Budget 2024 news bulletin
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TRANSCRIPT
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers has handed down the 2024 Budget with a focus on addressing cost-of-living pressures and stubborn inflation.
Dr Chalmers has delivered a $9.3 billion surplus for the current financial year in the first back-to-back budget surplus seen in close to two decades after last year's $22 billion surplus.
Dr Chalmers says Australia’s budget has returned to surplus faster than any other major advanced economy.
Inflation is the Budget’s primary focus in the near term, and Treasury forecasts headline inflation could return to the target band by the end of 2025.
The Reserve Bank has a more conservative estimate, reckoning that’s unlikely to happen for another year after that.
The Government believes relief on energy bills and rent assistance will directly reduce headline inflation by half of a percentage point in the next financial year.
Dr Chalmers cays Australia is in an enviable position:
"We have an envied combination of moderating inflation, record new jobs, near-record participation, real wages growth, the lowest-ever gender pay gap, and expanding business investment. "
The Treasurer says the world’s commitment to net zero by 2050 will demand a massive transformation in the global economy not seen since the Industrial Revolution.
He says Australia’s 23 billion dollar Future Made in Australia package aims to make Australia a major player in that transformation.
The package – one of the biggest announced in this budget - includes measures to attract investment in key industries that can make Australia a renewable energy superpower.
There’s 14 billion dollars in incentives to reward industries producing green hydrogen and processing critical minerals.
1.7 billion dollars will go to an innovation fund to develop new industries.
It also looks at reforming tertiary education to provide more skilled workers in those key industries.
Dr Chalmers says it's about targeted investment to help Australian industry.
"We've all got a responsibility to make sure that we get value for money. This is not some kind of free for all of public money. It's a very rigorous, very robust framework, which is designed to leverage private capital and private investment in the future of our economy that will be governed in part by the future made in Australia act that the Prime Minister flagged but also by the national interest framework."
Budget 2024 puts more money into Medicare with 882 million dollars’ funding aimed at helping Australians get medical support without having to stay in hospital, freeing up beds for patients who do.
There’s 362 million dollars to expand the range of free mental health services.
The Government believes it will save more than 33 million dollars over three years by reducing the length of time allowed for a Medicare claim to be lodged from two years to one.
Nearly half a billion dollars will go towards improving access to medicines including a one year freeze on the maximum co-payment of a Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme prescription.
Three-and-a-half billion dollars will see new medicines listed on the PBS, including medicines combating cardiac disease.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says it's making a range of investments in the system:
"And one of more than $3 billion in PBS listings, almost $3 billion in strengthening Medicare, including the urgent care clinics, more than $2 billion invested in aged care, and also some provisions for imminent decisions from the Fair Work Commission on wages in the care economy, we've tried to make a responsible provision for that as well. And that's really important."
Changes to the Stage Three Tax cuts will bring in additional revenue this financial year and will be close to revenue neutral over the next five years.
Stage three tax cuts were the final step of tax changes legislated by the former Coalition government, removing a tax bracket and taxing income between $45,000 and $200,000 at a rate of 30 per cent.
The new plan spreads cuts across the existing tax brackets, reducing the 32.5 bracket to 30 per cent, and increasing the thresholds for tax brackets.
Households and small businesses will see a total of 3.5 billion dollars in energy bill relief.
From July 1st, more than ten million households will get a total rebate of 300 dollars over the year.
Eligible small businesses will receive 325 dollars over the same period.
The Government expects this to reduce headline inflation by half of a percentage point while not adding to broader inflationary pressures.
The rollout of cheap, renewable power generation is being credited with reducing wholesale electricity prices by 8 percent in the first quarter of this year.
The Albanese Government wants to attract migrants to help create jobs and drive productivity in Australia while still bringing migration numbers down to what it calls a ‘sustainable level’.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the government has capped 2024-25 Permanent Migration Program at 185,000 places, with a focus on skilled migrants, particularly in healthcare professions.
