Does the Albanese government actually have any backbone when it comes to spending discipline? It has flagged spending cuts in this week’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook document to offset a surge in what it deems “necessary spending”, such as much-needed additional expenditure for Australia’s veterans after the Coalition nickel-and-dimed our ex-ADF members for years.
But in other areas, it seems the government is simply addicted to handouts to multinationals — and its deal with Rio Tinto last week on the future of the expensive and enormously energy-hungry Tomago aluminium smelter in the Hunter Valley in NSW will reward a strange collection of bedfellows.