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Predictably, Labor delivered what it hopes will be an election-winning budget on March 25, with $17 billion in new tax cuts (on top of the amended Coalition’s Stage 3 tax cuts that Labor adopted last year) and $150 in energy rebates to every household.

Labor thought it had “wedged” the Coalition by pushing the tax cut through parliament straight after the budget, but the latter has vowed to repeal it and replace it with a one-year temporary , which could lower petrol prices by 25¢ a litre.

Other election sweeteners in Labor’s budget, such as the reduction of the co-payment cap for medicines under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and the one-off 20% reduction in student debts for higher education, were announced earlier.

This might win some votes in the election campaign rush, but they are political gestures that won’t ease the cost-of-living crisis.

The tax cut will give $5 a week to all taxpayers, rich and poor alike. The richest and poorest households will also get the same energy rebate.

This will do very little to help 13.4% of the population below the poverty line who are struggling to survive.

It will not ease the pain for the 16.6% of children who live below the poverty line.

Labor has once again ignored pleas from welfare and social justice groups, and even its own Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee, to raise JobSeeker and other payments above the poverty line.

The cost of raising Jobseeker to $80 per day — in line with the campaign — and indexing it to keep up with wages would cost , $7.5 billion less than Labor's $5 a week tax cut for all taxpayers.

“This is an irresponsible budget that once again has betrayed millions of welfare recipients and left us in deep poverty — poverty that causes sickness, homelessness and suicides,” said Kristin O’Connell, Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and Disability Support Pension recipient.

“This budget puts the nail in the coffin of [PM] Anthony Albanese’s cruel, false promise to leave no one behind.”

Rising housing costs are the single biggest component of the cost-of-living crisis, but there is no relief for the growing proportion of households struggling to find affordable rental accommodation.

Rent caps are a bi-partisan no-no and the National Housing Accord target of 1.2 million new homes by mid-2029 has only delivered  new homes in its first quarter.

Labor’s Help to Buy scheme (where the government shares equity with home buyers) was slightly expanded, but only a tiny fraction of people needing homes are eligible, and it is yet another measure that forces home prices up.

The richest households don’t need a free cup of coffee in the form of a tax cut that comes with Labor’s $4500 for people on incomes of more than $200,000.

Rich households don’t need the $150 energy rebate and poor households will still struggle to pay their bills as energy companies keep raising their prices. Plus, the rebate only applies for a year.

In its budget submission, the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) proposed a better way of providing energy relief to those really needing it.

“The government’s total $6.8b[illion] spend on energy bill rebates could have funded energy upgrades for every social housing property in Australia, permanently reducing bills by thousands of dollars each year,” said ACOSS chief Dr Cassandra Goldie in a  appropriately headlined: “Astounded: More dollars for everyone except those with the least”.

Labor’s failure to grasp opportunities to simultaneously address the real cost-of-living crisis and make a significant contribution to addressing the climate emergency is just one of the budget’s climate fails.

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) criticised Labor for spending “five times more on fossil fuel subsidies” than it is “investing in the environment”.

ACF Chief Executive Kelly O’Shanassy said: “While spending on all environment protection programs totals $9.4 billion over the forward estimates, a single fossil fuel subsidy, the notorious Fuel Tax Credits scheme — which encourages diesel fuel use and discourages innovation — is allocated $47.7 billion over the same period.”

Another major setback to tackling urgent social and environmental issues is Labor’s decision to raise military spending by  over the next decade.

Labor has used the familiar “responsible economic and fiscal management” refrain to excuse its failure to deal with pressing social and environmental needs.

But it refuses to cut the huge subsidies and tax concessions to the big corporations and the super rich.

As The Australia Institute’s Greg Jericho showed in this , fuel subsidies for mining companies ($4.8 billion), capital gains tax discounts for the richest 10% ($18.6 billion) and superannuation concessions for the richest 10% ($20.3 billion) add up to $43.7 billion, an astounding amount that dwarfs the budget deficit of $26.9 billion.

As Jericho says, every budget is a choice. Labor has chosen, once again, to hand down a budget for the billionaires at the expense of justice and the future of our planet.