Mandy101 said:
Actually the tax cuts won't automatically go into consumption... Most people in the high income tax brackets have property investments - the more they're taxed, the more they can negative gear - so logically, since there is a tax cut, the extra money they get per week will likely be saved to go towards their properties, as they won't be able to negative gear as much.
The better way of saying that is that people on higher incomes have a higher marginal propernsity to save (MPS), so tax cuts to high income earners is more likely to be used as savings than consumption. The argument that the government used for them is that it brought Australia in line with world standards (i.e. most countries have a top marginal rate of about 50%, some higher, some lower, but it usually cuts in between A$100,000-A$200,000).
The "welfare to work" reforms are there to provide incentives to those who aren't working to find work. They lose their benefits if they don't look for work and their benefits are reduced as their income increases (at the rate of something like 40%-60% per extra dollar they earn, depending on which benefit they are on). You should mention something about the Effective Marginal Tax Rate (EMTR), which adds up the tax rate and the loss of welfare benefit. e.g. Those on the dole used to lose the dole at the rate of 60c per dollar of income they earned, then add the tax they paid (approx 17%) and you get 77%. The budget reduced those numbers to 50 and 15, so the EMTR is 65%.
You will have to check those numbers for the EMTR because I'm doing it out of memory.
N.B. I don't necessarilly agree with some of these policies, but that is what I would write about them to get the marks.