What the 2024-25 Victorian state budget means for you

Tax increases and broken election promises, but relief for school parents and boosts to domestic violence prevention and support. Find out what the state budget means for you.

Premier Jacinta Allan and Treasurer Tim Pallas have handed down the 2024-25 state budget. See what it means for you.

Your family

More than 700,000 students will score a $400 bonus before the 2025 school year to help their parents tackle education-related expenses, including uniforms, camps and excursions.

Parents will be eligible for the one-off bonus if their child attends a government school or if they are a concession card holder.

Parents will receive a $400 bonus. Picture: Supplied

In addition, $200 vouchers will continue to be available for eligible families to fund sporting memberships, uniforms and equipment.

And about 74,000 more prep to year 3 students will benefit from free eyesight tests.

Your job

Jobs will be harder to find and a pay rise harder to secure.

Economic growth is tipped to rise over the budget period but so is the unemployment rate, lifting from about 4 per cent at the moment – a near 50-year low – to 4.75 per cent in 2027-28.

Wage growth is also forecast to slow from 3.75 per cent in 2024-25 – the strongest in a decade – to 3.25 per cent in 2027-28.

Wage growth is also forecast to slow.

If, however, you’re looking to begin or switch careers in areas such as health, education and green energy, you’re in luck.

The government will spend $425.9m on free TAFE courses, while another $370m will go towards attracting and recruiting more early childhood educators and teachers.

More than $290m will be spent to create new jobs for former forestry workers and another $31.6m will go towards offering subsided training to cover short courses in areas such as transport, green energy, disability service and construction.

Your commute

The $10bn Airport Rail Link has been shelved for at least four years and faces an uncertain future, amid a bitter stoush between the state government and the airport.

However, works are ramping up on the contentious $34.5bn Suburban Rail Loop East between Cheltenham and Box Hill.

Sticking with the Big Build, the $14bn Metro Tunnel will open next year, freeing up space for more services and creating a new route between South Yarra and Kensington via five underground stations.

An extra $233m will be spent to prepare the network for the change.

The Metro Tunnel will open next year. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

The $10.2bn West Gate Tunnel will also open, albeit three years late, providing a major alternative to the West Gate Bridge, with $10.2m to be spent on enforcing a truck ban on local streets.

An extra $208m will be spent on road upgrades in the suburbs and regions.

Your taxes

The state government’s tax take will hit $38.9bn in 2024-25 and a hefty $45bn by 2027-28.

It will bank $11.1bn from payroll and its Covid and mental health levies in 2024-25, a revenue stream set to rise by 5 per cent a year each year over the forward estimates.

Property taxes will rise from $9.63bn in 2024-25 to $10.8bn in 2027-28.

Gambling taxes are tipped to weigh in at $2.7bn in 2024-25 and then shrink by 1.1 per cent each year over the next three years.

Total government spending will continue to rise, from $98.3bn in 2024-25 to $104.9bn in 2027-28.

The government’s wage bill will jump from $36.5bn in 2024-25 to $39.8bn in 2027-28.

Our economy

Net debt is forecast to weigh in at $156.2bn by June 2025 – $55,785 for every Victoria household per year, or $153 a day – before rising to $187.8bn in 2027-28.

The net debt burden will hit 24.4 per cent of the state’s economy, peak at 25.2 per cent in 2026-27 before falling slightly to 25.1 per cent in 2027-28.

The annual interest bill on the government’s debt will hit $6.5bn in 2024-25 — more than $2320 for every Victorian household.

The interest bill will soar by more than 40 per cent to a whopping $9.4bn in 2027-28 meaning Victoria will be paying $25.7m a day on its borrowings.

The government says it will return the budget to black by June 2026, predicting a $1.5bn surplus that will rise to $1.9bn in 2027-28.

Economic growth is expected to rise to 2.5 per cent in 2024-25 and level off at 2.75 per cent over the three years to 2027-28.

The unemployment rate is tipped to rise. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Workers will find it tougher with the unemployment rate set to rise from 4 per cent to 4.25 per cent in 2024-25 and 4.75 per cent by 2027-28.

Wage growth will slow from 3.75 per cent in 2024-25 to 3.24 per cent in 2027-28.

Your health

Plans to build a multibillion-dollar medical precinct in the new suburb of Arden, which was billed as the “biggest hospital project in Australia’s history”, have been dumped.

Instead, the government says it will build two promised hospitals in Parkville on the existing sites of the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Royal Women’s Hospital.

But three community hospitals in Eltham, Emerald Hill and Torquay – promised in the lead-up to the 2018 election – remain in doubt, pending a review.

Three out of the 10 community hospitals promised in 2018 remain in doubt.

However, more than $275m will be spent on upgrading Austin Hospital’s emergency department, $813m to build a new emergency department at Northern Hospital and $535m to expand the Monash Medical Centre.

Ambulance services will also be boosted with $146m to support capacity.

Your education

More than $1.8bn will be poured into building, maintaining and upgrading primary and secondary schools, as the state government aims to deliver 100 new schools by 2026.

There will be $1bn for 16 new schools in Melbourne’s booming outer suburbs, including Clyde North, Mickleham, Point Cook and Tarneit, as well as $227m for upgrades to 25 existing schools.

There will be $1bn for 16 new school in booming suburbs.

But the rollout of 50 government-owned childcare centres and 30 hours of funded pre-prep kinder has slowed down, as a planned employment drive recruiting 11,000 new teachers and educators has stalled.

The pre-prep program, described as a new year of schooling of 30 hours a week, will start in 2025 but will not be fully implemented until 2036.

However, there will be no change to the free kinder program, which saves parents $2500 in fees per year.

And in the wake of a spate of drownings in Victorian waterways, $73m will be spent to support schools to run swimming and water safety programs.

Your house

The Victorian Homebuyer Fund will be extended with a further $700m.

The scheme allows homebuyers with an at least 5 per cent deposit to have the government co-purchase up to 25 per cent of a residence with them.

Under the extension, the cap on purchase prices will rise to $700,000 for regional Victorians and single parents will be able to use the scheme’s dual-income threshold of $208,775.

But it is set to be scrapped in the near future, with a federal government co-buying scheme that has yet to pass through parliament named as a replacement.

As it is mooted, the federal scheme currently has lower income thresholds and purchase price caps than the Victorian scheme, meaning that in the longer term those seeking help to buy an affordable home could lose out.

The budget will crack down on dodgy builders.

If you’re looking to switch away from gas, you’re in luck.

Almost $38m will be spent on funding an extra 35,000 rebates to help households switch out gas hot water systems to more energy efficient electric systems.

And you’re now less likely to fall victim to a dodgy builder, as the housing and construction regulator gets a $63m boost.

Your business

Some 6000 businesses will stop paying payroll tax and a further 22,000 will pay less as the payroll tax-free threshold is lifted.

The threshold will rise from $700,000 to $900,000 from July 2024 and then to $1m by July 2025.

The business insurance duty will also be phased out over a 10-year period in a shift the government says will save businesses more than $500m over the four years to 2027-28.

Stamp duty on commercial property will be abolished and replaced with a new property tax of 1 per cent of the site’s value from the start of July.

Your safety

More than $210m will be spent on tackling sexual and family violence, up from $117m last year.

The boost will include $42m to more closely track alleged family violence perpetrators and $24m to boost information-sharing between frontline staff working with victims.

A host of victim-focused measures received funding boosts, including $38m for specialist support and temporary visas for victims, while another $9.2m was allocated to increase the number of staff in Victoria’s family violence workforce.

Only $12.9m has been budgeted to drive down crime. Picture: Nicholas Eagar

But despite pledges to prevent violence against women and children, funding for crime prevention across the state has been slashed by almost 50 per cent.

Nearly $24m allocated to drive down crime last year has been reduced to just $12.9m, with a significant portion of that injected into compensating victims of crime, including family violence victims.

Your regions

Communities that have been hit by flood and fire will get $300m to fund rebuilding and recovery.

Some $133m will be spent on the regional rail network, including operating new stabling yards, station and trains, as well as upgrading the 150-year-old historic rail tunnel between Geelong and South Geelong

Another $41m will be spent to maintain extra weekday services on the Warrnambool and Echuca lines while $30m will improve bus and ferry services in locations including Leongatha, Yaram and Portarlington.

The state’s waterways are set to benefit with $270m aimed at improving their quality, access and restoring wetlands and $17m will go into improving access to state and national parks.

Your culture

More than $128m will be spent to support Victoria’s galleries, museums and performance galleries, including the NGV and the Arts Centre.

Originally published as What the 2024-25 Victorian state budget means for you