There is one thing you can say about Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s third budget: it’s not all bad.

Gone is the debt and deficit bogeyman and there is some welcome new, albeit insufficient, resources being put into aged care, childcare and mental health.

Some other small measures were welcome: at last some money for an FOI commisioner and the expansion of the Pension Loan Scheme, as advocated by the Australia Institute.

But the big thing missing was tax reform.

To set Australia up for the future and build a stronger government capable of tackling the challenges of our age we need a stronger and fairer revenue base. Instead we got the band-aid extension of the Low and Middle Income Earner Tax Offset (LMITO) and further business incentives.

Too many tax reforms have been taken off the political table. Resource tax reform, wealth tax reform, property tax reform and carbon pricing have been put in the ‘too hard’ basket.

A fairer and simpler tax system would wind back tax concessions; tackle inequities; ensure public goods are supported; discourage polluting and destructive activities; and collect more revenue more fairly.

On any of these measure the budget has failed.

Economics

• Budget Overview by Matt Grudnoff
• The fiscal cliff has arrived by David Richardson
• Did business get their company tax cut after all? by David Richardson
• Women, what are we going to do about them? by Eliza Littleton
• Spending on infrastructure fails to make an impact by David Richardson
• Patent Box – Joining the Race to the Bottom by David Richardson

Centre for Future Work

• The Huge Contradiction at the Heart of the Federal Budget — Centre for Future Work Budget Briefing by Dr Jim Stanford, Alison Pennington, Dan Nahum and Mark Dean

Climate & Energy

• Climate overview by Richie Merzian & Polly Hemming
• Blank cheque for oil refineries by Audrey Quicke
• List of Budget measures to support Electric Vehicle uptake by Audrey Quicke
• Locking Australia in to an Expensive High Emissions Gas Future by Mark Ogge and Dan Cass
• Flying High for Aviation Sector by Audrey Quicke
• Funding for Natural Disasters to Build Resilience to What? By Hannah Melville-Rea and Kate McBride
• Nothing to help electricity prices or reduce emissions by Dan Cass and Mark Ogge
• And the award for biggest fossil fuel subsidy goes to… by Audrey Quicke

Democracy & Accountability

• Budget Reveals Commonwealth Integrity Commission a Long Way Off by Bill Browne
• Freedom of Information gets more attention by Bill Browne
• Audit Office doing fewer performance audits than a decade ago by Bill Browne
• ABC frozen out of digital future by Jordan Guiao
• A Win for Media Diversity and AAP by Bill Browne

International & Security Affairs

• Locking Migrants and Refugees Out of Australia by Hannah Melville-Rea
• Less than 10 Foreign Aid Cents to Every Defence Dollar by Liam Carter
• Oversight in the Shadows: A small win for accountability in the national security sphere by Liam Carter

Government Services

• NDIS funding trickery by David Richardson
• The Aged Care funding shortfall by David Richardson and Eliza Littleton
• Expansion of Pension Loan Scheme Welcome by Matt Grudnoff
• No Pre-school funding for 3-year-olds by Marilyn Harrington
• Higher Education by Dan Nahum
• The Dobseeker Hotline by Audrey Quicke
• Welcome End to So-Called ‘Community Development Program’ (CDP) by Bill Browne
• The Gaping Hole in the Government’s Mental Health Announcement by Kate McBride

And also…

• More money would mean fewer problems for the arts by Bill Browne
• 10 Bites of the Cherry in South Australia by Noah Schultz-Byard
• For Tasmania, it’s another story of ‘not quite rinse and repeat’ by Eloise Carr