Federal budget 2022 winners and losers: Mackay, Isaac, Whitsundays
Mother-of-four Abbey Hammond has been doing it tough under skyrocketing cost-of-living pressures and she says the federal budget could well ease the pressure.
Mackay
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Mother-of-four Abbey Hammond sat on the driveway of her home in West Mackay as two of her children played freely around her.
Speaking just hours before the release of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s ‘cost of living’ budget, Mrs Hammond said shortages and price rises on everything from food to daycare were delaying her Australian dreams.
“It’s hard to get back into the workforce when you are paying for daycare as well,” she said.
“And we’re currently renting and the price of rent is really hard as well.”
Mrs Hammond works part-time as a health assistant and her husband generates a full-time stream of income in the mining industry, but it’s almost not enough.
She said there was a shortage in childcare services, petrol prices are “a lot more than normal” and $100 at the supermarket does not go nearly as far as it used to.
“Basically, we probably spend easily about $400 a week,” she said.
“And I reckon that’s increased by about $60 above normal.
“Every time you go and do a shop, you don’t walk out with much for $100.”
She said the “pressure” had escalated in the past six to eight months.
“It’s definitely still tight, you’ve still got to budget really carefully and it’s just those little splurge activities or little weekend holidays that you probably tighten up on.”
Mrs Hammond wants to get her family into a home of their own in Queensland.
She said the one thing the government could do to win her over would be to make that process easier.
“Our main thing is you want to try and buy a home, but banks don’t really want a bar of you,” she said.
“Their lending criteria has really tightened up.
“So that deposit that you think you have, the goalposts keep changing.
“There’s not much for everyday families trying to get into the market to buy.
“There’s no relief there.”
Later in the evening, Mrs Hammond expressed optimism the budget would help ease the cost-of-living pressures bearing down on her.
“Pulling it apart, it just makes you feel a bit more positive moving forward and it takes that week-to-week stress off families,” she said.
She welcomed the government’s 50 per cent cut in fuel excise, estimated to save families with two cars $700 in six months.
“I reckon that will be huge,” she said.
Dawson MP George Christensen agrees and said he was pleasantly surprised to see the 50 per cent cut.
“I think the only thing that could have been done better than that is to get rid of it altogether,” he said.
Her family could also benefit from the new Regional Home Guarantee, designed to help ‘middle Australians’, including those who are non first-home buyers, get into the property market in the regions.
The scheme allocates 10,000 places a year out to 2025 for those who have not owned a home in the past five years.
Under the scheme, a deposit of just 5 per cent will be required for a home purchase in a regional location.
“You just feel a bit more positive getting into the market,” she said.
“I feel like it’s more achievable.
“It’s a bit more promising to families.”
Mrs Hammond said she would also investigate whether she was eligible for the government’s proposed one-off $420 cost of living tax offset.
Resources communities nab a budget boost
The government has declared Central and North Queensland one of four ‘regions of national importance’ and resources communities from Mackay to Emerald stand to gain.
A $2bn regional accelerator program will target local priorities in infrastructure, manufacturing, skills and training, research and development and education.
The budget also allocates $200m over five years for a ‘critical minerals accelerator initiative’, designed to speed up the development of the nation’s budding critical minerals sector.
An extra $2bn in funding for the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund is also locked in.
On budget night, Queensland Resources Council chief executive Ian Macfarlane said Central and North Queensland’s resource communities had delivered an outsized contribution to government coffers in the Covid era and the budget was now returning the favour.
Mr Macfarlane said the critical minerals initiative would be a boon for Central and Northwestern Queensland and praised the budget’s investments in skills-training, a core area of concern for resources firms.
“What I really liked about the budget, particularly from my background and where we’re spending a lot of energy at the moment, is around the training and apprenticeships area,” he said.
“That’s really important to make sure we get the next generation of Australians, not only into work, but into work that is well-paid and gives them the opportunity to be a part of the resources sector.
“So we’re very pleased about that.”
Mr Christensen said the Dawson region was set to benefit from “massive” new investments in water resources, telecommunications and local roads and community infrastructure, the fruits of existing near strategic port infrastructure.
“The government has identified that these are the areas where there needs to be massive new investment to generate new agriculture and manufacturing capacity,” he said.
“It’s all about strengthening the economy to strengthen the country and you do that where you have ports.
“We just happen to have in the northern part of the electorate the Port of Townsville, in the middle Abbott Point and in the bottom part of the electorate Dally Bay (Dalrymple Bay) and Hay Point.
“And then of course the Port of Mackay, which is strategic for fuel.
“The electorate offers a lot and I can only assume will be offered a lot of that additional funding that is being spoken about.”
Budget ‘delivers’ on a range of fronts for Dawson
Larger-than-life federal member Mr Christensen says the budget “delivers” on a range of fronts for the voters of Dawson.
By his calculation, the budget earmarks almost $60m of dedicated local spending in 2022-2023, part of a larger $750m spend on projects across multiple years.
Some projects set to receive funding include stage 2 of the Mackay Ring Road, upgrades on Shute Harbour Rd and the construction of a new aquaculture and agriculture tech hub in the Whitsundays.
On top of that, Mr Christensen said Dawson would benefit from more Bruce Highway funding, which will include overtaking lanes and safety upgrades to improve commutes up and down the electorate.
He also heralded the beginning of a plan for a four-laned Bruce Highway from top to bottom.
“Interestingly, there is an allocation of funding for a Bruce Highway duplication strategy,” he said.
“It’s a good start to see at least governments are now thinking about four-laning the Bruce Highway from top to bottom.”
Mr Christensen also claimed the budget would deliver on the health front, particularly on magnetic resonance imagings.
“What they are going to do is deregulate and expand access to Medicare-funded MRI services in regions like ours,” he said.
He said licensing requirements would change so that any MRI machine that met necessary safety and quality standards could be funded via Medicare.
“That’s going to mean a lot to people who are having to travel a long way or wait to get an MRI scan,” he said.
The view from Capricornia
Capricornia MP Michelle Landry has described the budget as a “win for Capricornia.”
She claimed the budget had locked in a stronger future for all Australians while providing targeted cost-of-living relief for working families.
“The government is introducing a new temporary, targeted and responsible cost-of-living package to take the pressure off household budgets,” she said, highlighting the proposed six-month 50 per cent fuel excise cut and one-off $420 cost-of-living tax offset.
She praised the budget’s $1bn allocation to help small businesses go digital.
She also singled out the budget’s $2.8bn allocation for apprenticeships, a core concern for businesses across the region confronting a severe skills shortage.
She also emphasised the government’s investment in infrastructure projects across the electorate, including already-announced funding for the Phillips Creek Bridge and Walkerston Bypass which has been labelled a waste of taxpayer millions.
Ms Landry also highlighted wider budget measures that would help small businesses.
• Small businesses will have access to a new 20 per cent bonus deduction for eligible external training courses for upskilling employees.
• The Skills and Training Boost will apply to expenditure incurred from Budget night until June 30, 2024, providing $550 million in tax relief.
• The government is also providing $1 billion for a new Technology Investment Boost to encourage small businesses to go digital.
• Small businesses will be able to deduct a bonus 20 per cent of the cost of expenses and depreciating assets that support digital uptake.
• Expenditure of up to $100,000 per year will be supported by this new measure, which applies from Budget night until June 30 2023.
Ms Landry has held the seat of Capricornia since 2013.
The mammoth electorate stretches from Rockhampton in the south to Collinsville in the north and takes in a substantial bulk of the Bowen Basin to the west.
Budget preview – what we were hoping for
Between Tuesday’s federal budget and the soon-to-be-called Federal Election, there are cash splashes galore.
From mega dam projects to cost-of-living support, the budget was expected to pump billions of dollars into Mackay, Isaac and the Whitsundays.
Capricornia MP Michelle Landry hoped the budget would provide responsible and practical help for households facing cost-of-living pressures.
“Cost-of-living pressures that are the result of the invasion of the Ukraine and ongoing global supply chain issues from Covid-19,” she said.
Ms Landry also said the budget would guarantee essential services like health, education, aged care and the NDIS.
What we knew we were getting
• $14.4m for Phillips Creek Bridge
• $100,000 for the Collinsville QCWA
• $483 million to build the Urannah Dam
• $480 million grant to NBN CO towards an upgrade of the entire fixed wireless network.
• $6.2m for Artillery Road and Greenlake Road Upgrades
• $1.3m for Dysart-Clermont Road Upgrade
• $1.2m for Eaglefield Road Upgrade
• Doubling the Home Guarantee Scheme to 50,000 places a year
What we were looking for
Mackay MP Julieanne Gilbert wanted the government to commit to a 50-50 state-federal split on health spending, a proposal Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath raised.
“We have got a growing population and we’ve got people moving here, so we need to be able to continue with confidence,” Ms Gilbert said.
“Everybody in the region pays their taxes so we deserve to have that money coming back through health.”
She also wants to see increased spending on road infrastructure.
Mackay Mayor Greg Williamson expects the budget to deliver ‘buckets’ of money rather than line-by-line items, and hopes to see investments in social infrastructure, energy, water security and digital connectivity which Mackay can draw from.
“Digital connectivity is critical to us,” he said.
“Digital connectivity will enable things like the agtech industry to take a hold here.”
In terms of specific projects, Mr Williamson listed the city’s proposed levee banks as a crucial step to protect the city and drive down insurance premiums.
The council needs an estimated $30m to build the new flood protection system.
Isaac Regional Council is calling for a $2.8m allocation to redevelop the Nebo Showgrounds.
Mayor Anne Baker said Nebo Showgrounds was a critical piece of community infrastructure and it was time for Canberra to take notice.
“This facility supports our grassroot industries, community groups and neighbouring towns hosting over 685 events annually,” she said.
“From the national events like the Nebo Rodeo to its role in supporting the agricultural sector, communities in regional Australia are built on places like the Nebo Showgrounds.”
Dawson MP George Christensen is looking for three big things from the budget, one of which is funding for Urannah Dam.
“The second thing that I would like to see is funding to continue on the coal-fired power station project in Collinsville,” he said.
“That’s an important thing for our region as well.
“The third is a big thing, it’s a huge thing, but I really hope that, if not this budget, we see in a budget sometime soon, a fully-funded plan in place, that might take decades to do, to four-lane the Bruce Highway from top to bottom. That would be a great budget for Queensland and North Queensland.”
Mr Christensen said a four-laned Bruce Highway could cost up to $100bn to build.
“It’s not a small project by any stretch of the imagination,” he said.
The election is expected to be called shortly after the budget.
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