Image courtesy of Auspic/DPS.
Tomorrow is Budget Day - one of the busiest and most important sitting days of the parliamentary year. It is the day when the government announces the Federal Budget.
In the Federal Budget, the government provides a picture of Australia's expected financial performance and the government's economic policy for the coming years. The government sets out its intentions for revenue raising (through taxes and other charges) and expenditure (or spending) for the forthcoming financial year (1 July 2022 – 30 June 2023).
The Budget is introduced into the Parliament as a collection of bills called ‘appropriation bills’.
The Budget process
The Budget process is the decision-making process for allocating public resources to the Government’s policy priorities. The parliament has the ultimate control over government finances for two reasons:
- Taxes are enforced by legislation which must be agreed to by the government
- Government expenditure must be authorised by legislation.
Each year, the Budget process follows the following steps:
- Budget documents are prepared by the Treasurer and Treasury Department.
- The Treasurer makes a speech to the House of Representatives to introduce the budget bills.
- The bills are debated/considered by the House of Representatives in the same way that other proposed legislation is.
- Meanwhile, Senate committees may scrutinise the estimates of government expenditure.
- Once the House has agreed to the bills, they are sent to the Senate for consideration.
Tomorrow, the Budget proceedings will most likely begin at 7.30pm, when the Treasurer introduces the bills and makes a speech. You can livestream this from the APH website.
More information on the budget process
For a simplified break down of the budget process, visit the PEO website.
For a more detailed and procedural overview of the budget process, read Infosheet 10 – The budget and financial legislation.