The Latest Breaking News from Josh Frydenberg

With an election looming, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg uses his address at the National Press Club to convince Australians his government's budget is the way forward for the country.

If the last two budgets were delivered under the spectre of COVID, this year’s budget has a different bogeyman: the outbreak of war in Europe and growing unrest in the Asia-Pacific region.

Analysis: The deficit comes in at $79.8bn – better than the $106.6bn Josh Frydenberg forecast last year but a leap away from the $17.8bn surplus he predicted in 2019

Coalition to again spend maximum $150m allocation from Emergency Response Fund to ‘fast track’ recovery and resilience

It’s often said in business circles that good companies manage their balance sheet, and bad companies manage their P&L (profit and loss account). That same aphorism applies to governments.

Josh Frydenberg stresses commitment to Medicare and trumpets funding for Trodelvy – a drug used to treat rare form of breast cancer

When Josh Frydenberg says his key cost-of-living budget measures are “temporary” and “targeted”, he’s precisely right, though the reasons are more opportunistic than he’d spruik publicly.

Welfare recipients and seniors will receive a one-time $250 payment, the low and middle income offset will be boosted by $420, while the fuel excise will be halved for six months

So good, and so unexpected, has been Australia’s economic improvement over the past three months, it has wiped one-third of the projected 2022-23 budget deficit. Or it would have, had the government not decided to give away almost half (45%) the windfall.