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How Australians responded to the Budget

THE Treasurer has handed down a divisive Budget and the internet has responded as you might expect it to respond.

Rohan Smith and Wires
7 min read
May 3, 2016 - 9:26PM
The Treasurer is hours away from handing down his first budget. Picture Kym Smith
The Treasurer is hours away from handing down his first budget. Picture Kym Smith

Budget 2016

Welcome to live coverage of Budget 2016. We’ll be bringing you the best reactions from around the country as the Treasurer hands down his first Budget.

9.45pm

Australians dismayed “not a single mention” for climate change

There was one thing Australians felt was ignored completely in the Treasurer’s Budget and a cursory glance through the speech notes confirms the words “climate change” were indeed nowhere to be found.

It’s something that didn’t go unnoticed by those hoping for a change in policy when the world appears to need it most.

9pm

Retailers thrilled with funding boosts

There were plenty of losers in Tuesday night’s Budget but there were also plenty of winners. Among them is the struggling retail industry.

Australian Retail Association executive director Russell Zimmerman said tax cuts for small and medium-sized businesses were “just what the doctor ordered”.

It’s been a hard year to be a retailer. Picture: Jake Nowakowski
It’s been a hard year to be a retailer. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

“The ARA is pleased to see corporate tax cuts, which will help small to medium businesses and the millions of people they employ. On top of this effort, the work to offset bracket creep through personal tax threshold changes will be a boost for consumer confidence and spending,” Mr Zimmerman said in a statement.

8:40pm

Government slammed over cuts to foreign aid

Oxfam Australia spokeswoman Joy Kyriacou said the organisation has been forced to slash its aid assistance to some of the poorest regions in the world.

“Oxfam has already had to scale back lifesaving work in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Sub-Saharan Africa,” she said.

Tony Milne from Campaign for Australian Aid said the cuts “will make us the least generous we’ve ever been.

“While other countries are increasing their aid budgets, acknowledging that we are a global community, Australia is reducing its role in building a fairer world. It is people living in the poorest parts of the world who will bear the consequences of these cuts.”

Australia is the “least generous it has ever been” regarding foreign aid, advocates say. Picture Kym Smith
Australia is the “least generous it has ever been” regarding foreign aid, advocates say. Picture Kym Smith

8:25pm

Industry responds to “timid, low-risk budget”

For those keeping track, this is what the “winners and losers” list looks like out of tonight’s Budget.

Immediately following Mr Morrison’s speech, industry addressed how they’ve been affected by shortcomings.

Tim Andrews, executive director of the Australian Taxpayers Alliance, said: “Despite grand rhetoric, the budget is a timid, low-risk budget that fails to address the fundamental challenges facing the Australian economy, and represents a missed opportunity.”

Nick Heath, a spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund Australia, said: “In the shadow of the greatest coral bleaching event at the Great Barrier Reef ... why can’t we scale back the subsidies of the fossil fuel industry?”

8pm

Morrison delivers his first Budget

The Treasurer stood behind the podium and delivered a Budget speech we knew would focus heavily on “jobs and growth”.

For those drinking every time ScoMo used that phrase, bottoms up.

“This is not a time to be splashing money around or increasing the tax burden on our economy or hardworking Australians and their families,” Mr Morrison said.

“Such policies are not a plan for jobs and growth, they simply put our successful economic transition at risk.”

The Budget includes tax cuts for small and medium-sized businesses, an increase to the tobacco tax starting in 2017, big improvements in the nation’s defence capability including “nine future frigates, 12 offshore patrol vessels and 12 new regionally superior submarines”, plans to help young Australians enter the workforce and $594 million to acquire land for the proposed 1700km Melbourne-Brisbane Inland Rail project.

Pollies jumped on the Treasurer for perceived failings in education, childcare and homelessness.

7.15pm

Internet’s best responses to #Budget2016

There’s fear among the masses about what tonight’s Budget will hold for them. Panic, it appears, breeds hilarity.

Hosts of The Project came up with a novel idea for helping Aussies get through the Treasurer’s speech.

“Count how many times you hear Scott Morrison say ‘jobs and growth’,” panellist Steve Price suggested on Tuesday night’s program.

Budget Bingo is also a thing, apparently.

6.30pm

Aid workers pepper Scott Morrison’s voicemail with heartfelt plea for funding

Aid worker D’Arcy Lunn phoned the minister from the Middle East to leave a voice message begging for more foreign aid funding.

“I work in aid and development and know first hand the direct benefits on Australian aid,” he said.

“I strongly urge and hope that you and your counterparts can make good decisions for the world’s poorest people, whether they happen to be off our shores I think is insignificant when we have access to clean water, education, health and the basic things in life.”

Fairfax Media reports Morrison’s Budget will “include the least generion contribution to foreign aid in our history”.

The campaign by Australian Aid to phone the Treasurer directly includes the following emotional message from EJ, a man who moved from Ghana to Australia.

5:40pm

Prime Minister’s subtle dig at Canberra press gallery

Malcolm Turnbull has used a last minute Facebook post to take a swipe at journalists who call the nation’s capital home.

“There’s never been a more exciting time to be a politician ... as Canberra’s journalists are in the budget lock up,” he wrote.

Journalists entered the lock up around 1.30pm and won’t emerge until 7.30pm, giving the PM a rare moment of relative quiet. They will emerge to report on the Treasurer’s Budget shortly after.

Mr Turnbull reiterated that the Budget was dedicated to driving “jobs and growth” and “(making) our tax system more sustainable and fit-for-purpose for the 21st century”.

5.10pm

“Science has a communication problem”

A big loser in tonight’s Budget is expected to be science, where the Federal Government will again reduce its total spend in the industry.

UNSW researchers Chris Turney and Christopher Fogwill wrote that the trend is in line with what many other Western countries are seeing and the problem is a simple one.

“Ultimately, science has a communication problem,” the researchers told SBS News.

“We need to redouble efforts engaging with the wider community to help it understand why science matters.

“We don’t just need more scientists in society, we need people to better understand how science works.”

It’s never been more important, with reports this week suggesting the Great Barrier Reef could be dead within 20 years if something isn’t done to reverse the impact of climate change.

4.55pm

“Hospitals bad, schools bad, climate change not real”

Activists behind Australian not-for-profit group GetUp! tweeted a picture of the Treasurer’s notes ahead of the Budget, handily scrawled on a napkin featuring a smiling sun and a few coffee stains.

That’s quality work, guys but we’re still 2.5 hours away from the big announcement. Don’t wear yourselves out.

4.40pm

“Smokers could be looking at $37 a packet”

We already know it’s bad news for smokers and drinkers, with a tobacco excise hike confirmed by Finance Minister Mathias Cormann.

The Budget is expected to contain a 12.5 per cent annual increase in the price of cigarettes over four years to 2020.

Smokers: prepare to fork out a few extra bucks for that nicotine hit. Picture: Dean Lewins/AAP
Smokers: prepare to fork out a few extra bucks for that nicotine hit. Picture: Dean Lewins/AAP

H & R Block director of tax communications Mark Chapman told News Corp so-called “sin taxes” are easy to sell electorally.

“With the average cost of a packet of cigarettes in Australia at around $25 today, smokers could be looking at a shelf price of around $37 by 2019,” he said.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see alcohol taxes go up too, although the power of the alcohol industry lobbying groups may lead to a push back.”

4.35pm

Government’s planned backpacker tax “ridiculous”

The fruit industry is at risk from a measure the government is “hell bent” on including in the federal budget, an independent senator has warned.

Nick Xenophon, tipped to be a key powerbroker in the parliament after the expected July 2 election, has taken aim at the so-called “backpacker tax”, saying it may threaten the industry’s ability to harvest produce.

The government revealed the plan to tax backpackers working in the agriculture and tourism sectors at 32.5 per cent from their first dollar earned, ABC News reports.

“It could well have very negative and counter-productive effects, because I don’t think the government will collect anywhere near the amount of revenue as they think it will,” Senator Xenophon told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.

National Farmers’ Federation president Brent Finlay told the ABC the government’s plan, confirmed by a National Party backbench MP, had “reached the point of being ridiculous”.

Farmers want a tax rate below 20 per cent.

4.05pm

Dutton announces closure of 17 immigration detention centres

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton deflected weeks of negative media coverage over the government’s handling of asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru by announcing the closure of 17 detention centres around Australia.

The measure, to be announced officially when Treasurer Scott Morrison hands down his first Budget at 7.30pm AEST, followed strong statements made earlier in the day about refugee advocates “encouraging” those in immigration detention to “behave in a certain way”.

He was referring to two recent cases where a man and a woman on Nauru set themselves on fire.

Dutton was ridiculed on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon over a picture taken by Fairfax photographer Alex Ellinghausen that cast him in a particularly devious light. According to Business Insider, Dutton’s staff took exception to the image being shared.

Over to users on Twitter who had some fun with it, as you can see below.

Originally published as How Australians responded to the Budget

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