Election clock ticking
With two consecutive surpluses under its belt, the government may well be tempted to pull the pin on an early election.
There’s rarely a perfect time to go to the polls, but it seems increasingly likely that the Albanese government will want to pop the question to the Australian public sooner rather than later.
After the final budget outcome was published, there’s a view among economists and government insiders that this is as good as it gets in terms of headlines for economic management.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers returned from China with a strong story to tell on Monday: two solid surpluses and the nation’s biggest trading partner rolling out significant stimulus. And if Anthony Albanese were to hold off on calling the election and allow a third full budget, there would be no escaping a public airing of an expected string of deficits into the horizon and the bigger structural challenges to the nation’s finances.
There may well be another reason to contemplate an earlier vote. Many top economists think that the Reserve Bank will kick off its rate-cutting cycle in February, including those at three of the four big banks (with NAB shifting to February on Monday but CBA still expecting a November cut).
