It’s budget time again, with all its rituals and hoopla. For many Australians, it might be the only time they really focus on politics in a (non-election) year.
This year, as in 2016 and 2019, the government is using the budget as a springboard for its election campaign. It’s expected to announce the poll date shortly after budget night, since the election must be held by late May.
“I know people think budgets are pretty dry things,” former treasurer and prime minister Paul Keating said in a post-budget address in 1995. “I suppose they are, but they do get your blood racing on occasions.”
But what is the budget trying to do? Why does it matter, and whose blood gets racing when it goes right – or spectacularly wrong?