Budget 2018

This is one of the boldest and most controversial budgets Henry can recall after almost 50 years of watching on budget night.

The Australian summarises as follows:

* The Treasurer pledged $140bn in personal income tax relief over the decade in a plan to bring an end to bracket creep and deliver a top tax rate of 32.5 per cent for middle- class ­Australia.

* Adam Creighton dissects what you will be left with after the Treasurer unveiled the biggest income tax cut since John Howard was PM and he also examines how booming revenues and a fresh push to get spending under control have lopped $126 bn off the future debt burden .

* Peta Credlin suspects an early election is in the offing, while Paul Kelly writes that this budget is an appeal to stick with a long-run Coalition plan: a return to surplus combined with personal income tax reform.

* Dennis Shanahan, meantime, believes the danger for Scott Morrison will be that the taxpayers will consider his tax cuts too complex, too small and too far away.

* The economy is firing on all cylinders, with business and government investment, household spending and exports rising, writes David Uren.

Labor says it will only agree to phase one of the tax reform plan, a sandwich and malted milk tax cut. Bill Shorten suggests that the coalition should negotiate over this matter. 'Its all or nothing' says the PM.