Budget Reply 2025 summary - a lot of unanswered questions - Zoe Daniel

The Budget Reply

I said on Tuesday in response to the Budget that “you can smell an election in the air.” And now we have the Budget Reply.

After the Leader of the Opposition’s pitch for the top job tonight you can understand why so many Australians, including in Goldstein, voted for Independents at the last election.

Unfortunately, pre-election budgets and replies scattering goodies are commonplace in our major party-dominated parliament.

That goes for both sides.

And Australians see straight through them. It’s not the way to run our country.

This time, so far there is agreement on Medicare and PBS expansion including significant measures for women which I have been advocating for and are welcome. The electricity price rebate also has bipartisan support and is welcomed but is no panacea.

The Tax cuts announced in the Budget, a modest step to offset some bracket creep, have already been passed by Parliament but will now be repealed should a Coalition Government be elected.

They’ll be replaced with a cut to Fuel excise tax by half or 25.4 cents per litre for a year. This is pure politics. Petrol prices are not currently high compared to where they have been when similar measures have been previously applied, and the cut would add some $6b to the deficit.

Disadvantaging people who take public transport or drive fuel efficient, hybrid or electric cars is also totally inconsistent with any long-term objective of addressing climate change and speaks to an old school view of the economy which looks back not forward.

Speaking of which, I also said on Tuesday that the budget had few meaningful measures to address climate change, but the Coalition’s proposal is working in the opposite direction. This, through the cut in petrol excise and abolishing the Rewiring Australia Fund which is designed to roll out renewable energy.

Reliance on gas and nuclear makes no sense in our sun burnt land. Clearly leopards don’t change their spots. This is also poison for business which wants to invest but hates uncertainty.

The Opposition Leader also announced in the Budget Reply that if elected a Coalition Government would cut 41,000 civil servants – the number being the increase in the civil service since the 2022 election. Goldstein electors needing to access government services have noticed the improvement in government service delivery since staff levels have been reinstated. Thats good. Simply cutting civil service jobs makes no sense. We know many of these jobs have replaced expensive consultants or labour hire workers, so actual cost saving will not be automatic.

And let us not forget Robo Debt was a coalition government cost cutting measure which ended up costing taxpayers $1.8 billion while inflicting enormous damage on thousands of Australians. Billions were also spent on consultants under the previous coalition government’s watch. Mr Dutton saysin his Budget Reply that there will be no cuts to frontline service delivery though so that’s one to watch if the Coalition is elected.

400,000 new apprentices, sounds good, I would be likely to support that, although no mention of female opportunities there so needs more detail.

Toughening bail laws for domestic violence offenders, I’d like to hear more about what that means.

A police taskforce to tackle the behaviour of the CFMEU – it was me who first suggested that, so I do support it obviously.

Boosting youth mental health funding by $400 million, again, sounds promising but for what and where? Eating disorders?

As usual, a lot of unanswered questions.

Structure change whether of expenses or revenue needs to be thought through and well planned before implementation.

I have been calling for a sensible discussion of the state of government finances and the tax system’s over reliance on income tax even before I was elected. With deficits now forecast for the next decade, and neither major party seriously discussing structural change, the need for that discussion is now greater than ever!

Zoe