Returning to Australia, where people will be given $3.5 billion in subsidies to soften the blow from soaring energy bills in a federal budget that pours cash into household and business measures while promising to cut inflation before the next election.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the $300 energy bill subsidy would go to every household over the year from July 1 and a $325 subsidy would go to 1 million small businesses over the same period, on top of a mammoth outlay on “made in Australia” industry schemes.But economists warned that Labor could not “subsidise its way to lower inflation” because the budget spending would flow through to demand and put pressure on the Reserve Bank to keep interest rates higher for longer.