Gird your loins, we’re heading to the polls!

If you take nothing else from this newsletter, know this: Australians will vote in a federal election on 3 May. Ahead of five weeks of campaigning, let’s unpack what was a very big week in Canberra.

On Tuesday, the Federal Government handed down its 2025-26 Budget. The next morning, the TDA team spoke with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in his courtyard at Parliament House.

Appearing upbeat after handing down a Federal Budget that included a deeper-than-forecasted debt, he wanted young people to know that “Australia has a great future”.

Less than 48 hours later, standing in that same courtyard, Albanese delivered an address, confirming the Governor-General “has accepted my advice that an election be held on Saturday, 3 May, 2025.”

After a massive few days in politics – one that featured a budget, tax cut legislation, the Opposition’s budget reply, and an election officially being called – TDA will be here to help you comprehend what’s happening every step of the way, starting right now.

The Government handed down its 2025-26 Federal Budget on Tuesday.

It laid out two main areas: Where the Government wants to distribute its money (spending) over the next financial year, and how it’ll pay for it (revenue).

Australia is expected to record a $27.6 billion deficit in the coming financial year. This means the Government is spending more money than its earning through measures like taxes, meaning it needs to borrow money – putting into further debt.

This week's spending announcements were somewhat unexpected based on complex timings around when the election and budgets need to be delivered. That’s because PM Albanese was widely expected to call the election a few weeks ago, but delayed doing so due to the onset of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

TDA covered off the key spending areas in our budget night coverage, which you can read more about here.

The standout commitments were energy bill relief and further tax cuts.

The lowest income tax bracket – $18,200 to $45,000 – is currently taxed at 16 cents per dollar earned within that range.

From July 2026, that rate will drop to 15 cents per dollar. That means anyone earning $45,000 or more will pay $268 less in tax every year. The tax rate will then decline further to 14 cents per dollar in July 2027.

The Government raced its tax cut legislation through the Parliament this week. However, the Opposition confirmed it would reverse the plan if it wins the election.

The unique part of this budget is that its shelf life could be historically short. If there’s a change of Government after polling day, many of Labor’s plans will be overhauled by the Coalition.

The morning after Budget night, TDA asked the PM about the Government’s commitments directly, with an interview in Parliament. (You can watch the conversation in full here.)

He detailed some of the headline announcements featured in the Budget, including a pre-election pledge to ban non-compete and ‘no poach’ clauses in work contracts for anyone earning under $175,000.

These contracts stop people from moving between jobs in particular industries and prevent employers from hiring staff from competitor organisations. For example, as Albanese put it to TDA: “stopping a hairdresser going to work for another hairdresser down the road”.

This ban, combined with a 20% reduction in student debts, are pledges that will only come into effect if the Albanese Government wins the election.

The Opposition has described some of the Government’s policies as a “bribe” to boost votes for Labor.

Following this week’s Budget, we polled the TDA audience for their reaction.

We asked if, overall, you were you satisfied with the Government’s 2025-26 Budget.

Respondents were evenly split between satisfied and dissatisfied (44% each), while the remaining 12% said they weren’t sure.

The Government’s plan to slash student debts by 20% received support from more than 77% of you.

More than half of respondents said they support the Government’s latest tax cuts, as well as its planned $150 energy bill relief for all households. However, 47% disagreed with the blanket measure, and said power bill relief should be targeted to households earning under a certain amount.

We also asked respondents to pick one policy area where they’d like to see more government spending. Nearly one if three people chose cost of living, which was followed by health and mental health (21%), and climate change (19%).

The Budget-In-Reply is an opportunity for the Opposition to rebuff the Government’s proposed spending measures and lay out its own policy commitments.

However, this year’s Budget reply from Peter Dutton arrived at a uniquely interesting moment: With an election only weeks away, Dutton’s address gave us an insight into the Coalition’s upcoming campaign priorities.

This includes plans to halve the fuel excise for a year. The excise is a tax on petrol imported to Australia.

Currently, the tax accounts for 50.8 cents per litre. Under a Coalition Government, this would be cut to 25.4 cents a litre for a year. As a result, petrol costs would decline – by roughly $1,500 a year for families who fill up their car twice a week, according to the Coalition’s estimates.

Dutton also repeated his pledges to permanently double the number of subsidised mental health sessions from 10 to 20 and increase domestic gas supply in Australia.

12 hours after Dutton delivered his Budget reply, Albanese announced the election will be held on 3 May.

The next five weeks will see the news cycle flooded with political updates from the campaign trail, but as I said at the start of today’s newsletter: We will be here for the whole time, doing what TDA does best: Cutting through the noise to bring you everything you need to know about voting, politics, policies, and all the unexpected curveballs.

We want to hear from you!

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