Australian treasurer Josh Frydenberg hands down Australia budget 2021 in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Tuesday, 11 May. Photograph: Sam Mooy/Getty Images
Australian treasurer Josh Frydenberg hands down Australia budget 2021 in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Tuesday, 11 May. Photograph: Sam Mooy/Getty Images
There is a lot more to get through with the budget - but you should sleep! - so we will wrap up the blog now and return tomorrow morning when we have all had a chance to let our subconscious mull it over.
There’s a lot more to say - the environment spending, Indigenous spending and university spending leaves a bit to be desired.
Plus, we are still looking at a lot of short term spending measures and what this government is trying to do - beyond winning the next election.
Thank you so, so much for joining us today - I’ll be back early tomorrow for the first post budget parliament sitting day - including question time, so hang on to all that is dear to you for that. And please - think of me. This is a looong week and I am so glad I get to do it with you guys - you make it all a lot easier.
Check out the rest of the budget coverage if you haven’t already - the team has cut through the guff for the stuff you actually need to know -and make sure you give yourself some sort of special treat before you go to bed tonight. You’ve earned it.
We’ll be back tomorrow - until then, please - take care of you.
The Australian Conservation Foundation’s Matt Rose has also responded:
Environment and climate spending represents less than 1% (0.8%) of the federal budget.
To put it another way, out of every $100 in this budget, 80 cents went to climate, water and the environment.
The Morrison government continues to shovel public money at fossil fuel projects while reducing funds for tackling climate change and the degradation of nature.
The government is throwing loose change at Australia’s climate and extinction crisis.”
Melissa Donnelly, of the Community and Public Sector Union, has criticised staffing cuts to Services Australia and Centrelink, which amount to about 800 jobs.
“These services are absolutely critical to the Australian community and we’ve all seen how critical they’ve been over the past few months, with so many Australians losing their jobs,” she said. She welcomes the budget’s inclusion of about 5,300 new public sector jobs, though warns they fail to reverse the 13,000 jobs cut since the Coalition came to power.”
And another fun tidbit in the budget - the national integrity commission staffing roster (the one that doesn’t exist yet, and probably never will) has gone from 75 to...zero
I mean, there is no real legislation for it, and it’s always been in the never-never, but still. Now it’s official.
Speaking of universities, here is the official first response from Universities Australia’s Catriona Jackson:
Governments across all jurisdictions need to come together with universities to develop a robust plan for the safe return of international students. The plan would mean the safe quarantine of students from low-risk countries.
The sector took a $1.8 billion revenue hit last year. Universities Australia estimates another $2 billion will be lost this year – against 2019 actual operating revenue.
With borders shut until mid-2022 the picture for universities will get worse – with significant flow-on effects for the nation’s research capacity and jobs, inside and outside universities.
Australia’s university sector cannot sustain these losses without serious damage to national productivity and the country’s knowledge base.”
The aged care package has prompted a mixed response, with some groups worried delays and the lack of strings attached.
There was praised tonight from the Australian Aged Care Collaboration, which brings together six aged care peak bodies including Aged & Community Services Australia (ACSA) and Anglicare Australia.
Patricia Sparrow, speaking on behalf of the group, said: “Tonight, after 20 years and 20 reviews the Australian government had delivered a long overdue comprehensive reform package for aged care.”
Sparrow said the announcements would bring “real hope” to many people, but noted it would take time to go through the detail.
But Carolyn Smith, who represents aged care workers as a senior official of the United Workers Union, said the royal commission had uncovered troubling stories of neglect, and she praised witnesses who had given evidence through that process.
“While the budget might look like a lot of money, we would say this budget still does not have enough money and it’s too little too late.”
Smith said she was concerned that $3.2bn would go to aged care providers “with absolutely no strings attached” and therefore no guarantee it would go to care rather than profits.
The timeframe of October 2023 for an increase in required amount of frontline care minutes was also a concern. “The crisis in aged care is real, it’s here now - it’s here every day.”
The UWU also pointed to the need to increase wages to retain staff in the sector. Smith was joined at the doorstop by aged care workers who spoke of the issues they had faced in the sector, including low pay and conditions.
Also, spare a thought for the university sector - it has been through an absolute horror of a year, was denied jobkeeper, has lost out from the border closures with no international students allowed in, and still doesn’t have a recovery plan.
Oh - and fun fact, we (Australian taxpayers) will be funding some sort of mRna vaccine production facility - but you aren’t allowed to know how much money we are putting into it. That’s been marked ‘not for publication’
Presumably because of some sort of commercial in confidence agreement and the on-going negotiations - but still.
John Brogden, the chair of Lifeline Australia, has praised the mental health funding. He told reporters at Parliament House:
“This is an extraordinary budget for mental health.”
Brogden pointed to the funding for a new 24/7 Indigenous mental health helpline, which he hoped would “stem the tide” of higher suicide rates among Indigenous Australians.
He also said there was funding to help support bushfire victims’ mental health, saying Lifeline was still receiving between 200 and 400 calls a day from people affected by the Black Summer bushfires.
Brogden said the budget appeared to be focused on “the middle” who fall through the cracks of the current mental health system, as recently highlighted by a Guardian Australia series.
It’s the Lammo the government doesn’t want to get rid of just yet - and here is Sarah Martin to explain it to you - much like Andrew Laming’s number in the House at the moment, the government is hoping it will get them over the line come the next poll.
Independent MP Zali Steggall says the budget is ‘short term’ relief.
And she is not happy with the environmental spending:
The Treasurer talks about being the custodians of the continent but there is barely funding to protect the environment and certainly not enough to see Australia reach net zero by 2050.
Australia is facing several crises. Biodiversity loss is accelerating, the global heating is worsening, oceans are acidifying and still overflowing with plastics. Communities are being flattened with successive, unprecedented disasters that are predicted to become more frequent and more severe. Yet the scale of these challenges has not been met with any urgency in this budget,” she said.
There is some small expenditure for responding to inevitable climate fueled disasters but the several hundred million dollars over the next decade is not enough to protect or prepare Australia for the climate impacts, which are projected to cost the economy an estimated $39 billion per year by 2050.
Any positive work to reduce emissions is also being undone by the Government’s continued ‘Gas-Fired Recovery,’ detour. This budget sees several hundred million in handouts for the Gas Industry. This is not in line with the science which is calling for a phase out of fossil fuels.
Details in the budget were also fuzzy around exactly where the $1.6 billion over 10 years put aside for the emissions reduction will go. Additionally, if you compare this to infrastructure spend of over $110 billion from the last several budgets it is a drop in the bucket.”
Georgie Dent, who has done A LOT of work on what is needed to fix child care has also responded:
“This budget falls short of delivering the long-term, systemic change that is needed to urgently improve the safety and economic security of all women.
The $1.7 billion funding for childcare is more headline than substance. While recognition that affordability of early education & care is a problem for families is welcome, this funding is spread out over three years and isn’t enough to deliver the essential reform needed to our early learning and care system.
Not one Australian family will receive the relief from childcare costs announced today until next year and disappointingly 750,000 families will miss out all together.
The Federal government will continue to fail women and children unless it delivers high quality early childhood education and care universally accessible to every Australian child.
Appropriate and secure funding for the workforce that delivers early education and care is vital. We urgently need the development and implementation of a National Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce Strategy.
Investing in early childhood education and care boosts educational achievement, helps increase workforce participation especially by women and gives children the best start in life.
In addition, the failure to expand paid parental leave is a missed opportunity. Australian parents have access to the second least adequate paid parental leave scheme in the OECD and women, children and families bear the cost.”
And for the ‘right on schedule’ budget response - the nothing if not predictable IPA, which is not happy with the spending.
From its release:
Tonight’s budget confirms that gross federal government debt will exceed $1 trillion for the first time in Australia’s history. Gross federal government debt is now equal to 45% of GDP, which is more than double what it was during the Whitlam-era.
“This is a budget that Labor would have been proud to have delivered. It commits Australia to permanently higher spending, higher taxes, and higher debt, without offering any economic reform,” said Daniel Wild, Director of Research at free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs.
Total gross government debt is now the equivalent to $37,500 per person – a staggering 1,300 per cent increase since the eve of the Global Financial Crisis.
“It will not just be our children paying back this debt, but our grandchildren and future generations.”
“The Coalition appears to have given up making the argument for economic reform and smaller government.”
“The proposed income tax cuts are illusory because the government is committing to higher taxes as a result of higher debt. The only way to have sustainable and permanently lower taxes is through sustainable and permanently less spending.”
So there has been a lot to go through tonight - so what is the main takeaway?
Well, it’s a buffet budget - a little of everything. But it is also a placeholder. A lot of the measures the government is touting are only in the short term. Which means they can be pulled in budgets in the not too distant futures.
It’s the budget you give when you think you might be losing the next election and you are not quite sure who to target, so you target everyone with something, that is also just putting things back which were missing.
Labor will be using the ‘secret cuts’ line. A lot. A long with how much did you really get for all that debt. Plus - there was a line in that Chalmers/Gallagher press release about 21 extended or new “slush” funds for a total of $4bn. Expect that to pop up as well.
Sam Mostyn, president of Chief Executive Women, said the budget has taken a “welcome focus” on women. She praises the childcare reforms, but says she is disappointed they do not come into force until next year.
Mostyn says she’s also disappointed that paid parental leave has not been dealt with in this budget, but welcomes the spending on preschool and the focus on women’s safety.
“We are also pleased to see that the government has acknowledged that women’s safety is a huge priority for this country, and that there is a pernicious issue facing women and children, and young women in particular, across the country and to see more money to be directed to women’s safety is welcome.”
Remember how we heard based on the OECD figures that we went from spending 33c per $100 in national income on foreign aid to 19c per $100?
Well, it hasn’t gotten much better.
From the budget release:
Foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne:
Australia will provide $4.0 billion in Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2021-22 with an ongoing focus on health security, stability and economic recovery in the Indo-Pacific, including $1.44 billion for the Pacific and $1.01 billion for Southeast Asia.
The Morrison Government’s funding for foreign affairs, trade and tourism is aimed squarely at building a more secure and resilient Australia while furthering our interests abroad. A region that is healthy, prosperous and stable is ultimately good for the Australian people, their security and their living standards.
In recognition of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on our region, the Government has announced temporary and targeted measures to supplement the ODA budget.
This includes an estimated $319 million in additional ODA in 2021-22, including$163 million to support our neighbours to access safe, effective and affordable vaccines; $100 million to address the economic and social impacts of the pandemic in the Pacific and Timor-Leste; and $56 million to address these impacts in Southeast Asia.
Australia will also provide $37.1 million over two years from 2020-21 for a COVID-19 support package for India, with an initial package of essential medical supplies including ventilators and oxygen concentrators
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