Vince Scully

So it's about focusing on employment income

which you'll see flow through a lot of the rest of the budget changes that they're largely around.

I think that's the big thing on the personal.

Tax front?

Yeah, it's a relatively, I mean, those tax rate changes are from last year.

So the only new announcement is the $1,000 working deduction.

That was leaked.

And the $250 waito.

So no one knew about that tool yesterday.

Really?

I mean, I'd always thought that this was a version of focus group that you just put it out there, see who bites, and then you can always pull it back in again.

But by the time these leaked, the budget was well and truly done.

And remember, there's eight volumes this size to get through.

So this is a lot of material to analyze.

I mean, in the context of this budget, they are interwoven because they are both housing market related changes.

So these are individual non-earned income.

So this is trying to even the balance between tax on income from personal exertion and income from investment sources.

And to that extent, they do a reasonably good job, I think.

But I think the big story here is about the negative gearing, which is a peculiarly Australian thing.

Most jurisdictions around the world quarantine losses to particular classes of income.