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.

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