Budget

A mid-year budget update reveals Australia's net migration will grow above the government's expectations this financial year by 80,000, for a total net migration figure of 340,000, further fuelling debate around the nation's tight housing and rental markets.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the midyear budget will provide a responsible cost of living help.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers will deliver the mid-year update this morning.

A day after Victoria's long serving Treasurer Tim Pallas announced he would quit politics, his management of public finances is at the centre of the political debate in the state.

Wednesday's update to the budget will reveal billions less in tax is expected from the mining sector, as the government sets expectations for a coming decade of budgets in deficit.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers will deliver a worsened federal budget position on Wednesday, saying a $1.8 billion hit will come from the government spending extra to clear a backlog of unpaid veterans' entitlements.

In its latest budget update, the Victorian government has announced it will increase the levy for emergency services paid by all ratepayers as well as other tax hikes.

It was billed as a grand tribute to outback life that would transform a small rural town, but this Queensland museum will sit unfinished unless council can fill its funding shortfall. 

The federal budget is sliding deeper into the red, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has confirmed, with next month's mid-year budget update to show a larger deficit than had been expected in May.

Australia's $230 billion sovereign wealth fund would retain its focus on making a return, and the government has pledged not to draw down on it for eight years.

NT Treasury officials are warning big spends on health and community safety could see the territory's eye-watering debt levels continue to blow-out.

Keeping costings under wraps for so long is about mitigating collateral damage, but there was nothing in the numbers from both sides in Queensland likely to change opinions.

The LNP has vowed to rein in almost $6.8 billion spent on consultants – flagging they would develop public servants' skill levels and wanted pay packages to be "competitive" against private organisations such as KPMG.

As Tasmania's health system continues to face critical staffing issues, the government has ramped up its reliance on locums — who are paid more, but have fewer workplace entitlements.

A drop in spending has delivered a $15.8 billion surplus for the most recent financial year, despite tax revenue also falling in that time. It's a $6.4 billion improvement on what was forecast in May.

Labor's inability to come clean about who ordered the Treasury to work on negative gearing left the government and prime minister Anthony Albanese smeared as tricky, dissembling and guilty of treating voters with contempt.

The Prime Minister today hinted that negative gearing was back on the political agenda, as Laura Tingle explains.

The policy that just won't quit is back. Will Labor revisit its 2016 and 2019 election policies?

Here is a list of payments increasing — and by how much — from September 20.  

The Labor opposition says it wants to see a ban on "pork barrelling", to ensure community grants are funded at arm's length from politicians, but the premier says the proposal is "breathtaking in its hypocrisy".