Hello and welcome to Business Insider’s 2017 Australian budget coverage.
It was a big night for treasurer Scott Morrison, who finally laid to rest the ghosts of his predecessor Joe Hockey’s disastrous first budget in 2014, including $17 billion worth of what became known as “zombie savings” that remained on the Treasury books but could not gain the Senate support to become legislation.
Three years on, Morrison finally wiped the slate clean tonight in his second budget, also setting down a path to budget surplus by 2021.
His key measures include a new tax on banks, expected to generate at least $1.5 billion annually, and an increase in the Medicare levy to 2.5% from 2% to pay for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
But there’s still plenty of what Morrison now calls “good” debt, with the government planning a $75 billion infrastructure spent over the next decade, including Western Sydney airport and an inland train line from Melbourne to Brisbane.
Business Insider’s coverage was led by our business editor, Chris Pash, who was in Canberra.
Here’s the list of every thing we’ve found in the budget on Tuesday night, including reactions from sectors such as the startup and tech communities, who now feel like brides left at the altar, just one year after being central to the 2016 budget.
We start with the big picture and unwrap things from there.
• BUDGET 2017: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
• BUDGET 2017: Treasurer Scott Morrison’s budget speech in full
• CHART: The key economic forecasts in Scott Morrison’s federal budget
• This is why Scott Morrison sees ‘better days ahead’ for Australia
• NEW TAX, BONUSES HELD FOR YEARS: Australia’s top bankers are the budget’s biggest losers
• Here’s how the new $6 billion tax on the banks will work
• Australians will cop a 0.5% tax increase to pay for the National Disability Insurance Scheme
• How the government wants young people to use superannuation to save for a home
• Here’s the big picture on education spending from the budget
• Moody’s says Australia’s fiscal strength is high, a key support for its AAA credit rating
• BUDGET 2017: The ATO has already squeezed $2.9 billion from several multinational companies
• Here’s how the 2017 budget has changed the rules in the housing game
• Here is Scott Morrison’s plan to get the budget back to surplus using ‘good’ and ‘bad’ debt
• Scott Morrison is getting rid of GST on digital currencies like Bitcoin
• How the 2017 budget will affect millennials who like smashed avocado toast
• The Turnbull government wants to extend crowdsourced equity funding to private companies
• FinTech Australia loves what the budget will do for fintech startups
• A new visa will let citizens bring their foreign-born parents to Australia for up to 5 years
• The Turnbull government wants to drug test young people on welfare
• The government is spending $12.5 million to figure out if non-stick pans are bad for your health
• A simple guide to reading the federal budget papers
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