a big economic push?
Will Scott Morrison's big spending, big taxing, big borrowing budget impart a big fiscal stimulus to the economy in the coming financial year? Not so much.
A budget for voters, not the common good
Unless we act seriously to preserve our threatened planet, all the budget's nuances will be meaningless.
Going for gold in the backflip olympics
The budget seems to have elevated hypocrisy and backtracking to new heights of shamelessness.
Coalition gives up responsible budgets ... until crisis hits
Spending will stay at or near record highs while revenue rapidly climbs to match.