Australia federal budget 2021 live updates: Frydenberg announces $30bn in tax cuts and big spending on aged care and mental health

This Budget is yet another marketing exercise that can’t re-brand the mismanagement and missed opportunities that define eight long years of this Liberal-National Government.

It is a shameless political fix, rather than the genuine reform needed to make Australia’s economy stronger, broader and more sustainable.

Despite spending almost $100 billion and racking up a record $1 trillion in debt, the Morrison Government’s Budget reveals real wages will go backwards.

Beyond the hype and the headlines, Australians on modest incomes will only receive a temporary tax break before the election and be dealt a tax hike after it, while the highest income earners will enjoy a permanent tax cut forever.

After their last Budget centrepiece ‘JobMaker’ created just 1,000 of the 450,000 jobs promised, Australians can’t believe any jobs promised in this Budget.

Morrison and Frydenberg won’t tell Australians when they will be vaccinated, haven’t secured more vaccines, haven’t come clean on the cost and risk of delay, and are failing to deliver fit for purpose quarantine facilities.

Instead of securing Australia’s recovery, the Morrison Government is risking it.

It’s not the headline-seeking announcements in this Budget that matter, it’s the Government delivering on them.

For eight long years, this Government has overseen record low wages growth, chronically high underemployment, and it still doesn’t have a credible plan to create secure jobs.

For eight long years, this Government has presided over an aged-care crisis, an energy crisis, a housing crisis and a skills crisis.

And for eight long years, this Government has overpromised and underdelivered on critical infrastructure and this Budget actually cuts funding by $3.3 billion.

They’re now cynically using their eighth Budget to pretend they care about the issues and Australians they’ve ignored in the last seven.