Gareth Hutchens

And so some of the fragility is that we are relying more and more on income tax, which over time, as the working population shrinks, will become a smaller and smaller thing that we can't rely on as the base of our tax.

Amy Oster started a think tank this year, the Policy Institute of Australia, but has been an advisor to the Commonwealth Treasury, Victorian Treasury, and a partner at one of the big consulting firms.

What was her take as the dust has kind of settled here?

That's a really interesting point.

One of the things that I was looking for in the budget was around biofuels.

The industry has been desperate for a mandate, essentially making it compulsory to have a certain percentage of biofuels.

It was literally one line in the budget which said, the government will consult with industry about a demand side mechanism.

And decoded, that means we will have one, but we are going to work out with industry and with all these other groups to

how to make it work.

So there's a lot of policy in this budget, even though we've probably been extremely focused on just the negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.

Just to wrap up with our economists, you spoke to Saul Eslake and Nikki Hutley.

What did they think about what's been announced?

That's a very specific thing, and it has been one of the loud elements, and I thought probably one of the ones that has the most chance to change, basically because startups value when they begin is zero.

So the capital gain is potentially immense, and they are competing for a highly specific talent, generally in tech, where options and

often the pathway of these companies is telling people, stick with us, we can't pay you very much, but we will one day get bought or we will float on the stock market and you'll be squabillionaires.

So I can understand that there is some reticence in that community about the tax changes because it might really restrict their ability to gain capital and support in those early years where they need money, but they're not making any.

Now, Saul has one particular hobby horse.

It's one of mine as well.

I'm sure he might have mentioned it to you, Gareth.

I know we're not meant to have favourites, but Nikki Hutley is probably my favourite economist.