Federal budget burns Australian workers (Leithvo)

This interview with Sean Murray at ABC Upper Hunter dissects Tuesday's federal budget.

**NOTE: I incorrectly said that in NZ, you need to earn 3.5 times the median full-time salary to pay the top marginal tax rate of 39%. The figure is actually 2.5 times that. Still well below Australia's 1.9 times at 47%.



Leith van Onselen on the budget, and another person calling for less tax on low paid workers. He also points out that policy designed to help with housing will be cancelled by increased immigration numbers, when the amount of people coming in is already at record highs.

Best comment on You Tube:

@theShortsAwaken
"average salary is just above 100k". It's the median salary that matters. Which is $74k and peeks at $80k for males in their mid 40s. The average gives too much weight to outliers, it makes gas and mining executives look like they are making everyone rich even though they are bleeding the country. That's why economists never use the average. Even asking Gemini AI and it gives a note warning against using averages in economics

[Posted at the SpookyWeather2 blog, May 16, 2026.]