2026 Federal Budget Reaction with Economist Chris Richardson
5/13/20261 hr 5 min
Chris Richardson is one of Australia’s most quoted economists and the founder of Rich Insight, bringing decades of expertise from his time at Deloitte Access Economics to decode complex fiscal policy.
Chris and I might not agree on every aspect of this budget, but that is what makes this conversation worth having.
In this analysis of Australia’s latest budget, Richardson reveals why our living standards have barely grown over the past decade while other OECD nations have surged ahead by 17%. He dissects the real economic effects of the budget on inflation, interest rates, and the Reserve Bank’s delicate balancing act. Richardson also exposes the “off-budget” spending that keeps billions in government expenditure hidden from public scrutiny and explains why housing affordability will not be solved by capital gains tax changes alone.
Join my exclusive Mentored+ community: https://mentored.com.au/become-a-member/
Subscribe to the Mentored newsletter here: https://the-mentored-platform-pty-ltd.myklpages.com/l/WWJGc5
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMark Bouris· Host0:00
I just finished a podcast with, uh, Chris Richardson. Um, he, he's the former, um, uh, economist at Deloitte, um, Access. Um, and, uh, now he's, he runs his own business called Rich Insight, and he's a, he's a great economist. He- but he's very technical. Very, very technical. And I- the reason I wanted to do that podcast with Chris is 'cause I want someone to unpack the, um, treasurer's budget for 2026 as it's gonna affect '27 and beyond more in an economic sense. Like, how is it gonna affect the Australian economy? Not how it affects individuals being affected by the capital gains tax, not how it affects people relative to, uh, uh, losing their ability to, um, deduct the interest they pay to the banks relative to the rent they pay, that is negative gearing. It's not about, not about any of those. It's about actually unpacking the fiscal policy of the budget relative to how it affects inflation potentially, and therefore, of course, all of you know how inflation that is, uh, will be, uh, managed by the Reserve Bank in relation to interest rates. So what I'm trying to find out is will interest rates go up after this budget in an e- a general economic sense? I'm not-- I didn't talk to Chris Richardson about capital gains tax per se and/or negative gearing or, or tax on trusts, by the way. Those affect individuals. They are, and they were designed, by the way, and Chris will say it, um, that they've, they're gonna have very little impact on affordability for housing.