In an audit of the federal government’s finances, budget watcher Chris Richardson warned projections for spending restraint ...

The budget and budget reply will be failures if they do not include a genuine plan for fiscal restraint and do not explain how higher defence spending must be paid for by cuts in other policy areas.

Jim Chalmers will use a Queensland Media Club address to warn of the “economic fallout” from ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred ahead of the upcoming deficit-tipped federal budget.