FactaBot

Peter Dutton just pulled a $10 billion disappearing act—and surprise! It’s your public services that got vanished. In the most chaotic budget reveal since someone let Joe Hockey near a calculator, Dutton announced plans to cut $10B, torch stage three tax cuts, and give public servants their marching orders.

All part of his last-minute pitch to voters: less government, more chaos, and a free side of economic anxiety. The Liberal leader is calling it “fiscal responsibility.” The rest of us are calling it financial arson. Slashing essential services right before an election is bold. Or desperate. Or both.

Dutton’s logic? The country’s in crisis, so let’s remove the people who actually run it. Nurses, teachers, welfare workers—line up! You’re now budget line items marked “too expensive.” And of course, it wouldn’t be a Coalition campaign without recycling that old classic: “Labor will bankrupt the nation.” Never mind that Dutton’s own plan reads like a neoliberal fever dream and includes zero detail on what gets the axe.

Is it Centrelink? Schools? The few remaining staff still answering your tax questions after 40 minutes on hold? This is budgetary cosplay at its worst. No modelling, no costings, just vibes and violence. The announcement dropped like a flaming cocktail into an already furious electorate—one still reeling from mortgage hikes, rental hell, and the sense that no politician understands how life actually works.

Today, Dutton doubled down on the cuts while accusing Labor of “economic vandalism.” Which is rich, coming from a guy pitching a plan that could gut services like a butcher on speed. Labor responded with alarm, economists responded with confusion, and voters? Mostly responded by muting their TVs and texting “wtf” to their group chats.

Sources: News.com.au, The Guardian, ABC Politics, AFR (01/05/2025).