Budget 2026: the tyranny of choice
Australia's finances have run on autopilot, but is that about to change?
Even for those who follow them closely, over the last decade it has been hard to distinguish one Commonwealth Budget from another. Annual cycles follow a reliable pattern. Revenue forecasts are pitched conservatively each year, due to feared weakening in the global economy and commodity prices.
Each time, the downturn doesn't eventuate, and resulting upgrades allow governments to have their cake and eat it too: bank some savings against the (delayed, not cancelled) future revenue downturn, and recycle the rest into new spending and/or fiscal easing.
They say we are the product of our choices, and this set-up hasn't forced many to be made in recent years. Commentators similarly go through the motions of Budget season, with ritualistic hand-wringing about the need for discipline. But without any sense of true scarcity imposed by crushing deficits or our own Liz Truss moment, nobody's heart is in it and the conversation moves on quickly.
