This is predominantly a ballot friendly budget with A$8.6 billion in tax rebates and one-off payments. It also delivers relief to Australian motorists at the petrol pump through a cut to the fuel excise.
The government also addresses national security with a A$10 billion cyber security package. With a theme of relief for voters, small business incentives and beefed-up defence spending, these meet expected election themes of economic management and maintaining a national security presence. There is funding for infrastructure, skills training, the regions and aged care. Let's have a look at the winners and losers in a nutshell.
Winners
Australian Motorists and Transportation Businesses
For the next six months, Australians will save 22 cents a litre every time they fill up their car after the halving in the fuel excise. The treasurer claims that a family with two cars who fill up once a week could save about A$30 a week or roughly A$700 over the next six months. The cuts will cost the government A$5.6 billion.
Lows/Middle Income Earners
A cost of living offset benefit to taxpayers means they will receive A$420 through an increase to the lower and middle-income tax offset, which, depending on income levels, could mean a rebate of up to A$1500 when eligible taxpayers lodge their 2021-2022 tax return. Pensioners, carers, veterans, job seekers, eligible self-funded retirees and concession card holders, an estimated six million Australians, will receive a A$250 cost of living payment, to be delivered within six weeks.
Small Business
The budget includes training incentives for small business, offering a A$120 tax deduction for every A$100 a small business spends on employee training. There are also rebates for “small businesses that are embracing the digital revolution.”
Every hundred dollars small businesses spend on digital technologies like cloud computing, e-invoicing, cyber security and web design will also attract a A$120 tax deduction up until 30 June 2023. This incentive is capped at expenditure up to A$100,000 per year for individual businesses.
First and Single Parent Home Purchasers
To try and address housing affordability and encourage the number of first home buyers, the budget doubles the number of available places in the Home Guarantee Scheme to 50,000 each year.
Over the past year, 160,000 people purchased their first homes through the scheme, which enables single parents to buy a home with a deposit as low as 2 per cent, with a 5 per cent deposit for first home buyers.
The budget also increases support for affordable housing by A$2 billion through the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation.
Apprentices and Trainees
The government has extended its support in boosting the apprenticeships scheme, providing A$5000 payments to new apprentices over two years and extending subsidies of up to A$15,000 for employers who take them on.
Regional Australia
The budget includes a new $A7.4 billion investment in more dams and water projects to improve water security and expand irrigation, and a new $A2 billion regional accelerator program to invest in skills, education infrastructure, export market development and supply chain resilience in the regions.
The budget also addressed mobile phone and internet coverage in regional Australia through a A$1.3 billion telecommunications package to expand mobile coverage across 8000km of regional transport routes.
Infrastructure
The budget also makes commitments to several strategic infrastructure projects around the country.
Losers
Renewable Energy
Renewable energy funding in the budget has been largely ignored, which means no new direct funding for renewable energy.
There is just under A$250 million over five years for technologies such as hydrogen, and A$84 million for community microgrid projects in regional and rural Australia and although they sound large, they aren't significant.
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