Federal budget 2024 winners and losers: households and renewable energy sectors prioritised as foreign students suffer
Some key industries are among the biggest losers. See the savings coming on top of the tax cuts here.
Households
• $7.8bn in new cost-of-living relief measures on top of the revised stage three tax cuts, which are worth $23bn in the first year
• $3.5bn over three years in energy bill relief, with $300 rebates to be paid to all households in quarterly instalments from July
• Boosting rental assistance by $1.9 billion over five years
• $95 billion in savings at the fuel bowser by 2050
Housing
• $6.2bn in new investment bringing to $32bn Albanese government’s spending on housing
• More money to train tradies to help deal with capacity constraints
Higher commonwealth rent assistance
• 1.2 million new homes by 2029
Wages
• Billions of dollars to fund pay rises for aged care and early childhood workers
• Wages growth to fall to 3.25 per in the next two financial years but lower inflation means real wages growth
• Nominal wage growth growing at fastest rate in nearly 15 years
Welfare
• NDIS support increasing from $1.9 billion in 2023-24 to $4.4 billion in 2027-28
• $227.6 million invested in a new specialised disability employment program
• $186 million for staffing resources for veteran services and $48.4 million for veterans home care and nursing programs
• Government’s NDIS reform program projected to cut $14.4bn from scheme costs over four years, offsetting projected extra costs beyond last year’s budget.
• Total NDIS costs for next four years expected to rise by 9.2 per cent annually.
• Total NDIS costs for next four years budgeted at $218bn.
Renewable energy sector
• Underlining ambition to become renewable energy superpower with $65 billion to be put towards related initiatives
• $8 billion to accelerate shift to renewable hydrogen programs
Women
• $3.4 billion for women and children to fight domestic violence
• $925.2 million in support to victim-survivors leaving an intimate partner violence relationship
• $56.1 million over four years in initiatives improving access to sexual and reproductive healthcare
• $55.6 million towards women’s participation in male-dominated industries
Health
• $882 million investment to assist the discharge of the elderly from hospitals, where they often stay for extended periods because of a lack of care in the community
• Establishment of a national digital “low intensity” early intervention mental service to provide support to people in the early stages of mental health distress, at a cost of $361m over four years
• Much of the spending on Medicare is being poured into the Federal government’s signature Urgent Care Clinics, with an extra $227m being used to fund another 29 clinics
• $18 billion agreement with states for hospitals
School students
• Federal funding for public schools will rise 15.1 per cent to total $48bn over four years.
• In private and Catholic schools, federal funding will rise 16.2 per cent to total $79bn over five years.
• $113m for programs to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in remote schools.
University students
• $3 billion in debt wiped covering 3 million Australians
• Indexation rate will be capped at the lower figure between Consumer Price Index and Wage Price Index.
• Cuts will be backdated to outstanding debt remaining on June 1, 2023
• Practical placement payments for 68,000 nursing, teaching and social work students of $319.50 per week
Budget losers
Future taxpayers
• Estimated debt of $28.3 billion for 2024-25 rising to $42.8 billion in 2025-26
• Estimated gross debt rising from $904 billion in 2023-24 to $1.112 trillion in 2027-28
• Estimated net debt rising from $499.9 billion in 2023-24 to $697.5 billion in 2027-28
Foreign students
• Visa application fee rising to $710 – double the fee for the USA and NZ
• Net migration halved to 250,000 per year – with 50 per cent of that figure expected to be students
Non-renewable resource industries
• $32.2 million to boost demand for green exports
• $1.5 billion invested in clean energy technologies and $14.3 million improving renewable supply chains
Live exporters
• Live sheep exports to be phased out by May 1, 2028 with $107 million to be invested over five years to assist the transition
People with severe mental health issues
• Psychiatric services for the most severely mental ill Australians have received no specificboost this year