Murray Olds: Australian correspondent speculates ahead of the 2025 Federal Budget

Over in Australia, Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers is set to hand down  the Albanese Government's newest Budget tonight.

This is the last Budget ahead of the upcoming federal election in May - so the pressure's on for Labor to outline their policy agenda. 

Australian correspondent Murray Olds outlines his predictions ahead of this evening's announcement.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Murray Old's Australia correspondents here, Murray, good afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Yeah, hi there here you going good? Thank you. What's
in the budget?

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Well, it's what we don't know. I suppose it will
be the most intriguing thing tonight. It's Jim Charmer's fourth
budget the opposition. Nice line from the opposition. It's a plan,
the opposition says, for the next five weeks, not the
next five years. And the five weeks reference of course
until the next election. This is a budget the government
really didn't want. If it wasn't for Cyclone Alfred. I

(00:30):
suspect very much that we'd already been in full campaign
mode because Anthony Albaneze.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Would have pulled the trigger already.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
He couldn't because of the cyclone's impact on southeast Queensland
and northern New South Wales. So this is what we're
left with. And we know it's going to be about
cost of living. We already know, for example, there's going
to be one hundred and fifty bucks back and energy
payment to everybody is not means tested everyone in Australia,

(00:59):
so James Packer will get it, along with someone who's
homeless and unemployed. They'll all get a one hundred and
fifty dollar energy rebate. You're going to have massive spending
on health, on Medicare, supporting medicare, creating more payment free
visits to doctors. And basically there's so much uncertainty surrounding

(01:22):
his budget because what's going to happen in terms of
any new tariffs that might be applied against, say pharmaceuticals
or Australian beef or other exports that Australia makes into
the United States. We simply don't know. There's so many
things that are up in the air, and it depends
entirely what Donald Trump's next move is in terms of tariffs.

(01:45):
So look, it's a budget for the here and now.
It's a budget to get us to an election in
the next few weeks. Peter Dutton has his budget reply
speech on Thursday, but I've read at least one analysis
over here the last forty eight hours. There's a suggestion,
God help us, that Anthony Elberonezi will go to the

(02:07):
Governor General on Thursday this week and call the election
to take any wind out of Dutton's sales. On Thursday night,
when he stands up in the Parliament to deliver his
budget reply. Look, that may just be complete hyperbole. I
don't know I've read it. I'm just putting it out there.
I haven't heard it from anyone. I don't even know.
I don't even remember.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Actually, I had to be honest where I read it.
There might be some evil conspiracy. Great to know your
chicking the facts for us, Murray, Oh, make facts sacred?
You know that? Look at Donald Trump backs of sacred. Hey, Queensland,
what's happening with the stadium? They've been protest reviews? You
your premiers, what's the deal? Well, I'll give you two figures.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
It was one thousand and three hundred and forty three
days ago that Brisbane was awarded the Games. There are
now two thousand, six hundred and seventy seven days out
from the opening ceremony. They've wasted an awful amount of time,
but we finally do have what the brand new government's
landed on, and that is for those who know Brisbane,
it's a beautifully laid out city based around the Brisbane

(03:13):
River and right there at the northern edge of the
CBD there's a glorious bit of parkland right that's going
to be the home of the brand new Olympic Stadium.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Locals are furious.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Well, you know the locals who loved that bit of parkland.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
They say it's the lungs of the city.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
But it's also an absolute primo venue for a brand new,
multi billion dollar Olympic stadium.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
They were looking at the Gabba. The game has been around.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
I think since eighteen nineties, the eighteen nineties, but it's
run down and clapped out. It's also used for cricket
of course, for cricket tests and for Australian rules footy
through the winter, so that's been scrubbed. It's going to
be a brand new pool and a brand new suburb
that's going to be created a bit like Sydney did
twenty five years ago. They built a brand new pool

(04:00):
to accommodate twenty five to thirty thousand spectators for the
Olympic Games that it was scaled right back after the Games.
That's going to happen in Brisbane and also a brand
new suburb to house all the athletes. That happened in Sydney,
it's going to happen in Brisbane as well. Expect some
more announcements in the days ahead, and a whole lot
more protest and that's all I can say. Fascinating Least
I've made a decision.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Murray, Thank you.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Murray Old's our Australia correspondence with all the Facts this afternoon.
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