There will be energy bill relief and a cap on the price of medicines at the treasurer’s big reveal on Tuesday, but Australia is heading back into deficitSee all our Australian election 2025 coverageGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will hand down his fourth budget on Tuesday, which doubles as a launchpad for the Albanese government’s re-election campaign.Ahead of the big reveal at 7.30pm on Tuesday, here’s a rundown of what we know so far. Continue reading…There will be energy bill relief and a cap on the price of medicines at the treasurer’s big reveal on Tuesday, but Australia is heading back into deficitSee all our Australian election 2025 coverageGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will hand down his fourth budget on Tuesday, which doubles as a launchpad for the Albanese government’s re-election campaign.Ahead of the big reveal at 7.30pm on Tuesday, here’s a rundown of what we know so far. Continue reading…
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will hand down his fourth budget on Tuesday, which doubles as a launchpad for the Albanese government’s re-election campaign.
Ahead of the big reveal at 7.30pm on Tuesday, here’s a rundown of what we know so far.
Back in red
Chalmers has overseen back-to-back surpluses as booming commodity prices and a strong labour market filled up federal coffers.
Those days are over, with the budget to confirm a return to deficit this year and for the foreseeable future.
December’s mid-year budget update forecast a $26.9bn deficit in 2024-25, before growing to $46.9bn in 2025-26.
Labor is trumpeting progress in reducing gross debt, which is expected to be $940bn in 2024-25 – compared with $1.1tn forecast at the time of the 2022 election.
It has also found another $2.1bn in savings, $720m of which has come from cutting back on the use of consultants.
Power bill relief
Households and small businesses will get a further $150 off their energy bills from 1 July under a pre-budget announcement made over the weekend.
The $1.8bn measure – which the Coalition quickly matched – extends the bill relief until the end of 2025, with the $300 rebates announced in last year’s budget due to expire on 30 June.
Health
The biggest budget commitment (that we know of) came in February when Anthony Albanese unveiled an $8.5bn boost to Medicare, which includes a bulk-billing target of nine out of 10 GP visits by 2030.
Labor has committed to limit the price of medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to no more than $25 a script, at a cost to the budget of $689m, as well as $573m for women’s health.
The Coalition has matched each of the spending commitments.
Defence
The defence minister, Richard Marles, has confirmed $1bn in military spending would be brought forward, bringing the total allocated over the next four years to $10.6bn.
That amount is part of $50bn in planned defence spending over the decade.
Housing
Labor is pouring an extra $800m into its Help to Buy shared-equity housing scheme to assist more young Australians in entering the property market.
The states and territories will also be offered almost $50m in funding to grow their local prefabrication and modular housing industries.
Beer
The indexation of the draught beer excise will be paused for two years in a measure that will cost the budget about $95m over four years but have a negligible impact on the price of a pint.
Infrastructure and industry
With his first announcement of the 2025 election year, Albanese pledged $7.2bn for upgrades to the Bruce Highway in Queensland. The federal government will fund 80% of the works, with the state funding 20%.
The commonwealth is also partnering with the South Australian government on a $2.4bn package to save the troubled Whyalla steelworks.