It was great to see some of Howard's welfare to the rich removed or reduced--the Financial Review lauds Labor's restructuring of the Budget leading towards structural budget surpluses as the economy recovers. I would have liked to see a bit more of that to fund an increase in unemployment benefits which would be very stimulatory--can't really save on the dole, need to spend pretty much everything you get. Loved the extra Uni places and help for Uni students.
Dunno if tax thresholds were increased, if not the budget will benefit from bracket creep.
Yes, my state did well. The long runs N & S of the railway will be lengthened in the south, Noarlunga line to be extended to Seaford and up north around Gawler work will be done to improve the line and the whole N-S line will be electrified.
Hehehehe Greens whinge Rudd not working hard enough on Global Warming, but electric not diesel trains, and the longer southern line will mean a reduction in emissions of GHG
Access Economics would like to see lots more savings. These people were trenchant critics of Costello, pointing out all Tip's budgets were structurally in deficit and calling for reform of the budget structure, and this would have been much easier in the boom years when confidence, and that would be helping us now: with all those tax cuts to the upper brackets company tax became much more important than previous in the make up of tax receipts and the collapse of the mining boom caused the rapid and radical collapse of tax revenue we have seen.
Could Swan have done more? I would have loved seeing the tax cuts postponed and the baby bonus removed. In practice I think he has done nearly as well as can be expected in these difficult times.
