The government will be far happier to deliver this budget than the one it was expecting to have to hand down a year ago.
Australia’s economic rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic has given the government more money to play with than it expected — but a debt that was unimaginable two years ago still looms on the horizon.
And there is a caveat: the government’s optimism for improving employment figures and economic growth depends on the country’s continued success in suppressing COVID-19.