Is the government really on an ‘out-of-control’ spending splurge? It’s complicated
Listen to Course
0:00
0:00
EN: A participle clause functioning as an adverbial modifier ('Opening parliamentary question time on Wednesday...') provides temporal and circumstantial background. The implied subject of the present participle ('Opening') is the subject of the main clause, 'opposition leader Angus Taylor'.
Addressing the press conference this morning, the minister announced urgent measures to combat inflation.
EN: The reporting structure 'accuse [someone] of [noun/gerund]' followed by a relative clause containing a parenthetical attribution ('that, he argued, was forcing...'). The parenthetical 'he argued' is inserted into the relative clause without disrupting the grammatical linkage between the relative pronoun 'that' and the verb 'was forcing'.
The regulator accused the firm of deceptive practices that, investigators claimed, had misled thousands of consumers.
EN: Hyphenated compound adjective: 'out-of-control' acts as a pre-nominal modifier directly qualifying 'government spending'. When prepositional phrases or idioms precede a noun to function attributively, they are typically joined by hyphens.
The central bank struggled to contain out-of-control price hikes across essential goods.
EN: 'Question time' (parliamentary question time) is a central feature of the Westminster parliamentary system (used in Australia, the UK, Canada, etc.), where opposition MPs scrutinize and challenge government ministers and the Prime Minister directly on their policies and performance.
EN: The structure '[Time noun phrase] + after + clause' uses 'after' as a subordinating conjunction introducing a temporal clause, preceded by a measure phrase ('hours') to specify the precise elapsed time.
The decision was announced minutes after the board concluded its meeting.
EN: The verb 'show' takes a complex object structure with a present participle: 'showed + object (annual inflation) + participle phrase (climbing to...)'. This emphasizes the progressive or ongoing trend revealed by the data.
Recent surveys showed consumer confidence dropping to historic lows.
EN: The appositive prepositional phrase ', up from [amount] [time period]' is an elliptical journalistic construction used to provide comparative baseline data without needing a full clause like 'which was up from...'.
Unemployment fell to 3.8%, down from 4.1% in the previous quarter.
EN: In Australian economic reporting, the phrase 'in the year to [month]' is the standard formulation for the 12-month change ending in that specified month (annualized rate). Political opposition parties typically seize immediately upon quarterly Consumer Price Index (CPI) releases to question the governing party's fiscal management.
EN: The conjunction 'although' introduces a subordinate clause of concession ('Although surging petrol and diesel prices drove the headline figure'), contrasting a temporary or external driver of price growth with the broader, more persistent trend expressed in the main clause.
Although raw material costs have stabilized, consumer prices continue to rise steadily.
EN: The phrasal verb 'edge up' means to increase gradually or slightly. It is frequently used in financial and macroeconomic reporting to convey marginal movements in metrics like interest rates, unemployment, or inflation.
Treasury bond yields edged up following the central bank's announcement.
EN: The postpositive prepositional phrase 'well above the Reserve Bank's 2.5% target' acts as a non-restrictive supplement modifying the percentage '3.7%'. 'Well' serves as an intensifier meaning 'significantly' or 'considerably'.
The company's quarterly revenue reached $50 million, well above market expectations.
EN: In central banking and financial reporting, 'headline inflation' reflects total inflation including volatile food and energy costs, while 'underlying inflation' (often measured via trimmed mean or core inflation) strips these out. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) officially targets a 2–3% band, with the 2.5% midpoint being the key benchmark.
EN: Negative inversion occurs when a negative or restrictive expression like 'Not only' is placed at the beginning of a clause for rhetorical emphasis, triggering subject-auxiliary inversion (auxiliary verb + subject + main verb).
Not only did the policy fail to curb inflation, but it also increased national debt.
EN: The pro-verb phrase 'do so' is used to substitute for a previously mentioned verb phrase ('grow') to avoid repetition, typically followed by manner or time adverbials.
If the government decides to cut taxes, it must do so prudently.
EN: The present participle clause 'rising 30%...' functions as a non-finite adverbial clause of result or supplementary explanation, modifying the preceding main clause.
The company expanded rapidly overseas, opening five new branches within a single year.
EN: In Westminster-style parliamentary democracies such as Australia, the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) is an independent, non-partisan statutory body. It provides objective fiscal costings and budget analysis directly to parliamentarians, playing a crucial role in fiscal debates between the government and the opposition.
EN: The sentence begins with an elliptical past participle clause ('Even [when] adjusted for inflation...'). In formal and journalistic English, participle clauses frequently function adverbially to express concession, condition, or time, omitting the subject and auxiliary verb ('Even when they were adjusted...') because the implied subject matches the main clause subject ('federal outlays').
Even stripped of government subsidies, the renewable energy sector demonstrated strong profitability.
EN: The construction 'with + noun phrase + present participle (V-ing)' functions as an absolute phrase (or prepositional absolute structure), providing supplementary circumstance, cause, or breakdown of a broader trend. Here, 'driving much of the growth' acts as the participial complement attributing causality to 'defence, health and the National Disability Insurance Scheme'.
Consumer prices rose sharply last month, with housing and transport costs leading the surge.
EN: The 'National Disability Insurance Scheme' (NDIS) is a landmark social welfare reform introduced in Australia to fund support for individuals with significant and permanent disabilities. In recent years, its rapidly escalating budget has become one of the most prominent topics in Australian federal fiscal policy debates, alongside defence and healthcare expenditure.
EN: Inverted conditional with 'Should': In formal or written English, conditional clauses beginning with 'if' can omit 'if' and invert the subject and auxiliary verb 'should' ('Should + subject + bare infinitive...'). This denotes a hypothetical or possible future condition, equivalent to 'If the Reserve Bank should raise...' or 'If the Reserve Bank raises...'.
Should you require further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact our customer support team.
EN: Parenthetical clause introduced by 'as': The clause 'as markets widely expect' functions as an evaluative parenthetical commentary, meaning 'just as / in accordance with what is widely expected'. The adverb 'widely' modifies the transitive verb 'expect', where the clausal object is implied by the preceding proposition.
The economy contracted in the third quarter, as analysts had widely anticipated.
EN: Predicate structure 'be likely to + bare infinitive': Used to denote probability or likelihood. 'Pressure... is likely to intensify' expresses that an increase in pressure on the subject is an expected or probable outcome if the initial condition is met.
With temperatures dropping below freezing tonight, roads are likely to become hazardous.
EN: In the Australian political and economic system, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) operates independently of the federal government and usually announces its interest rate decisions on the first Tuesday of each month (except January). The 'Treasurer' is Australia's senior cabinet minister responsible for government expenditure, taxation, and economic policy (equivalent to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the UK or the Secretary of the Treasury in the US). When the RBA raises rates, the political heat often falls directly onto the incumbent Treasurer, especially during periods of high inflation.
EN: The absolute/prepositional construction 'with + noun phrase + complement (past participle)' expresses attendant circumstances, causal backdrop, or background state. Here, 'locked in' acts as an object complement modifying 'these commitments'.
With the contract already signed, the company had little room for renegotiation.
EN: The idiomatic metaphor 'levers to pull' originates from mechanical controls and is widely used in economics and politics to denote policy tools, mechanisms, or options available to influence an outcome. It is often paired with quantifiers like 'few' or 'many'.
Central banks have several levers to pull when attempting to curb runaway inflation.
EN: The present participle clause 'making...' functions as a non-finite result clause modifying the whole preceding independent clause, followed by a comparative clause 'than it first appears', where 'first' means 'at first glance/initially'.
The crisis escalated rapidly, making an amicable resolution far harder than it first appeared.
EN: In Westminster-style parliamentary systems like Australia's, the 'Treasurer' corresponds to the Minister of Finance or Chancellor of the Exchequer. Much of modern federal expenditure is legally or structurally nondiscretionary—such as legislated indexation, defence pacts, and social support frameworks like Medicare or the NDIS—meaning an incoming government cannot swiftly slash outlays without political backlash or legislative gridlock.
Key vocabulary words with IPA pronunciation, definitions, example sentences, and interactive quizzes.
Phrases with type tags, bilingual definitions, usage notes, and example sentences.
The most prominent, comprehensive statistic in a report (often referring to headline inflation which includes volatile goods like food and energy)
A measure of inflation that removes temporary or volatile price changes to show the core, persistent trend
Fixed, committed, or bound firmly so that changes cannot easily be made
Methods, policy options, or mechanisms available to influence or control a situation