The Federal Government's just announced their 2023-24 budget. Here's who came out on top, and who was left behind.
The Federal Budget has dropped for the 2023-24 financial year and it’s a juicy one.
For the first time in 15 years, the Federal Government is forecasting a budget surplus of $4.2 billion.
This is the Labor Government’s first budget since 2013, and that too in a cost of living crisis, so you can bet that was high on their agenda.
Now, there’s a tonne in the budget.
And of course, after every election there will always be some major winners and some serious losers too.
In this budget, we've got investments into primary health care, welfare, and aged care. So let's dive into who the winners and losers of this year's budget are.
Winners:
This budget has a lot in store for you.
The government allocated a $3.5 billion package to revamp Medicare and support primary health care workers.
The priority here is to lower the pressure on GP clinics and hospitals.
As part of this package, the government will be tripling the bulk-billing incentive.
This will help provide free GP consultations to 11.6 million eligible Australians including children, pensioners, and other concession card holders.
Additional funding will go towards things like:
Pensioners, small businesses and those on government payments will be eligible to receive up to $500 to support with rising electricity prices.
The exact amount will differ state to state and depending on where one lives.
The government has allocated $1.5 billion that will benefit over five million households and one million small businesses.
On top of this, the government has allocated $4.9 billion over the next five years to increase support for those on JobSeeker, Austudy, and Youth Allowance.
They're set to receive an extra $40 bucks a fortnight in welfare payments.
And the news gets sweeter for older JobSeeker recipients.
The higher JobSeeker payment which traditionally was only available to recipients aged over 60, will now include individuals aged over 55.
That’s approximately 52,000 Australians who will get and extra $92.10 a fortnight.
Aged care workers, you’re getting a pay rise!
The government has committed to spend $11.3 billion to fund a 15% pay rise for aged care workers.
That’s 250,000 frontline workers who are expected to receive additional funding that’ll kick in from July 2023.
Albo’s government is committing $55.31 billion over the next four years to make childcare more affordable.
This will benefit 1.2 million families from July 1 this year.
On top of that, single parent payments (which only last until the youngest child turns eight) will be extended until the youngest child turns 14.
That means the 57,000 eligible parents currently on JobSeeker will be able to support their family with an extra $176.90 per fortnight.
This is going to cost the government $1.9 billion over the next two years.
The government is spending $2.7 billion over the next five years to increase Commonwealth Rental Assistance payments by 15%.
Commonwealth Rental Assistance is a payment program for Australians on income support or family tax benefits.
This is the largest increase in over 30 years and it’s expected to benefit 1.1 million households.
The current payments are between $97.20 and $193.62 a fortnight, and they will be increasing by between $15.73 and $31.76.
Woohoo workers! Millions of Aussies workers will soon be better off with the government’s new plan to make employers pay superannuation on payday as opposed to quarterly.
Super at the moment needs to be paid into your account quarterly, and that’s done to make administration easier for employees.
But it isn't in the best interest of workers who have been underpaid super by about $5 billion in total.
And closing off the winners with some sweet sweet news for the environment.
This was a big one…and a bit of a surprise.
The government announced a whopping $2 billion investment into the Hydrogen Headstart Program as part of the shift towards clean energy.
The government is also committing $400 million to set up the Net Zero Authority to reduce carbon emissions.
The idea behind this is to help workers transition to new jobs in cleaner industries and support investors and companies to take up more clean energy initiatives.
And lastly, the Labor government is spending $150 million to improve the quality of water in the Great Barrier Reef and $262 million for national parks.
Losers:
With the costs of the NDIS blowing out of the government’s budget, the growth rate of the NDIS will be cut from 13.8% to 8% by mid 2026.
The NDIS cost $29 billion last financial year, and that's expected to go up to $97 billion in ten years.
The government is investing $720 million over the next four years to reign in the costs of the NDIS.
The main idea behind pulling down the growth is to stop funding being used for services that were never meant to be part of the NDIS.
Big oil and gas companies are going to be coughing up $2.4 billion in extra taxes to ensure that they’re paying their fair share of tax.
This includes a cap on how much these companies can claim as deductions on capital investments.
Super balances of over $3 million will be taxed double the current tax rate, up from 15% to 30%.
It’s worth noting that this tax only applies to future earnings so everything earned up till $3 million will be taxed at 15%, and anything above, at 30%.
Yep - vaping is big on the Federal Government’s mind this budget.
They’ve allocated $234 million to cut down on illegal, non-prescription vaping.
Plus, the government will be hiking tobacco taxes by 5% per year over the next three years starting 1st September. This tax hike is expected to earn the government $3.3 billion.
Loving the budget goss? If you want to understand how the Federal Budget actually works, jump over to our article on "What actually is the Federal Budget?
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