Grattan on Friday: Taylor’s bold budget reply is a mix of sound and dubious policy commitments

By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Angus Taylor might have reckoned he and the opposition are in such deep doo-doo that he might as well throw everything at Thursday night’s budget reply.

The result was a mixed bag. The promise to index tax brackets is a bold reform that can’t be faulted in principle, although it would come with a big eventual cost and put a financial constraint on a future Coalition government that it might come to regret.

The pledge to restrict access to 17 welfare benefits and payments (and the National Disability Insurance Scheme) to Australian citizens falls into a very different category.…

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