The federal government’s 2015 budget has done little to restore confidence in the government’s support for science in Australia.
Articles on Federal Budget 2015
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Various studies, culminating in the final evaluation report of income management in the Northern Territory, have found such programs don’t achieve the claimed benefits. Why did the budget extend them?
Within three years, Australians will face a $100 billion bill just to cover the age pension and super tax breaks. That bill is set to keep rising; by 2025, one in three of us will be 55-plus.
A government office to support teaching has been put out to tender, but will the university that wins the contract be fair in doling out funds and projects?
Last week’s giveaway budget has received the thumbs up from voters and boosted Tony Abbott’s personal rating.
Australia has cut aid to Indonesia by 40%. That may cause diplomatic displeasure, but the country has restructured its development programs in recent years to be less dependent on foreign money.
The more the 2015 arts budget is examined the less sense it makes. The changes contribute little strategically or politically – they just make an entire sector nervous. And culturally, they will improve nothing.
After the controversy surrounding the GP co-payment last year, delivering a boring or “small-target” budget this time around was clearly deliberate. But we shouldn’t gloss over it too quickly.
Amid talk of paths to surplus and investing in infrastructure, both sides of politics seem to have forgotten Australia’s longstanding responsibility to govern sustainably, and not just for the economy.
Joe Hockey’s second budget has two large deficits: the fiscal one, plus the lack of a coherent and creative plan for Australia. The Abbott government failed to ‘have a go’ at building the future.
Despite significant budgetary constraints, the government announced in Tuesday’s budget that a further A$450 million in counter-terrorism strategies. But something significant is lacking in its approach.
You could be forgiven for thinking that education was left largely untouched in Tuesday’s federal budget. But the tinkerings to last year’s education budget still mean a “fail” for education funding.
A budget speech that fails to discuss basic measures of how the economy going is revealing in itself. Joe Hockey is the first treasurer since at least 1981 not to mention GDP.
The government’s new paid parental leave could also have the effect of limiting conditions for public sector workers.
Tucked away in the budget papers is an intitiative worthy of applause – the establishment of an adult immunisation register and the expansion of the childhood register to include adolescents.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten has called for a bipartisan push to reduce the company tax rate for small business from the budget’s promised 28.5% to 25%.
Climate change should have been tackled and investment and jobs in the renewable energy sector protected in the budget, new Greens leader Richard Di Natale said in his budget reply.
Despite numerous leaks about impending changes to medicines policy, the budget showed savings of just $252.2 million over five years from adjusting the price of a small number of PBS-listed drugs.
The government is counting on bracket creep to quietly add to its tax collections. But this is simply taxation by stealth.
The 2015 budget poses significant challenges to the arts sector. So why won’t cultural leaders stand up and advocate for the sector?
Top contributors
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Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
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Scientia Professor of Economics, UNSW
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Vice-Chancellor's professorial fellow, Monash University
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Dean of Business School, University of Southern Queensland
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Chief executive officer, Grattan Institute
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Emeritus Professor, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University
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Visiting Professor of Tax Law, New York University, and Professor of Law, The University of Melbourne
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Professorial Fellow, Jumbunna IHL, University of Technology Sydney
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Professor of Health Economics, University of Technology Sydney
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Fellow, University of Technology Sydney
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Director of Online Programs, AGSM, UNSW
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Lecturer in International Relations, Binus University
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Honorary Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of Melbourne
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Lecturer, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University
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Professor, Department of Economics, The University of Melbourne