Australian news and politics live: Treasurer Jim Chalmers defends Budget and Labor’s sense of progress

Australia’s newspaper editors have cast their verdict on the federal budget, and if they were presiding over courts of law, the defendant would be sent down.

The predominant view was that the budget is financially irresponsible because it will spend $42 billion more than it raises next financial year. Most editors feel the $17 billion tax cuts over three years are too small to make much of a difference to Australians’ lives.

They complained that the government did not use the budget to try and fix up many of Australia’s problems, including ever-rising taxation thanks to inflation, and housing that is too expensive for many.

The West Australian, The Nightly’s sister paper, asked, “Is that really the best they could come up with?”

The Australian, a right-wing paper controlled by the Murdoch family, said it “lacked ambition”.

The journalist overseeing editorials at Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, James Morrow, argued in a headline: “If Labor wins election, they’ll lock in larger government forever.”

Read the full summary.

The Albanese Government is hoping to push through a vote in both chambers today on its Budget tax cuts but this will depend on the crossbench.

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor has given an impromptu speech on the legislation that continued his messaging from the list of interviews he did last night and this morning – “the tax cuts are a hoax”, “the budget is only for the next five weeks”, “Labor doesn’t know what it’s doing”.

The Prime Minister Albanese says Labor has a cohesive strategy to strengthen the economy while looking after people.

“After I speak I look forward to the Leader of the Opposition explaining why he doesn’t support tax cuts for working Australians,” he told Parliament.

“The only cut he doesn’t want is a cut to people’s taxes. That’s the only cut he doesn’t like.”

In an attempt to connect with the youth vote and potentially some of the social media influencers invited into yesterday’s Budget lockdown, Mr Albanese added the Coalition are “delulu with no solulu” referring to a GenZ expression explaining that - being delusional is their only solution.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers is speaking now in the House of Representatives, where he’s officially sought to wedge the Coalition on newly announced tax cuts.

Having introduced a Bill to legislate the $17b worth of cuts, the Coalition will be forced to vote later today.

Given the Coalition has branded the cuts - which will mean the average earner pays $268 less in tax next year - a “cruel hoax” and an “election bribe” and will oppose them, this is a political move ahead of the looming federal election.

“To vote against this legislation would be to stand against more cost of living relief that Australians need and deserve,” Dr Chalmers said in the chamber.

​Read Ellen Ransley’s story​

Anthony Albanese says his weekend is looking “pretty good”, but would not be drawn on speculation that he may call the Federal election within days.

Sunrise Host Natalie Barr asked if the Prime Minister was planning a drive to go and see the Governor General, the first step in calling a Federal election.

“I’m not allowed to drive, Nat, under the rules, but I do get driven around,” Mr Albanese joked.

“We will wait and see.

“I make this point. This time last year, Peter Dutton was demanding an election to stop Australians getting a tax cut. A tax cut that has resulted in more dollars in people’s pockets over the last year.”

The Prime Minister brushed off criticism over tax cuts for rich Australians, saying it’s just how the system works.

“It’s the way the tax system works,” Mr Albanese said on Sunrise.

“You can’t have tax cuts for a rate that kicks in and then somehow stops by lowering the tax rate at that first rate.

“We are deliberately and consciously giving a tax cut to every Australian taxpayer, but proportionately, of course, it makes a bigger difference for people on low and middle-income earners.

“That is precisely what we’ve done.

So, the average earners will receive, with this top-up of the tax cuts, around 2,500 extra in their pockets, at the same time as real wages are increasing.

“We’ve got inflation down to the lower half of the Reserve Bank band of 2.4 per cent.

“It was 6 per cent and rising when we came to office.

“That’s been hard work.

“That’s been the $95 billion of savings that we’ve made, the $180 billion improvement to the bottom line, the $207 billion improvement to the bottom line we’ve made going forward,

Mr Albanese said Labor was “creating the space” to get Australian kids “through our better and fairer schools plan”.

“The support for childcare, that is there with the abolition of the activity test and the three-day childcare guarantee. Free TAFE that we will continue to roll out as well.

“We’ve got inflation going down. We’ve got real wages going up,” Mr Albanese told Sunrise.

“We have tax cuts for every Australian so that people can earn more and keep more of what they earn.

“Peter Dutton has a $600 billion nuclear plan that will be paid for by cuts to education and health.

“He supports cutting everything about your taxes,” Mr Albanese claimed.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has fronted up after Treasurer Jim Chalmers delivered his fourth Budget of Labor’s term, addressing the Coalition’s slamming of his Government’s fiscal policy.

“They’re completely wrong. They continue to oppose everything,” Mr Albanese said on Sunrise.

“This year is a Budget that sets Australia up.

“It provides for cost-of-living relief in the form of tax cuts, building on the tax cuts that came in this year, but also energy bill relief, cheaper medicines and free TAFE going forward.

“(The Budget) also has comprehensive plans to strengthen Medicare through our tripling of the bulk-billing incentive and additional urgent care clinics. The urgent funding.

“You have been speaking on the program year after year after year about fairer and better funding for public schools. We’re delivering it,” Mr Albanese told Sunrise Host Natalie Barr.

“The Gonski reforms that were talked about for so long, 15 years in the waiting. Now we’ve delivered it and the funding is there in this Budget as well as making more things here in Australia, more manufacturing, more jobs.

“Australia is turning the corner due to the hard work that Australians have done.”

The Treasurer has responded to a $17 billion hole in the budget, as cigarette taxes collapse amid a growing illegal tobacco trade.

“What we’ve done with vapes is make it harder for kids to get their hands on them,” Dr Chalmers told Sunrise.

“We’re worried about kids using vapes as a gateway to cigarettes.

“There’s been a hit to tobacco excise.

“Two reasons, more people giving up, more people avoiding the excise, that’s a bad thing.

“New resources are in the budget for compliance and enforcement.

“We have an issue when it comes to the enforcement of the tax. We’re taking steps where we can to try to fix that.”

Dr Chalmers says the Government is doing what it can to take “the sting” out of electricity bills as relief is provided without a fix being applied to the cause.

“What we showed last year is (that) by providing these energy rebates, we can take some of the sting out of the energy bills, which are impacting people right around the world,” Dr Chalmers said on Sunrise.

“We do what we responsibly can.

“We have to make sure that the cost-of-living relief is affordable.

“That’s why we’re providing another six months of these energy rebates rather than 12.

“That’s why we’ve sequenced the tax cuts that we have, because the budget is a responsible budget, it’s all about helping people with the cost of living and strengthening Medicare and building Australia’s future.

“It’s delivered in the context of a remarkable improvement in the budget in the economy over the last three years.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has defended his $5 tax cuts, which have been described as enough for a coffee or a McDonald’s Happy Meal.

When asked if he thought the $5 was enough, Dr Chalmers said: “Well, it’s more than that”.

“There are two rounds of additional tax cuts and together with the tax cuts which are flowing now, the average is about $50 a week, $10 additional in last night’s budget,” Dr Chalmers said on Sunrise.

“We need to be responsible.”

However, Sunrise host Natalie Barr questioned how responsible The Budget was, pointing out Australians earning $1 million a year still get the Treasurer’s tax cuts.

“When you cut the bottom rate of taxes, it flows through up and down the system, but proportionately it applies to people who need it the most,” Dr Chalmers said.

“The biggest proportionate impact is people on relatively modest incomes, young people, people entering the workforce for the first time, and that’s deliberate.”

Pressing the treasurer further, Barr asked why the Government didn’t cut it off at a threshold, allowing that money to be used elsewhere.

“Because the only simple and effective way to do that would be to provide it in people’s tax returns,” Dr Chalmers said.

“That’s the only way you can limit it up the tax scale.

“We wanted to make sure this was a permanent ongoing benefit.

“What we’re doing is topping up the tax cuts which are already flowing to every Australian taxpayer to provide that cost-of-living relief.”