We look back on the last five days of reporting on news - not just in Australia, but around a world that appears to have gone crazy since a political whirlwind swept through the White House in January. Let us explain it to you.
Is there bigger business and finance news in Australia during Budget week than the Government’s annual statement of revenue and expenditure?
Ordinarily no, but this was no ordinary week, because it was rounded off by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese setting 3 May as the date when 18 million voters would go to the polls in an election likely to fight around the cost of living, as we reported here.
Election mode
No sooner had the Labor leader returned from Government House, he swung into campaign mode, with our piece quoting him ruling out deals to stay in office, vowing to serve a full term, promoting his policies and criticising those of the Liberal/National Party (LNP) Opposition.
“At this election, I'm asking for the support of the Australian people to keep building on the hard work that we have done and the strong foundations that we have laid,” Albanese told reporters.
Azzet reporter Frankie Reid wrote here that soon after the election was called Opposition Leader Peter Dutton held a news conference in Brisbane where he warned "we can't afford three more years of Labor".
“However, right now, Australia is going backwards,” said Dutton, who also touted his proposed nuclear energy plan as preferable to Labor’s renewable energy promises of decarbonising the country.
Labor and the LNP are running almost line ball in opinion polls, making a hung parliament possible, with minor parties and independents holding the balance of power.
Emboldened by this prospect, the Greens ruled out siding with Dutton. However, they vowed to pressure Labor to do more to address the cost of living, rental housing issues, and climate change issues, fellow reporter Chloe Jaenicke wrote here.
But first the Budget
Prior to this development, the news spotlight had swung back on domestic economic and political events, with the Budget at the centre of attention.
United States President Donald Trump had gone relatively quiet (by his standards) in his war with trading partners, providing the ideal conditions for a greater focus on what Treasurer Jim Chalmers would say on Tuesday night.
Azzet reports that organisations representing Australia’s large and small businesses have called on the Government to revive the private sector.
This far-from-surprising suggestion came from groups including the Australian Industry Group and Business Council of Australia, which asked for measures to drive economic growth, tax and workplace reform, tax deductions, write-offs and red tape reduction.
In the lead-up to his showpiece parliamentary speech Chalmers insisted that already-announced sweeteners like household energy rebates were not a voter bribe, according to a piece by senior writer Mark Story.
But when the time came for the speech on the floor of parliament, Chalmers surprised us with another two rounds of personal income tax cuts, equating to $536 in the 2028 financial year for a worker on average earnings and costing $17.1 billion over four years.
“They will help with the cost of living while delivering broader economic benefits – like returning bracket creep and boosting labour supply,” Albanese and his Treasurer were quoted in our story as saying.
It would also set the country up for 10 years of budget deficits, as the table below provides more details.
We reported that the LNP said it would not support the tax cuts and that Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor called them a “cruel tax hoax”.
Mark wrote here that most political commentators saw the announcement as politically savvy and uninspiring. Business groups have labelled the failure to extend the Instant Asset Write-Off (IAWO) scheme as a missed opportunity. Read more here.
Chloe reported here that the Budget also attempted to help women and First Nations people with healthcare spending and closing gender work.
Azzet reporter Harlan Ockey wrote here that Australia’s Department of Defence would add a Strategic Sales Office to sell defence technology to international allies, after a boost to defence spending in the Budget.
When the Opposition replied, Dutton said they would reduce petrol prices by cutting the fuel excise for one year. However, they would also reserve some gas supplies for the domestic market to lower their energy bills.
This idea was almost immediately dismissed as a waste of taxpayers’ money by Andrew Forrest, the owner of Squadron Energy, a company that owns a gas import facility, Mark wrote in this article.
Away from politics
On the day after the Budget, Finance Writer Oliver Gray wrote that the annual inflation rate (much-watched in a cost of living crisis) came in below expectations at 2.4% in February. Click here for more details.
The week had started with building products company James Hardie (ASX: JHX) going big with a US$8.74 billion (A$13.87 billion) acquisition of US-listed Azek (NYSE: AZEK), only to shrink as its share price fell, as Mark reported here.
On the same day we learned that the country that is fiercely resisting Trump’s attempts to make it part of the United States would join Australians at the polls, with newly-appointed Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney calling a snap election for 28 April.
“President Trump claims that Canada isn’t a real country. He wants to break us so America can own us. We will not let that happen,” the former central banker who took over from Justin Trudeau was quoted saying in Chloe’s article.
Federal courts may also need resistance after U.S. Speaker Mike Johnson discussed Congress eliminating them over Republican concerns about anti-Trump judges, as Frankie reported here.
Turning to something else that pops up every few years, the Queensland Government has finally lifted the lid on its plans for hosting the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games in the state capital of Brisbane.
The centrepiece of the A$7.1 billion (US$4.5 billion) infrastructure plan is a 65,000 seat stadium, which is bound to garner opposition given it will be built in the middle of a much-loved park on the edge of the central business district. To learn more read here.
The state government managed to keep many details under wraps, unlike the Trump administration which was plunged into crisis when defence officials leaked plans for airstrikes on Yemen to a journalist, as reporter Harlan Ockey wrote in this story.
But this did not take the wind out of the sails of the American leader who not only downplayed the security breach (read story) but also continued to target trading partners by announcing tariffs on automobiles, pharmaceuticals and other industries.
“We’ll be announcing cars very shortly,” Trump said in a Cabinet meeting, according to our story from senior writer Cam Drummond.
Bumpy road
One car maker likely to be affected is China’s BYD which for the first time since 2018 eclipsed Tesla's sales, an electrical vehicle rival founded and run by one of Trump’s close political allies Elon Musk. More here.
Continuing with autos, the FBI launched an investigation into attacks on Tesla sparked by Musk’s political activities (read Harlan’s story here); Hyundai said it would invest US$21 billion in the U.S. to avoid tariffs (Cam’s story here); and, sadly, Han Jong-hee, the co-CEO of fellow South Korean company Samsung, died (story here).
Tesla shares fell almost 6% on news of low European sales and concern about new Trump administration auto tariffs, which have been confirmed to be set at 25%, Frankie wrote in this piece.
Another source of bad news was Oliver’s story that Australian clothing retailer Jeanswest would close more than 90 stores, resulting in hundreds of job losses.
Staying on the shop floor, The Reject Shop is being taken over by Canada’s Dollarama, via a bid that, Mark reported, caused shares in Australia’s largest discount retailer to surge.
In his Mission Critical column, Cam wondered how the European Union could bring almost 50 mining projects into production in five years to produce the raw materials needed to help the EU's ailing car makers decarbonise and compete with Asian imports.
Blasting off from this mad, mad world for a moment, Chloe wrote a story about an Australian-led experiment to grow mushrooms in space, a place with no budgets, elections, shops or cars, which is a good point to call this a wrap.
