Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan will deliver the budget Tuesday night (7.30pm local time, which is 0930GMT).

The government budget faces pressure from:

  • Revenue declining(eg. forecast $A17 billion fall in projected company tax receipts)
  • Employment softening (though recent signs of a bounce back are positive)
  • The terms of trade worsening
  • The Australian dollar very high relative to the terms of trade decline (though the recent falls are welcome)

We’re not expecting any big surprises from the budget, there are new spending plans for education and disability insurance.

From the Sydney Morning Herald, what to expect:

NEW SPENDING

  • Disability Care: $68b over 10 years.
  • School education: $26b over 10 years.
  • Road upgrades: Melbourne’s Outer Ring Road, $1.42b over the life of the project (contingent on state government contribution).
  • Relaxed rules for Newstart recipients: $300m per year.

SAVINGS

  • Scrapped boost to Family Tax Benefit A: $1.8b over 3 years.

  • Boost to Medicare levy from mid 2014: $3.3b per year.

  • Deferred tax cuts for carbon price compensation due in 2015: $1.4b per year.

  • Delayed boost to foreign aid: $3b over 4 years.

  • Surplus to be promised by 2016-17.

  • Economic forecasts to be pared back.