Post by Just me on Mar 29, 2022 7:27:35 GMT 8
In my lifetime the Budget has always been presented the same way. Mostly it occurred on the first or second Tuesday in May. Hawke/Keating moved it briefly to September, as did Howard, but the format remained the same. Representatives of the media were locked up in a room at Parliament House around 9.00am in the morning with copies of the Budget about to be presented by the Treasurer. Contact with the outside world was verboten.
At 11.00am the Treasurer would stand in Parliament and present the Budget. First he would give what today would be called the Executive Summary, and then he would get down to the nitty gritty. The whole presentation took over two hours. Then the HoR would rise, the journalists would be freed from lockdown, and the Treasurer and usually the PM would front the media, who had all their questions ready. All of this was immediately reported back so it could make the 6.00pm news.
This year the Budget will not be presented until 7.30pm in the evening, AFTER all the news and current affairs programs have finished. There won't be any meaningful analysis and reporting until the following day, tomorrow, Wednesday. Thursday is the Opposition's Right of Reply, which will replace the Budget in the news. Within a few days after that the PM has to go to the GG and ask for Parliament to be dissolved and an election called. Otherwise the GG himself will have to prorogue and dissolve Parliament, and set an election date. Or pull some sort of a John Kerr.
What all this means is that there will be stuff all meaningful analysis of either the Budget, or the Opposition's response. Instead both will simply become election promise bullet points. Regardless of the election outcome, neither party will be in any way accountable for what is said/promised in the next three days. It is all little more than bread and circuses for the masses.
Sit back and enjoy the entertainment. But never forget that is all it is - entertainment, with no more grounding in reality than a Star Wars movie.
At 11.00am the Treasurer would stand in Parliament and present the Budget. First he would give what today would be called the Executive Summary, and then he would get down to the nitty gritty. The whole presentation took over two hours. Then the HoR would rise, the journalists would be freed from lockdown, and the Treasurer and usually the PM would front the media, who had all their questions ready. All of this was immediately reported back so it could make the 6.00pm news.
This year the Budget will not be presented until 7.30pm in the evening, AFTER all the news and current affairs programs have finished. There won't be any meaningful analysis and reporting until the following day, tomorrow, Wednesday. Thursday is the Opposition's Right of Reply, which will replace the Budget in the news. Within a few days after that the PM has to go to the GG and ask for Parliament to be dissolved and an election called. Otherwise the GG himself will have to prorogue and dissolve Parliament, and set an election date. Or pull some sort of a John Kerr.
What all this means is that there will be stuff all meaningful analysis of either the Budget, or the Opposition's response. Instead both will simply become election promise bullet points. Regardless of the election outcome, neither party will be in any way accountable for what is said/promised in the next three days. It is all little more than bread and circuses for the masses.
Sit back and enjoy the entertainment. But never forget that is all it is - entertainment, with no more grounding in reality than a Star Wars movie.