The budget's great for small business but not for jobs or the less well-off.
That's the verdict of stakeholders after Treasurer Joe Hockey handed down his second federal budget on Tuesday.
The business lobby has locked in behind the coalition government, demanding Labor and the minor parties in the Senate pass measures it believes will boost productivity and growth.
"Australia cannot afford another 12 months of obstruction and denial. The budget is without a doubt a shot in the arm for small business," Business Council of Australia CEO Jennifer Westacott said.
Small business will get a corporate tax rate cut of 1.5 per cent, an annual five per cent tax discount of up to $1000 a year for unincorporated businesses and, from budget night, an immediate tax deduction for all items purchased by a small business up to $20,000.
"It's not some mealy, little, miserable opportunity, it's a $20,000 hit," Council of Small Business Australia CEO Peter Strong said.
The Australian Trucking Association estimates more than 45,000 trucking businesses will benefit.
But unions aren't so sure that will translate to jobs for the broader economy.
ACTU president Ged Kearney says the 1.5 per cent tax cut for small business will save the average outlet no more than $20,000 a year - not enough to hire new staff.
The unemployment rate is still forecast to remain above six per cent for the next three years.
"Australia is facing the threat of slipping into long-term structural unemployment, particularly in parts of the country like Tasmania, Adelaide and Geelong," AMWU national secretary Paul Bastian.
Welfare groups are equally muted, saying last year's divisive and unfair budget continues to casting a shadow.
"Welcome measures in 2015 like investing in child care are linked to unfair measures like 2014's family payment cuts," Australian Council of Social Service CEO Cassandra Goldie said.
"The government has yet to find alternatives to cutting health, education, community services and family and youth payments for its savings measures.
"On the whole people on low incomes are still left to do most of the heavy lifting."
While the government's planned changes to child care were broadly welcomed, some groups remain concerned about the impact on stay-at-home mums - who get little.
The decision to make "double dipping" mums chose between their government and work sponsored paid parental leave schemes is also rankling.
But perhaps the biggest criticism comes from aid groups after the budget confirmed a decision to reduce the overall foreign aid program by an unprecedented $1 billion to $4 billion in 2015/16.
Anti-poverty group ActionAid Australia's executive director Archie Law said the move was isolationist.
"We were expecting bad, but this is the worst budget we have ever seen for the rights and welfare of people at home and abroad," he said.
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