Federal Budget 2019: Payments up to $125 to help with power bills
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is pinning his election hopes on a feelgood Budget this week, including power bill assistance for nearly a million Queenslanders.
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MILLIONS of battlers will be gifted a one-off cash bonus to help pay their power bills, in a feel-good federal Budget underpinned by tax cuts and reward for aspiration.
The Sunday Mail can reveal an energy assistance payment of $75 for singles and $125 for couples will be deposited into the bank accounts of four million Australians — including more than 800,000 Queenslanders — by June 30 if approved by Parliament.
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In Queensland, more than 471,000 age pensioners, 55,000 carers, 153,000 disability support pensioners, 61,000 single parents and almost 64,000 veterans will be eligible for the payment.
The modest hip-pocket relief, totalling $285 million, sets the scene for a positive Budget on Tuesday, which will deliver the first surplus in over a decade.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is expected to call an election next Sunday.
The Sunday Mail has confirmed the Budget will include tax cuts that are better and deliver sooner than a seven-year package announced by Mr Morrison last year.
However the Government is unlikely to blow its better-than-expected bottom line on widespread cash splashes to win over voters.
Instead, it is planning to keep money aside for a rainy day, especially as trade tensions and Brexit continue to dog the global economy.
Bankrolled by a surge in resources exports, booming corporate tax receipts, more people in work and the lowest rate of welfare dependency of the working-aged in 30 years, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s first Budget will set aside social dividends through tax cuts, the one-off energy payment and cheaper medicines.
The energy assistance payment will help low-income voters in several key seats around the country, especially in Queensland, where the Government is fighting to hold nine marginal seats.
The Sunshine State had the highest rate of residential electricity disconnections in 2017-18.
“The Energy Assistance Payment will provide cost-of- living relief to more than 800,000 Queenslanders who are doing it tough,’’ Mr Frydenberg said.
“This will give a direct hip-pocket boost for eligible veterans, carers, single parents and those on aged and disability support pensions across Queensland.
“The payment will help to cover the next energy bill and ease the cost-of-living pressures for hundreds of thousands of Queensland households. We understand that the cost of living pressures are a very real challenge for many Queenslanders.”
The Government will spruik the Budget as making people’s lives easier, rewarding hard work, securing a better future and keeping Australians safe.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister declared it was a “Budget for Australians who aspire to keep doing better”.
With an election date of May 11 or 18, Mr Morrison is expected to make a beeline to Queensland after the election is called to sell the Government’s Budget and tout a multibillion-dollar infrastructure package.
Mr Morrison, who was the treasurer last year before Malcolm Turnbull was rolled, revealed a three-part tax plan, which could pave the way for the Government to bring forward tax cuts, especially the more substantial changes set for 2022-23.
Under those tax reforms, the $37,000 threshold would be lifted to $41,000, meaning 500,000 Australians would not be hit with a marginal rate of 32.5 per cent. The $90,000 threshold was also set to be raised to $120,000, saving 1.8 million Australians paying 37 cents in the dollar.
But the tax showstopper is scheduled for 2024-25, when the 37 per cent tax bracket is abolished.
It means most working Australians earning more than $41,000 are unlikely to ever face a higher marginal tax rate for the rest of their working lives.
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