Kohler: big taxing, big spending budget with no belt tightening by unpopular govt approaching election...

Alan Kohler's punchy budget summary:

This is, at its core, a big taxing, big spending budget, including a big increase in welfare. It is the budget of an unpopular government approaching an election, not one that’s tightening the belt.

According to Budget Paper No.2 – Budget Measures, “expense measures” in this budget actually increase spending by $201.2 million.

There are a total of 284 separate increases in spending in the budget, ranging in size from $100,000 (a new Remote Jobs and Communities Programme) to $911 million (continuing “Operation Slipper” in Afghanistan).

On top of that about $1.6 billion in spending was pulled forward from 2012-13 into 2011-12: $1.1 billion has been thrown at local councils this year in grants that were due to be paid in 2012-13, and another $500 million has been pulled forward by replacing the Education Tax Refund with a “Schoolkids bonus”.

In total, welfare payments, including the school kids bonus and the extra family welfare, go up by $4.8 billion.

Meanwhile the revenue measures in this budget add up to $1.7 billion in extra revenue, but they’re mostly just deferrals of tax cuts and special dividends.