Federal Budget 2021: Winners and losers, women, first-home buyers, taxpayers and universities

There’s extra cash almost everywhere you look in the Federal Budget, but some groups aren’t so lucky. See how you fared.

There’s not a lot of losers in this year’s Budget, which features extra government spending everywhere you look.

The spending spree is best illustrated by the fact that the combined deficit for the next three years – $285 billion – is higher than what was forecast in last October’s Budget, despite the much stronger-than-expected economy.

WINNERS

WOMEN: A $345 million package of health measures targets women and girls, focusing on anxiety and depression, cancers and reproductive health. There are also new measures to address domestic violence and workplace harassment, and to encourage female leadership in business.

SINGLE PARENTS: A new Family Home Guarantee Scheme will help single parents with dependent children buy a home with just a 2 per cent deposit, if they are able to service the loan.

FAMILIES: An additional $1.7 billion is being spent on childcare to increase subsidies and remove the annual cap for higher-income parents from July 2022.

DISABLED AUSTRALIANS: An extra $13.4 billion over four years will help the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which currently supports 450,000 people. Mental health services get a $2.3 billion boost.

FIRST HOME BUYERS: First home deposit incentives receive an extra 20,000 allocated places, and the amount of voluntary contributions that can be released under the First Home Super Saver scheme rises from $30,000 to $50,000 from 2022.

RETIREES: Super incentives include lowering the age from 65 to 60 to access the downsizer scheme, which allows older people to each pump $300,000 into super from sale of their family home. And work test for contributing to super is abolished for seniors aged 67-74, giving them more flexibility.

WORKERS: Low and middle-income earners get a tax offset of up to $1080 per person extended for 2021-22. Part-time workers earning less than $450 a month from an employer will finally be eligible to receive superannuation on those wages.

BUSINESSES: The Budget extends until 2023 tax incentives that allow businesses to immediately write off asset purchases and also carry back losses to offset tax paid on previous years’ profits.

AGED CARE RESIDENTS AND WORKERS: An extra $17.7 billion over five years goes to a range of aged care initiatives including increased access to nursing care, a new funding model, improving the workforce and access to care, and an extra 80,000 home care packages.

VETERANS: Almost half a billion dollars of extra money is going towards veterans’ support and acknowledgment. And there’s a Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS: An extra $1.7 billion in federal grants goes to private schools in 2021-22, giving them a bigger share of the education budget.

CEOs: Set to get a $550 billion tax break as they will no longer have to pay tax on shares (if they were offered a share package) when they leave a company.

MH17 CASE: $10.9 million over five years to “support ongoing efforts to achieve justice, truth and accountability in relation to the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17”.

PRIVATE TRAINING COLLEGES: The federal government will hand $54 million to private training colleges at risk of going broke due to the loss of foreign students stranded overseas.

AQUARIUMS AND ZOOS: The $94.6 million Supporting Australia’s Exhibiting Zoos and Aquariums program will be extended.

MEDIA OUTLETS: Google and Facebook will share millions of dollars with Australian media outlets for using their content this year, and the Australian Communications and Media Authority has been given $4.2 million to oversee the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code.

The Australian Associated Press has also been listed as a deductible gift recipient and will receive $15 million in funding.

PENSIONERS: $21.2 million over four years from 2021-22 to improve the uptake of the Pension Loans Scheme. Up to two lump sums advances will be accessible in any 12 month period, up to a total value of 50 per cent of the maximum annual rate of the age pension. Borrowers will also not have to repay more than the market value of their property.

MEDICAL AND BIOTECH INNOVATORS: Patent box to be introduced. This means that income earned from new patents that have been developed in Australia will be taxed at just 17 per cent — almost half the rate that applies to larger companies. The concession applies from income years starting on or after 1 July 2022.

LOSERS

EMPLOYERS OF PART-TIME WORKERS: The removal of the $450 per month minimum income threshold for making compulsory super contributions means bosses will have to pay all their employees’ super, no matter how few hours they work.

TAXPAYERS: National debt will remain high for years and someone has to pay for it – that means every business and worker, eventually. Repayments will become tougher when interest rates rise.

SAVERS: Budget forecasts of CPI inflation remaining at 2.5 per cent or lower until 2025 suggest record-low interest rates will remain, robbing retirees and savers of deposit account income they once enjoyed.

UNIVERSITIES: University research funding has been slashed after last year’s $1 billion bonus, while government support schemes suggest there is no rush to bring back foreign university students.

OVERSEAS TRAVELLERS: The Budget’s focus on domestic tourism assistance and promotion reinforces views that it has little interest in opening international borders any time soon.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Federal funding for public schools will grow just 7.5 per cent, while private schools will receive a 13 per cent boost from 2020/2021.

EGG FARMERS: From July 1, egg farmers will have to pay 1.1 cents for every laying chicken they have.

VULNERABLE AUSTRALIANS: The budget offered little in the way of affordable housing and homelessness initiatives. Mission Australia CEO, James Toomey said the issue had been “ignored yet again” in the budget, choosing other infrastructure over essential services.

“While we acknowledge the Government’s investment in measures to help support people into home ownership, including single parents through the Family Home Guarantee, these do not go far enough to address the structural problems with housing and homelessness in this country,” Mr Toomey said.

“The grim shortage of social housing and affordable rentals, high levels of housing stress, punitive rate of JobSeeker and other income support payments and a job market topped up with insecure, short term jobs is triggering a spike in financial distress, housing insecurity and homelessness.”

Originally published as Federal Budget 2021: Winners and losers, women, first-home buyers, taxpayers and universities