It was the moment no government wants to see. Despite passing the House easily, the government's crowning budgetary achievement was struck down in a Senate due to a deadlocked 4-4 vote last night. Local and nationwide newspapers have reported that the deciding vote - dyljam of the Labor Party - voted down the budget due to a failure to gain the promise of an endorsement from the Greens in the seat of Lingiari.

There has been much criticism of this move from both sides of politics. Winston Wilhelmus, leader of the Liberal Party, said of the Senator that "truly he has lost his spine", Melbourne MP TheTrashMan_10 stated that the Labor Party had "ditched any semblance of being left wing", and community activist model-putrid called dyljam a "power-hungry carpetbagger". But how have average Australians reacted to this? To gauge the mood, I hit the ground in Gippsland, where almost two-thirds of residents were in favour of the budget, to speak with some locals.

A Sale-based local councillor told Pitchfork News that she was disappointed with the news, calling it "just another example of pollies working for themselves". She told us that she had met the Lingiari MP BestinBounds at an Australian Local Government Association event in Darwin, and called him "a stand-up bloke", expressing disappointment that machinations were made in Canberra to potentially unseat him. She also expressed her contention that "this budget would have done a lot for regional Australia."

However, a teacher at Yarragon Primary School was ecstatic at the news, explaining to Pitchfork News that "this budget was awful. I heard there was a $7 billion cut to schools, and that's just absolutely appalling." He told us he was disappointed in his local MP. treasurer model-kyosanto, for the budget, saying "you know, I didn't mind the guy at first, but I'm just so disappointed. He just wanted to gut our education system."

Finally, I spoke to a Briagolong resident, who told me she was sad to hear of the budget's failure. She said that she was pleased that the advocacy from her community to restore a railway connection had been recognised by the budget, and that she thought that the railway line would "bring lots of jobs and business to Briagolong, and now it's not going to happen." She was disappointed in what she called "petty politics", and told Pitchfork News that she hoped the Briagolong railway line would eventually be delivered by a future government.

- Alison Brooks, Pitchfork News