The Barefoot Investor has rubbished Treasurer Jim Chalmers over claims Australia has ‘turned a corner economically’ and slammed the tax cuts laid out in the Budget.
Scott Pape made the withering remark after mother-of-two Narelle wrote in to ask for his input on the Budget after it was released on Tuesday night.
‘The tax cuts are fine, but $5 a week won’t stretch far with the way groceries and rent are going,’ she wrote.
‘The Treasurer says we’ve turned a corner economically – is that really the case, or just pre-election spin?
‘I’m trying to make good decisions for our family, but it’s hard to know what to believe. Would love your take.’
Treasurer Jim Chalmers revealed the average Australian will save around $268 from July 1, 2026 – with the figure amounting to around $5-a-week.
Mr Pape said he had been reading in the newspapers the meagre amount was just enough for Aussies to splurge on a cup of coffee.
The financial guru ripped into the Budget and said the tax break wouldn’t even be enough to afford the beverage.
‘There was nothing meaningful in the Budget. The main takeaway? Don’t look to the government for help,’ the Barefoot Investor said in a scathing critique of the budget
‘There was nothing meaningful in the Budget,’ he wrote in his column for News Corp.
‘The main takeaway? Don’t look to the government for help – they’ve got enough problems of their own.’
Mr Pape said he had paid $6 for a macchiato and warned prices were still going to soar for three reasons.
‘Wholesale bean prices have doubled in the past year,’ he said.
Café rents and power bills are skyrocketing. And high staff costs.
‘Sunday rates mean your man-bun barista is on $39/hour (and even then the poor bloke still can’t afford his rent!).’
Mr Pape said the rising cost for a coffee was an indication the economy had not necessarily turned a corner like Mr Chalmers had promised.
‘It’s a frothy little sign that things are still running hot!’ he said.
Jim Chalmer’s tax cuts work out to an extra couple of hundred dollars a year’s savings to the majority of taxpayers
Labor announced the cuts on budget night, billing them as ‘modest’.
A re-elected Labor government would lop one per cent off the lowest marginal tax rate which applies to everyone who earns more than $18,000 a year.
A second percentage point cut would take effect in just over two years’ time.
The cuts work out to an extra couple of hundred dollars in savings next year for the majority of taxpayers.
The 80 per cent of taxpayers earning more than $45,000 per year will hang onto an additional $268 at tax time for financial year 2026-27.
The savings would blow up to $536 for 2027-28 compared to the current settings under Labor’s plan.
Daily Mail Australia’s political editor Peter Van Onselen suggested the tax relief ‘is really just giving back some of the bracket creep that inflation keeps taking away every year’.
‘But something is better than nothing,’ he wrote.
The opposition’s response was to scrap the government’s legislated tax breaks, in a move labelled ‘extraordinary’ by the government.
Peter Dutton instead suggested his government could halve the fuel excise instead of providing tax cuts, backflipping on years of lower tax promises.
Mr Dutton said halving the fuel excise, indexed twice yearly, for a year would provide more immediate cost of living relief.
It comes despite previous concerns such a measure would instead increase inflation.
