Jim Chalmers’ 2025 budget speech abridged and annotated – the economy is OK and we’re heading into an election

What the treasurer said - and what we can read between the lines of the budget night speech

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Speaker - this budget builds on the progress we've made, together. It's a plan to help with the cost of living.

Cost of living is the first thing mentioned ... but you would hope it's more than just a plan.

With two new tax cuts, and higher wages - more bulk billing, and more help with electricity bills. Cheaper medicines and less student debt.

Speaker - our economy is turning the corner. Inflation is down, incomes are rising, unemployment is low, interest rates are coming down, debt is down, and growth is picking up momentum.

This progress has been exceptional, but not accidental. The credit belongs to Australians in every corner of our country.

We've come a long way, but there's more work to do.

Every Australian taxpayer will get a tax cut next year and the year after, to top up the tax cuts which began last July. This will take the first tax rate down to its lowest level in more than half a century.

These additional tax cuts are modest but will make a difference. The average earner will have an extra $536 in their pocket each year when they're fully implemented.

We will also increase the Medicare levy low-income thresholds, which is extra tax relief for more than a million Australians.

Speaker, electricity prices went down 25% here last year but they're still putting pressure on households around the world.

Two rounds of energy rebates have helped take some of the sting out of energy costs.

Speaker, we know that Australians are still under pressure, and a lot of that pressure is felt at the checkout.

That's why we're cracking down on the supermarkets. By empowering the competition watchdog, making the food and grocery code mandatory, increasing penalties and boosting competition.

New plans for cost of living and health are accompanied by new investments in housing.

We are tackling the housing shortage from every responsible angle -making home ownership more affordable for young Australians and young families in particular.

More homes, more quickly. This includes $54m to accelerate the uptake of modern methods of housing construction, which is all about building more homes, more quickly.

Tonight we're expanding our Help to Buy scheme. This is part of our efforts to help more Australians buy a place of their own.

We will update the property price and income caps so more first home buyers are eligible for the scheme.

In this budget, we are investing more than $3bn to support the production of Australian-made green metals, like aluminium and iron. Building on the tax incentives for critical minerals and green hydrogen we legislated this year.

We're also backing clean technologies through our Future Made in Australia innovation fund and by recapitalising the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. This will help develop new industries in clean-energy manufacturing, green metals and low-carbon liquid fuels, and unlock private investment.

Support for local businesses. Speaker, in difficult conditions around 25,000 businesses have been created each month on average since we came to office.

We respect and admire the hard work, aspiration and sacrifice behind those record numbers, which is why we're going into bat for small and local businesses in this budget.

Infrastructure like the NBN is essential for communities, students and businesses, and to the productivity of our nation.

So are the roads and railways connecting our regions to our cities and supporting economic growth.

And $2bn towards transforming Sunshine Station, taking our Melbourne airport rail investments to $7bn.

Speaker, in these uncertain times, economic security and national security are increasingly intertwined.

We're supporting stability and prosperity in our region, by helping to shore up banking services in the Pacific.

In a tight budget, we've made room to boost our defences, strengthen Medicare, help people doing it tough, build more homes and invest in the future.

We've done all this at the same time as we've overseen the biggest ever fiscal improvement in a single term of government.

Next year's deficit is $42bn, lower than what was forecast at the last election, and lower than at the mid-year update. Gross debt will hit $940bn this financial year, $177bn less than what we inherited.

The plan at the core of this budget is about more than putting the worst behind us. It's about seizing the best of what's ahead of us. To build a stronger economy - and a future we can all be proud of.