Labor has declared inflation the “primary focus” of this month’s federal budget, as the government walks the tightrope of lowering cost of living pressures while putting downward pressure on the bottom line. Amid growing calls for spending cuts to take the heat off interest rates, and ahead of this week’s meeting of the Reserve Bank board, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher on Sunday would not be drawn on what Labor’s budget tactics would be. She said savings were “increasingly difficult to find” but what those might be, what additional cost-of-living measures might be included and whether it was, more broadly, a ... (full story)