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Budget 2016 Live from Parliament House

Here we go with Treasurer Scott Morrison's budget speech live to Parliament.

Stephanie Peatling
Updated ,first published
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Okay, time for me to wrap up. What happened?

  • Treasurer Scott Morrison has delivered an election eve budget;
  • there were changes to superannuation that will affect the top four per cent of income earners;
  • tax cuts for business;
  • and a small personal tax cut that raises the third income tax bracket from $80,001 to a new threshold of $87,001;
  • the government says it is a responsible budget but the opposition says it is rewarding the big end of town while doing nothing for the majority of families.

The election battlelines have been drawn.

My thanks to the always magnificent Andrew Meares and Alex Ellinghausen and to you for reading and commenting.

You can follow me on Facebook.

Andrew, Alex and I will be back in the morning to see how the chips are falling. We hope to have your company then.

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Let me point you in the direction of some analysis and comment about the budget from Fairfax Media's economics boffins.

The Sydney Morning Herald's redoubtable economics editor, Ross Gittins, says it "involves a lot of imminent election tidying up of loose ends from projects the government has supposedly been working on for three years, plus much squaring away of key interest groups".

Jessica Irvine says it contains "pennies for the rich" but that is better than what was received by many people.

Columnist Malcolm Maiden writes that the government's "strategic task is to have a plan to get Australia's budget deficits under control, in time. The new budget has some holes in it in that respect, but is at least marketable".

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Last Morrison family photo.

Treasurer Scott Morrison with his family after he delivered the budget speech on Tuesday.Alex Ellinghausen
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Okay this has been bugging me since question time but I can now clarify it. In the 3.17 pm post I said Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the government would close 17 detention centres. Several people pointed out that there are not 17 detention centres to close.

I have now checked Mr Dutton's budget press release which says the success of Operation Sovereign Borders means the government can "close four additional detention facilities, achieving savings of $39.1 million over four years".

"This will take the total number of detention facility closures by this government to 17," his press release says.

My apologies. I - clearly - was not listening closely enough.

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Should you care to do so you can read Mr Morrison's speech in full here.

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"Never before has a federal budget - especially one crafted in such tricky fiscal and economic circumstances - been called on to do so much of the political heavy lifting," chief political correspondent Mark Kenny writes in his analysis of the budget.

"By lining up the federal budget and then the federal election in such rapid succession, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison have chosen a manoeuvre with a high degree of difficulty. The risks are real because failure in stage one begets a potential disaster in stage two."

Treasurer Scott Morrison is congratulated by his colleagues after he delivered the budget speech on Tuesday.Alex Ellinghausen
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So sweet.

Treasurer Scott Morrison is hugged by his daughters, Lily and Abbey, after he gave the budget address on Tuesday.Andrew Meares
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She was not disappointed.

Treasurer Scott Morrison is hugged by his daughter after he gave the budget address on Tuesday.Andrew Meares
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One of Mr Morrison's daughters could not wait to give the speech her endorsement.

Treasurer Scott Morrison is hugged by his daughter after he gave the budget address on Tuesday.Andrew Meares
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Big business, however, is happy.

"Australians are facing a choice between muddling along and accepting lower living standards, or seizing higher living standards which come from a budget which is not in permanent deficit and which supports a stronger economy," the chief executive of the Business Council of Australia, Jennifer Westacott, said in a statement.

"The best way to boost growth now is giving businesses greater capacity to invest in more productive enterprises, and giving workers a better reward for their effort. By acting now to carefully move towards more competitive business taxes and making inroads on bracket creep on individuals the government has given the economy a much needed shot in the arm."

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