This year’s budget is made up of 997 pages of spending and revenue measures across four budget papers, along with a 74-page glossary, 48 press releases, a 15-page speech, plus sundry fact sheets, bills, portfolio budget statements and explanatory memorandums.
In short, it’s a lot of reading, even for a six-hour lock-up. So we found reprieve in a search of interesting bits that might otherwise get overlooked. Here are 11 of them.
1. More people, but also less
The pandemic turned Australia’s population predictions upside down with the first outflow of migrants since the second world war. Though the last two years saw immigration pick up again, it is not predicted to return to the level forecast before the pandemic until 2029-30. And when that happens, the total population is expected to be 2.5% lower than pre-pandemic forecasts (because fewer babies are being made).
2. Cyber-savvy spooks
Australia’s overseas spy agency, Asis, will get $468.8m to modernise. What that means, we don’t know, and they’re probably not allowed to tell you (without also killing you). Perhaps it’s moving from wiretapping landlines to digitised espionage – but whatever it is, it’s not cheap.
3. Scams and spam slammed
Most of us are familiar with scam text messages about missing toll payments or parcels delivered to the wrong address. The government is cracking down on them with $86.5m over four years, including a $58m national anti-scam centre, $17.6m for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to identify and take down phishing websites and other websites which promote investment scams, and $10.9m to establish and enforce an SMS sender ID registry to impede scammers seeking to spoof industry and government brand names in message headers.
4. Vapes out
Higher taxed tobacco will pay for new anti-vaping campaigns that will roll out over the next four years. There’s $63.4m in the advertising campaign and $29.5m for support services to help people quit smoking and vaping in a move to stamp out the habit.
5. Spaced out
The government talks a big game about Australia’s involvement in the global space industry but we will continue to float by the US and Russia as a mere speck following the budget. The Australian Space Agency will get $34.2m over three years – probably as much as Nasa spends on paperclips each year.
6. Museum piece
Questacon – the highlight of every year six student’s trip to Canberra – will get $59.7m over four years and $15.2m a year ongoing for upgrades and to boost Australia’s Stem education and science engagement. High hopes are held for much of that funding going towards gold-standard refurbishment of the vertical slide.
7. You will never escape
Say farewell to dreams of cheap post-pandemic travel. The cost of leaving Australia by sea or air will increase from $60 to $70 a passenger from 1 July 2024, which is expected to raise $520m over five years. Even Alan Joyce would blush at that kind of cash grab.
8. A good fit
The National Measurement Institute (it may surprise some readers that Australia has a National Measurement Institute) will get $51.2m over two years to make sure our metres, litres and kilograms add up.
9. Footy frenzy
Anthony Albanese was in Hobart to announce $305m in funding for the Hobart stadium, so it’s not exactly a surprise that this was enshrined in the budget papers. Though delightful to some AFL supporters, many in Tasmania believe the money could be better spent on their severe housing crisis.
There’s also $3.4bn over 10 years for the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games, including $2.5bn to develop Brisbane Arena and up to $935m for new or upgraded venues.
10. More staff for politicians
Politicians will get additional funds for “frontline electorate staff resources”. The measure also increases funding for politicians’ travel expenses, as it “extend(s) the nominated traveller expense entitlement to every parliamentarian”, with a total cost of $159m over four years.
11. No more fake news
Say goodbye (we wish) to online echo-chambers of hand-picked false-facts: $7.9m will be invested into the Australian Communications and Media Authority to combat online misinformation and disinformation in an effort to reduce the spread of false content on global digital platforms.
And our good colleagues at the Australian Associated Press will get $5m over two years. Australia’s national broadcasters are also leaving this budget better funded, with $6bn going to the ABC and $1.8bn to SBS – including $45m dedicated to content for Chinese- and Arabic-speaking communities.
