Federal Budget 2025 live updates: Anthony Albanese’s bizarre move raises eyebrows

Several social media influencers have been invited to attend the budget lock-up.

Hannah Ferguson is among the people who revealed they would be in Canberra on Tuesday.

‘I need to be in parliament by 2.30pm to go through security and get ready for the federal budget lock up,’ she wrote in an Instagram post.

Ms Ferguson runs ‘Cheek media’ and openly shares her dislike for Peter Dutton.

Her company sells partisan merchandise which includes the slogan: ‘Good morning to everyone except Peter Dutton.’

Aussies were quick to express their outrage following the revelation.

‘Albanese turning the budget lockup into a political process by picking and choosing who attends the lockup,’ one wrote.

Another added: ‘The inclusion of these fools will result in dis/mis information surely. Something the Labor party wanted to create laws for.’

‘My experience of most so called influencers is that they are vacuous and unqualified to provide commentary.’

A third added: ‘Albo has zero integrity and this is a classic example of it. He doesn’t care about taxpayers, he cares about likes.’

Labor has promised to deliver two tax cuts starting from next year that will offer ‘hip pocket help for households’ but come at a cost of $17.1 billion in a desperate bid to woo voters ahead of the impending federal election.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down the Budget on Tuesday night with a raft of cost-of-living measures designed to appeal to battling Aussies in a last-ditch, pre-election pitch.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers delivered his budget speech at 7.30pm on Tuesday.

‘It is a plan with cost of living with two new tax cuts and higher wages, more bulk-billing and help with medical bills, cheaper medicine and less student debt,’ he said.

‘It is a plan to build Australia’s future with more homes, more investments in skills and education, competition reforms and a future made in Australia.’

Dr Chalmer said inflation was down and incomes were rising.

‘Unemployment is low. Interest rates are coming down. Debt is down, and Groth is picking up momentum,’ he said.

‘On all of these fronts, our economy and our Budget are in better shape than they were three years ago.

‘Now, this progress has been exceptional but not accidental.

‘The credit belongs to Australians in every corner of our country. We’ve come a long way together, but there is more work to do.

‘This Budget is our plan for a new generation of prosperity in a new world of uncertainty.’

Opposition leader Peter Dutton took aim at Anthony Albanese and his pre-election promise to cut energy bills for Aussies by $275.

‘The Prime Minister promised on 97 occasions that power bills would fall by $275, instead they went up by $1300,’ he said during Question Time.

‘We have had the largest fall in living standards in history and our country is divided. Twenty-nine thousand small businesses have gone broke.

‘How can struggling Australian families and businesses possibly afford another three years of the Albanese government?’

Mr Albanese has vowed to slash $150 off the power bills for small businesses and households if he is re-elected.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil talked up the government’s commitment to expand the ‘Help to Buy’ scheme ahead of the release of the budget.

Homebuyers will be able to purchase their first property with just a two per cent deposit. The government will take an equity stake up to 40 per cent.

‘Now there is much more work to do here,’ she said during Question Time on Tuesday.

‘Housing has been central to our first term and if re-elected it will be central to our second.’

Australians are demanding cost of living relief in Tuesday’s pre-election Budget as they continue to battle skyrocketing grocery prices, medical bills and rent.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says his fourth federal Budget will provide ‘substantial, meaningful and responsible cost-of-living help’.

He has also insisted the three Rs – ‘repair, relief and reform’ – will guide his economic decisions.

Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume told the ABC the Liberals won’t ‘dishonour any arrangements’ that are currently in place.

‘We want to make sure they are productive at home,’ she said.

‘We won’t dishonour any arrangements that are in place but if you take a job with the public sector, there is an expectation that it is a job that involves working from the office.

‘Arrangements can be made but it has to work for the individual, the team and department. That is an effective way to deliver an efficient public service.’

It comes after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese vowed to keep WFH in place if he was re-elected.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher told the ABC she would not give too much away ahead of the release of the budget on Tuesday night.

‘It is a work in progress where we’re chipping away, making investments, repairing the budget where we can, lowering debt and making sure we can provide that cost-of-living relief to people while they are doing it tough,’ she said.

‘Budgets are hundreds, if not thousands of decisions, that all interrelate to each other.’

Ms Gallagher said she did not want to steal Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ thunder.

‘You will need to wait this evening to get the budget,’ she said.

‘The picture of the budget builds on all of those three themes.

‘It builds upon the budgets we have handed down before. It is a work in progress where we’re chipping away, making investments, lowering debt and making sure we can provide that cost-of-living relief to people while they are doing it tough.’

In Monday night’s episode of the program, which focused on the Federal Budget, Charlotte – who described herself as ‘a lady in her 50s’ – exposed the ageism that prevails in the job market.

‘I am finding it very difficult to get employment. No-one wants to employ me, unfortunately, at my age,’ she said.

David Koch has slammed Labor’s plan to extend its energy bill rebates for all Australian households, arguing the handouts should only go to those most in need.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended his decision to extend a $150 energy bill rebate to even the richest households – plus an estimated one million small businesses – rather than apply a means test.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ fourth Budget is being handed down tonight, with an election due to be held by May 17 and Labor the underdog in opinion polls.

Australians are getting electricity rebates for another six months as part of Labor’s cash splash which also includes reducing prescription costs, cutting student debt, subsidising steel and aluminium manufacturers, and rebuilding the treasurer’s cyclone-hit home state of Queensland.