Budget 08 – What others are saying:

It is now clear Wayne Swan and Labor's 2008 Budget has failed to set out a clear economic strategy for Australia’s future and tackle key challenges such as petrol prices, grocery prices, climate change and water.

Here’s what the commentators are saying about Labor's first Budget:

• The Editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald stated, "Overall, the budget bears all the signs of having been put together by image makers, not economic managers." (SMH 14/5/08)
• The Australian Financial Review's David Bassanese said, "In terms of an inflation-fighting weapon, the Rudd government's first budget will go down in history as long on rhetoric and short on results." (AFR 14/5/08)
• The Australian's Alan Wood said, "So how well has [Labor] met the [inflation] challenge? The short answer is not well enough to relieve the pressure on monetary policy." (The Australian 14/5/08)
• The Australian's Jennifer Hewitt said Labor "squibbed its own inflation rhetoric." (The Australian 14/5/08)
• The Age columnist Kenneth Davidson said, "The budget is a missed opportunity... There is nothing in this budget that will make the Reserve Bank less likely to increase interest rates." (The Age 14/5/08)
• The Age economic editor Tim Colebatch said, "Will [the Budget] cut through the knots to solve any of Australia's problems? No... There is no clear sense of direction, no absolute priorities other than the electoral one: don't offend anyone who might vote for us." (The Age 14/5/08)
• Sydney Morning Herald economic editor Ross Gittins said, "Kevin Rudd has failed to grasp the nettle. In his effort to demonstrate Labor's credentials as a good economic manager he is off to a disappointing start... At his first test, he has failed to live up to his rhetoric. This budget is not 'tough as all hell' because it hasn't 'taken the axe to irresponsible spending'. We were told the budget would 'exert maximum downward pressure on inflation and interest rates'. It doesn't." (SMH 14/5/08)
• Daily Telegraph columnist Piers Akerman said, "Forget the rhetoric about inflation being Public Enemy No.1. It is a big-spending Budget..." (Daily Telegraph 14/5/08)

Mr Swan and Labor have failed their first real test in Government by delivering a political grab-bag rather than a clear economic strategy.