Finally, a budget of economic reform. It has been too long coming. At this stage of the economic cycle, the budget should be in surplus. It should not be adding tens of billions of dollars every year to the mountain of public debt. Sixteen years after the release of the tax review commissioned by the Rudd government, our tax system should be supporting much better budget outcomes. It should be underwriting much stronger productivity growth. It should be delivering a much better deal for young Australian workers. And it should be delivering to Australians a much bigger share of the resource rents being extracted by the foreign multinationals exploiting our finite natural resources.

So, this budget doesn’t fix everything.

But make no mistake. Jim Chalmers’ budget takes a very big step. And it is a step in the right direction. This feels like a budget crafted with the same policy disciplines that drove the reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, reforms that set Australia up for an extended period of prosperity that was the envy of the world. On this, the treasurer should be congratulated.

The most important thing about this budget is its confirmation that economic reforms must not be left in the too-hard basket but must be pursued with a sense of urgency in the interests of future........

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