Lost in a budget charade

by Richard Denniss in The Canberra Times

Share

Originally published in The Canberra Times on May 13, 2011

Once upon a time the justification for delivering the federal budget speech at 7.30pm was so that the stock market and money market would have time to absorb the information before the next day’s trading began. But these days, with many Australian shares listed on international stock exchanges and the Australian dollar traded just as effectively in New York or London while the budget speech is being delivered as it is in Sydney the next morning, this tradition simply allows the Government to influence how the budget is reported.

Related documents

Attachment

Between the Lines Newsletter

The biggest stories and the best analysis from the team at the Australia Institute, delivered to your inbox every fortnight.

You might also like

10 reasons why Australia does not need company tax cuts

by Jack Thrower

1/ Giving business billions of dollars in tax cuts means starving schools, hospitals and other services. Giving business billions of dollars in tax cuts means billions of dollars less for services like schools and hospitals. If Australia cut company tax from 30% to 25% this would give business about $20 billion in its first year,