Treasurer warns: hard days are sure to come

JIM’S handyman service arrived at the House last night, promising a suite of repairs to get the budget back on track. But sadly for families around Australia, no end to the pain of rising power and gas prices or petrol pump pain is in sight.

Instead, Treasurer Chalmers’ first budget warned of “hard days to come” with no cost of living sweeteners on the table.

“Australians know there are hard days to come, and hard decisions to accompany them,” Mr Chalmers said.

“This is a responsible budget that is right for the times and readies us for the future. And it begins the hard yards of budget repair.”

He confidently focused on a New Housing Accord, tasked with building one million new, well-located homes over five years from 2024, with supply to come from the market rather than the government.

To kick it off, the Budget commits an initial $350m for additional funding for another 10,000 new affordable homes.

Parents will prove to be the biggest winners of this budget with a $531.6m commitment over the next four years to allow couples to be assessed on a combined income of up to $350,000 to be eligible for the Commonwealth’s paid parental leave scheme.

The treasurer had said cheaper childcare would be the “biggest on-budget commitment” in line with Labor’s cornerstone pre-election cost cut promise.

A key theme of the treasurer’s delivery last night centred on “a harsh land” of “resilient” people. That resilience will be put to the test in the immediate future with no forseeable houeshold relief on the horizon.