I had an enjoyable chat with Craig Zonca and Loretta Ryan on 612 ABC Brisbane this morning regarding the upcoming federal budget, particularly regarding security around the budget. You can hear me from around 48 minutes, 28 seconds into the recording:

Breakfast, Tuesday 2 April 2019

Note this link will self-destruct after around one week.

The interview was prompted by a quirky Fairfax story from yesterday, a story which doesn’t appear to have been an April Fool’s day joke:

Budget paper one night stand ends for Treasury officials

I noted the intense security around the budget is partly a result of journalist Laurie Oakes having got his hands on the 1980 budget papers, days before the budget was to be brought down by then-Treasurer John Howard.

As a matter of clarification regarding my response to the final question in the interview, the federal government has already funded a feasibility study for high-speed rail. The expected rail announcement in the 2019 Budget relates to $700 million for the South Geelong to Waurn Ponds rail upgrade (see this ABC News report).

Finally, I am a panelist at a Grattan Institute event in Brisbane Tuesday night (9 April) next week at the State Library:

2019 Federal Budget: unpacking the economics and politics for Queensland and Australia