Budget focused on welfare and restraint receives ‘lukewarm reception’

The government has had a “lukewarm reception” to a budget which focuses on restraint due to rising inflation and also set more money aside for welfare increases, Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell says. “There was some questioning of why, if as the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers said it was so important to increase social security payments to the vulnerable that those payments only come in from September,” Mr Clennell said. “Well, it appears the government did that because it had the view, they needed time to get the legislation through.”