Australian federal budget

Revenue estimates detailed in the budget are raised through the Australian taxation system, with government spending (including transfers to the states) representing a sizeable proportion of the overall economy.

[7] Because of the market sensitive nature of some of the information which they are being provided, those invited to attend the briefings are not allowed access to the outside world until the budget has been presented in Parliament by the Treasurer, which normally commences at 7.30 pm.

A convention in Australian politics is that the Leader of the Opposition is given a "right of reply", which they deliver in Parliament two days after the government's budget speech, and which is also broadcast on television.

For the twenty-year period from 1960 to 1980, the growth in spending roughly matched percentages in the much higher populated nations of Japan and the United States.

[10] In the first half of the 1980s, spending increased by approximately 3% of gross domestic product and the tax rate surpassed that of Ronald Reagan's administration.

However, government accountability was a highly contentious issue in the late 1970s, and John Howard maintains that under Fraser "spending went up... at about two per cent per year in real terms... Reagan [didn't do] better than that".

[citation needed] Riding on strong economic growth in the latter part of the 1980s, the Hawke government brought forward an agenda for public sector reform that had been pioneered in the US.

[12] Spending in the 1990s saw significant shifts in social policy expenditure as part of a broader scheme of "low inflation targeting".

The Howard government reduced expenditure by 1.3% of gross domestic product in its first two years, making large cutbacks to outlays for the hospital system and education.