Many of us are keen to stop hearing the “b” word — budget — but there’s no getting around it. The budget was historical for its big-spending measures (though thanks to many pre-budget announcements, it was also historically boring).

The Crikey team spent six hours in budget lockup (and many more afterwards) analysing it, with Bernard Keane commenting on the Liberals’ money-backed ploy to stay in power, Guy Rundle writing on Labor’s lack of a narrative, while I covered the cuts and investments in the social sector. Despite the rhetoric around women in this budget, Cam Wilson found the Liberals were targeting young men and retirees in their advertising spend, while Kishor Napier-Raman took a look at the budget’s secrets.

In other news, Georgia Wilkins dug deep into a $5 billion taxpayer splurge on a French company’s legal fees, and Keane and Glenn Dyer outlined China’s plans to move steel production offshore. As the vaccine rollout trudges along, multiple failures continue to slow it down — including, as Tory Shepherd pointed out, media hysteria around side effects.

BERNARD KEANE 3 minute read

If the government can’t win an election with this cash splash, it should give up politics.

AMBER SCHULTZ 3 minute read

The new budget has some good news for social services... but there's plenty of bad news too.

GLENN DYER and BERNARD KEANE 3 minute read

A new Chinese policy to cut domestic steel production threatens to shake up the market for Australia's most valuable export.

GEORGIA WILKINS 2 minute read

The Defence Department is stumping up the legal fees in an FOI fight over how much the disastrous submarine contract is really worth.

TORY SHEPHERD 2 minute read

The media's fixation on rare vaccine side effects is resulting in bullshit by omission — with potentially deadly results.

GUY RUNDLE 4 minute read

Left-wing politics has succumbed to a killer condition inflicted by centrists who fear losing prestige more than losing elections.

DAVID LATHAM 3 minute read

Despite universities producing some of the nation's most essential and respected workers — doctors, vets, engineers, politicians (!) — the sector has been ignored in the budget once more. Something is going wrong.

GEORGIA WILKINS 3 minute read

Disgraced former Melbourne lord mayor Robert Doyle's 3AW appearance was billed as a tearful apology to victims. It seemed like anything but.

CAM WILSON 3 minute read

A proposed ban on gamblers using credit cards for online betting has been opposed by — you guessed it — companies profiting from gamblers going into debt.

BERNARD KEANE 4 minute read

Outsourcing of policy advice doesn't merely undermine the Australian Public Service, a top public policy expert argues, it increases the risk of corruption.

RICHARD HOLDEN 4 minute read

How will we know if the government's budget strategy is working? The Coalition's new approach may be hard to measure.