Cost of living relief but no new Geelong spending in federal budget
Locking in cheaper childcare, expanding paid parental leave and boosting affordable housing headline Labor’s federal budget released on Tuesday.
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Locking in cheaper childcare, expanding paid parental leave and boosting affordable housing headline Labor’s federal budget released on Tuesday.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ first budget caps the maximum general co-payment to $30 for a PBS script from January 1, increases childcare subsidies for 1.2m families from July next year, and scales up parental leave to six months by 2026 at a cost of $530m.
The budget funds 10,000 places to help Australians buy a home in regional areas with a smaller deposit.
Mr Chalmers warned wages, measured against inflation, wouldn’t grow in real terms until 2024.
That’s because inflation will continue to rise this year up to a 7.75 per cent peak, before falling into the range where the Reserve Bank traditionally don’t raise interest rates in 2024-25.
“When that inflation moderates, real wages are expected to start growing again in 2024,” Mr Chalmers said.
Budget papers reveal it will cost $4.78bn across four years to deliver cheaper childcare.
Paid parental leave will start increasing from July 2024 by two additional weeks a year until it reaches a 26 weeks in July 2026.
Both parents will be able to share the leave but sole parents can access the entire allocation, the government said.
On the government’s education agenda is 180,000 fee-free TAFE places next year, and $485m for 20,000 university places for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Mr Chalmers said the Housing Australia Future Fund would be set up to deliver 30,000 affordable homes in its first five years.
The government also wants to build one million new affordable “well-located” homes nationwide by 2024 to be delivered in partnership with investors and industry.
To get the ball rolling it will commit $350m for 10,000 more affordable homes.
Mr Chalmers said: “Most of this supply needs to come from the market, not the government.”
He said: “Our economic policies put a premium on resilience, our fiscal strategy puts a premium on restraint. This is important – to keep spending under control, to give ourselves a better buffer for any further downturns, and to make sure we are not adding to inflation. This budget makes hard decisions for hard times.”
The government has abolished the Building Better Regions Fund (BBRF) that will challenge the delivery of two Geelong region projects.
Under the BBRF Geelong council wanted $2m for the $18.4m Armstrong Creek library while Surf Coast Shire wanted $8.06m for its $33m facility to include a library, a museum, visitor information centre and art spaces.
Regional development mninister Catherine King said the government would establish the Growing Regions Program for an “open, competitive grants process” to deliver priorities in regional Australia. $544m will be allocated to that program.
The government will also deliver election commitments in regional areas through two other programs.
The Geelong Advertiser couldn’t find new Geelong-region specific spending in the budget.
But it delivers on Labor’s election commitments in the region including $125m for the second stage of the Barwon Heads duplication and $3m to improve palliative care at Anam Cara House.
The budget also allocates $10.3m to expand the Sport for All program to connect people with disabilities to sport in the Geelong region and other areas nationwide.
Elsewhere the government will spend $1.4bn for local community, sport and infrastructure projects which was expected to include money for the redevelopment of the South Barwon Cricket Club.
The budget allocates about $155m to the Geelong City Deal between 2022-23 and 2023-24 to support the Shipwreck Coast Master Plan, Great Ocean Road projects and Geelong CBD projects.
Budget papers reveal the cost of National Disability Insurance Scheme, administered from Geelong, was $29.87bn in 2021-22 — about $878m more than Medicare.
The government predicts the NDIS cost will rise to $51.78bn in 2025-26 — $16bn more than Medicare.
The NDIS cost includes agency, participant support and administration expenses.
The scheme will continue to expand in 2022-23 with 380 more permanent staff joining the
NDIA at a cost of $158.2m.
In 2022-23 the government will also spend $137.7m to combat fraud within the NDIS and $5.8m to keep NDIS disputes out of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Originally published as Cost of living relief but no new Geelong spending in federal budget
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