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The Federal Member for Robertson, Dr Gordon Reid, has praised the May 9 Budget’s $14.6 billion cost of living relief package, continued commitment to strengthen Medicare, and support for local small businesses.
Dr Reid said the budget would assist Australians doing it tough and would set up the Central Coast region for success.
Measures to assist Australians in the budget included:
- $3.5 billion in Medicare to incentivise general practices to bulk bill again,
- $3.5 billion in energy subsidies for eligible households and small businesses,
- a 15 per cent pay increase for aged care workers across Australia,
- $4.9 billion for support payments like the Jobseeker Payment and Youth Allowance, meaning an extra $40 per fortnight for eligible recipients, and
- raising the age cut-off for the Parenting Payment (Single) from eight to 14 years.
As expected, funding was announced to ban the sale of vapes, which will only be sold in pharmacies and with a prescription from a GP.
In plain English, the measures announced in the budget may result in more Central Coast GPs offering bulk billing services particularly for children under 16.
Those working in aged care will receive a healthy pay rise and some households will receive assistance with their electricity bills.
Those receiving Centrelink support payments have been given a $40 per fortnight increase.
Single parents will be entitled to keep receiving the Parenting Payment until their children are aged 14 instead of eight.
“This federal budget has been carefully calibrated and is targeted towards addressing the rising cost of living, without significantly contributing to inflation,” Dr Reid said.
“There have been a range of measures announced to address the rising cost of living, and I am pleased the Albanese Government can provide this support because of our disciplined and responsible approach.
“The guiding principles of our economic policy have been relief, repair, and restraint. Australians will be able to see this filter through to their household budgets as we address the cost of living.
“The Federal Government is mindful of Australians on the Central Coast struggling with the cost of living, while there is more work to be done, I am confident measures announced in this budget will help ease the pressure.
“Our nation-building and cost-of-living measures announced by the Albanese Government since we took office, measures like cheaper childcare, cheaper medicines, and fee-free TAFE, will continue benefiting the people of the Central Coast.”
“This is a sensible decision by the Albanese Government to protect Australians, especially younger people. Vaping is a significant issue in high schools and the federal government is acting”, Dr Reid said.
Meanwhile the Climate Council has described climate funding in the Federal Budget as ‘a warm up lap in history’s most important race’.
Slow jog on climate
While the Budget contains welcome temporary power bill relief and measures for some households and businesses to tap into renewables, it doesn’t meet the scale of the climate emergency Australia faces, according to Amanda McKenzie, CEO of the Climate Council.
“The measures in this budget for cost of living are, for the most part, temporary,” McKenzie said.
“This is a missed opportunity to permanently lower people’s power bills. To meet the climate challenge head on, Australia needs to urgently unlock the most affordable energy source available, renewables.
“Sure, this Budget provides renewables assistance to 170,000 households. But when you consider the critical challenge of electrifying everything with renewable power, backed with storage, for 10.8 million households, that barely gets us off the starting blocks.
“The Labor Government has demonstrated in this Budget that they want to support Australians who are struggling. Climate change makes every Australian vulnerable, so the scale of investment on climate action needs to match the task ahead of us.
“We can’t settle for a slow jog when the climate crisis calls for a sprint. Climate change is already reshaping our world, the government needs to fundamentally re-shape the Budget to tackle it.”
The Greens Federal Leader, Adam Bandt and Treasury Spokesperson Nick McKim were not as restrained in their critique as the Climate Council.
The Greens called Labor’s second budget “a betrayal of people who were promised that no one would be left behind.
“This Budget was an opportunity to lift people out of poverty and Labor didn’t take it.
“Budgets are about choices. During a worsening cost of living crisis, the government is choosing to continue with Stage 3 Tax Cuts, nuclear submarines, and handouts for wealthy property investors and fossil fuel corporations while leaving people below the poverty line, cutting the NDIS and increasing student debt by $6 billion dollars over the next two years.
“A fundamental job of government is to make sure people have the basics they need to live life with dignity.
“With rents soaring and everyday costs rising, tonight Labor’s Budget has just a $1.12 a day increase to Commonwealth Rent Assistance and $2.85 a day extra for income support recipients. Labor is leaving people in poverty.
“We need a freeze on rent increases now, we need to wipe student debt and to lift income support above the poverty line. Labor has the power to lift people out of poverty, they’ve just chosen not to use it.
“Labor told us tonight they had to make ‘hard choices’ to balance the budget. But they’re just pushing the hard choices onto people doing it tough. Forcing millions of people to choose between paying the rent, having food in the fridge or accessing medical treatment.
“At the last election, voters wanted a government that would tackle the inequality crisis. They’re still waiting.
“Labor’s surplus of $4.2 billion dollars will be no comfort for those who are trying to keep their head above water. You can’t pay rent with a surplus. Every dollar of surplus is a dollar not spent lifting people out of poverty.
“Meanwhile, gas corporations making obscene profits while cooking the planet pay next to nothing. Labor is raising more from lifting student debt than they are from their changes to the gas tax.
“There’s simply no excuse not to deliver the housing, health and income support people are crying out for – especially when they’re spending four times more on stage 3 tax cuts for the wealthy than they are on cost of living relief.
“This parliament was elected to take action on climate and the cost of living. If Labor worked together with the Greens we could immediately lift people out of poverty, freeze rent increases and wipe student debt.
“Labor may have given up on ‘no one left behind’, but we haven’t. We will fight to make sure this budget does what every government should: give people what they need to live with dignity.”
A more upbeat view on hydrogen
Government News (governmentnews.com.au) reported that Budget papers released on Tuesday contain the measures, designed to accelerate the development of Australia’s hydrogen industry and connect to new supply chains around the globe.
The Hydrogen Headstart program, to be operated by the AREA and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, will provide revenue support for investment in renewable hydrogen production through competitive production contracts for large scale projects.
The budget also contains $38.2 million over four years, and $6.5 million per year after that, for a Guarantee of Origin scheme, which will certify renewable energy and track and verify emissions from clean energy products – in particular hydrogen.
There’s also $2 million over two years to establish a fund to support First Nations communities to engage with hydrogen project proponents and planning processes.
Shift to clean energy
In his budget speech on Tuesday night, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the nation’s biggest opportunity for growth and prosperity lay in the global shift to clean energy.
“Australia’s regions can help power the world,” he said. “Hydrogen power means Wollongong, Gladstone and Whyalla, can make and export everything from renewable energy to green steel.
“Seizing these kinds of industrial and economic opportunities will be the biggest driver and determinant of our future prosperity.”
Hydrogen can be combusted for industrial heat, used as a chemical input for green manufacturing, a fuel for heavy transport, or liquified and compressed for export to our key trading partners.
“Green hydrogen is a critical enabler for future manufacturing of green metals and other products the world needs as the transformation to net zero by 2050 gathers pace,” the Treasurer said.
Regions well placed to drive growth
Climate Change and energy minister Chris Bowen said Australia already has the largest pipeline of renewable hydrogen projects in the world and its regions have the resources, technical skills and trade partnerships to drive growth.
The budget commitments announced on Tuesday would build on Australia’s established hydrogen strengths and ensure the regions that have traditionally powered Australia are well positioned in the global race for clean energy investment, Mr Bowen said.
“Australia’s great opportunity lies not just in extracting and exporting the resources that we have and that the world needs, but in moving our way up and along the value chain through processing, refining, manufacturing and recycling – all powered by renewable energy,” Mr Bowen said.
He said the government was making the biggest ever investment in Australia’s energy transformation, with $40 billion allocated to renewable energy including a new Capacity Investment Scheme that would unlock over $10 billion of investment in renewable energy projects along the east coast.
