Treasurer Jim Chalmers has delivered his post-budget address at the National Press Club.
Look back on Wednesday's updates.
Key events
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Live updates
Stay up to date with the latest news and analysis
By Bridget Judd
This is where we'll have to leave our live coverage for this afternoon, but thanks for following along!
You can look back on Wednesday's developments below, or download the ABC News app and subscribe to our range of news alerts for the latest news.
You can also catch up on the main wrap 👇
Housing crisis 'will continue' despite budget, advocacy groups say
By Shiloh Payne
Homelessness Australia chief executive Kate Colvin says the increase in the base rate of JobSeeker and other payments will be quickly eclipsed by further rental increases.
Colvin: The increase to income support payments means more desperately needed dollars will be in the hands of renters struggling to make ends meet.
But unfortunately, many recipients will still be treading water and more rent rises are expected. The truth is, the housing crisis and pressure on homelessness services will continue.
An opportunity was missed to invest in a rapid rehousing fund to acquire properties that could be almost immediately made available to homeless families.
While the Budget includes a financial surplus, it has left a social deficit of unresolved homelessness that will create hardship for families and financial costs to the community in future years.
Forecasting disaster recovery is always an estimate
By Shiloh Payne
The federal government will spend tens of millions of dollars improving the resilience of strata properties in the natural disaster-prone region of North Queensland.
The ABC's Jemima Burt has more:
Jemima: The North Queensland Strata Title Resilience Pilot Program is expected to cost a total of $40 million, to be implemented by the state government.
The budget includes billions of dollars estimated for disaster recovery funding — but the federal government says the "total cost of relief and recovery from disaster events may not be completely realised for some years".
Meanwhile, more than $11 billion will be spent on Queensland roads, with $170 million going towards improving the safety of northern Queensland's key freight and transport routes.
The budget will also see $10 million in savings over four years with the North Queensland Water Infrastructure Authority axed.
The authority established in 2019 oversaw the Hells Gate Dam project in the Flinders River Region, which was deferred in last year's budget.
Billionaire Andrew Forrest a likely budget winner with green hydrogen subsidies
By Bridget Judd
Australia's Hydrogen Headstart program has been unveiled in the 2023 budget to support a small number of "large-scale projects".
Green hydrogen is produced through clean sources of energy such as wind, hydro, or solar, and backers of the technology say it will grow to become a massive industry as the world transitions to net zero emissions by 2050.
Andrew Forrest, whose company Fortescue Futures Industry (FFI) stands to benefit from the funding boost, said the intervention would send a signal to the world that Australia was no longer "flat-footed" on green hydrogen.
Forrest: [Australia] was watching the massive investment taking place across the world and just doing nothing.
At least we've made a start now. Projects were stalling, but with a push like this, a bit of fuel in the tank, maybe but maybe projects will be dusted back off.
Read the full story by national regional affairs reporter Jane Norman.
Incentives for rural and remote GPs to bulk bill 'will ease financial pressures on patients'
By Bridget Judd
The Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRRM) has come out in support of the triple bulk billing incentives announced in last night's budget.
ACRRM President Dr Dan Halliday says that with rural indexing, specialist GPs and rural generalists in very remote areas will see an incentive increase from around $13 to $39 for a standard consultation.
Halliday: ACRRM has long called for an increase in incentives for Medicare Rural Bulk Billing as part of a broader reform package and this will ease the financial pressures on patients living in rural and remote areas and the practices who care for them.
We will be very interested to hear more about the MyMedicare initiative, which aims to better support patients with chronic disease and the healthcare teams that care for them.
We hope this initiative will include funding models which recognise and support the unique contexts and needs of rural and remote communities and the health professionals who serve them.
Regional newspapers 'disappointed' at lack of funding
By Jessica Riga
Reporting by Romy Stephens
The president of Country Press Australia (CPA) says it's "really disappointing" to see no funding for regional newspapers in the federal budget.
The budget has allocated $6 billion to the ABC, $1.8 billion to the SBS and $5 million to AAP.
Prior to the budget release, CPA and Australian Community Media penned an open letter to Treasurer Jim Chalmers calling for more federal government advertisement in regional newspapers.
CPA president Andrew Manuel says regional papers are still waiting for more support.
Andrew: From our conversations with the Communications Minister, the government is looking at news mapping and they're coming up with a structural approach to reform and protect regional news media.
But out of the budget, there has been no actual announcement which is disappointing because our industry is really struggling at the moment.
It's very concerning that there is no announcement and there has been an absolute void of advertising from the federal government.
Received a dodgy ‘unpaid road toll’ text lately? Help could be on the way
By Tom Williams
Let's turn back to the government’s $86 million strategy to crack down on scammers who fleece ordinary Australians out of billions of dollars each year.
The ABC's national consumer affairs reporter Michael Atkin joins us with more:
Michael: The strategy includes money to try to stop the fraudulent websites designed to lure people into forking over their hard-earned cash, usually with the false promise of a high-interest savings account or sky-high investment returns.
These websites often clone or misuse the identities of real Australian companies and modify legitimate documents to con victims.
The corporate regulator, ASIC, will be funded to identify these sites and have them taken offline.
There will also be a new register to crack down on dodgy text messages, called the SMS sender ID register.
It aims to reduce the scourge of messages imitating or “spoofing” private sector companies and government brand names, whether it be over a supposedly unpaid road toll or someone pretending to be concerned about your mygov account.
But there are sticking points the budget hasn’t addressed. There is increasing pressure on the banking sector to lift its game.
A recent report found few people are reimbursed by the big banks after falling victim to a scam and prevention and detection rates remain low.
The Consumer Action Law Centre’s Stephanie Tonkin says while the budget is a promising start, she is adamant the government needs to make banks liable to reimburse scam victims, except where the victim is negligent.
Chalmers: Budget aims to 'invest in future'
By Shiloh Payne
In this budget, the government has tried to give a bit to everyone, without feeding inflation.
Concerns raised over hospital funding in Victoria
By Jessica Riga
The Victorian Healthcare Association (VHA) has welcomed the federal government’s investment in more GP and team-based care but is apprehensive about hospital funding as the government transitions out of the pandemic emergency.
The VHA said its analysis of federal funding showed spending on Victorian hospitals will decrease by $774 million in 2023-24 as COVID-19 public health funding ceases.
Hospital funding is expected to increase after that as spending matches population growth.
VHA CEO Leigh Clarke said the onus would fall on the state government to make up the shortfall in its upcoming budget.
"While the pandemic might seem over for many people, Victoria's health system is still feeling the effects of it. We have a trend towards more people with complex, serious needs requiring hospital care, partly due to delayed care and disease screening during the lockdowns," she said.
"Our public health services are also being hit with rising bills to keep the lights on and pay for vital equipment. This all comes with a severe workforce shortage hampering how many workers they can find to deliver care."
'Nowhere near' enough money to tackle 'extinction crisis', environment groups say
By Bridget Judd
By the Specialist Reporting Team’s Loretta Florance
Environment minister Tanya Plibersek has defended the budget against criticism it doesn’t do enough to back up the government’s ambitious threatened species agenda.
Some environmental campaigners say much more cash is needed to tackle a backlog of conservation plans for endangered species, which are up for review.
But Ms Plibersek said they have "already locked in funding to protect our precious threatened species".
Plibersek: In the October Budget we committed $224.5 million for our Saving Native Species Program.
We’re already rolling out these commitments, including over $70 million for koalas.
And this budget includes almost $440 million through the Natural Heritage Trust for programs to conserve threatened species and ecosystems and restore Ramsar wetlands.
She also says new funding for national parks and urban rivers will give “46 per cent of threatened animals and 25 per cent of threatened plants that live in our cities and suburbs have a real chance of survival”.
But conservation groups say it’s going to take much more money to stop extinctions in Australia.
“We need to invest about $2 billion a year over 30 years to end the extinction crisis and repair nature. There's nowhere near that,” the Australian Conservation Foundation’s Kelly O’Shannasy said.
The minister also said the government would release legislation for public consultation on a new national EPA this year.
Want a quick wrap up of the budget winners and losers? Watch this video
By Shiloh Payne
What's in the budget for Tasmania?
By Bridget Judd
The ABC's Megan Whitfield has dropped by the blog with a breakdown:
Megan: Unsurprisingly, for Tasmania there was $240 million allocated for the Macquarie Point Precinct in Hobart — the site of a proposed new AFL stadium — and $65 million for the stadium redevelopment at York Park in the state's north.
The announcements for these two bits of funding were made during recent trips to the southern island by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
The $305 million for those two projects will be spaced out over the next five financial years — starting with $20 million in 2023-24.
The budget also shows continued funding for a range of ongoing Tassie projects — including MarinusLink, and the redevelopment of of Hydro Tasmania's Tarraleah Power station.
Olympics funding on the table for Queensland
By Shiloh Payne
If you missed it amid everything else last night, the federal government has committed more than $1 billion to developing Olympic infrastructure in Brisbane in the budget.
The ABC's Jemima Burt has more:
The investment is the first instalment of a $3.4 billion commitment over ten years to develop infrastructure — including the Brisbane Arena — for the 2032 event.
Other major windfalls for Queensland include a $14 million research and development partnership with the Queensland Government to support emissions reduction in the resources sector, and nearly $300 million will be spent on the establishment of a Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Brisbane.
The Torres Strait was also a focus, with funding to address blood borne disease prevention, rheumatic fever strategy and management of cross-border health issues with Papua New Guinea.
Catch up on the Treasurer's post-budget address
By Bridget Judd
If you missed Jim Chalmers speech at the National Press Club and the Q&A afterwards, you can catch up using the link below 👇
Questions from you: Any support for those with a disability pension?
By Jessica Riga
Have any financial supports been put in place for people with on a Disability Pension? (DSP)?
- Megan
Hi Megan, thanks for your question.
Here's the Specialist Reporting Team's Leonie Thorne and Evan Young:
There hasn't been an increase in the Disability Support Pension base rate, but there are other measures which may benefit some recipients.
From September the base rate of the Youth DSP will increase by $40 per fortnight. The Services Australia website has more details on the Youth DSP and who's eligible.
Increases to Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA), which supplements various Centrelink payments, may also benefit some DSP recipients.
How much rent assistance you can get depends on a number of factors. This part of the Services Australia website has more details and this page lays out the special CRA rules for people receiving the DSP.
The electricity bill relief and the medical prescription changes could also benefit people receiving the DSP.
For more details on how Centrelink payments are changing, you can check out this explainer we prepared earlier:
Does the government intend to tighten eligibility for the NDIS?
By Bridget Judd
The Treasurer has turned to the NDIS now — here's the full exchange with the ABC's Andrew Probyn.
Andrew: You referenced before the $15 billion that you hope to save from lowering the growth of the NDIS and the seven years after that your ambition is for $59 billion in savings. So that's $74 billion all up.
You talked about remembering the primary objective of the NDIS and Bill Shorten only this morning was saying it was designed for those who were severely disabled. Are we to deduce from this, and the fact that to get these savings, the federal government intends tightening eligibility for the NDIS?
Jim Chalmers says the intention is to "moderate the growth in the cost of the scheme", adding that there is "broad recognition that changes need to be made in the NDIS".
Chalmers: I think it's in everybody's interest that we do that because if you go back to that primary objective that you were kind enough to reference, if you overwhelming objective here is to provide for people who are relying on the scheme that Labor designed... then you got to make sure that it is affordable.
And so Bill and the rest of the Cabinet will work closely with the NDIA and the sectors and the providers so thatthe cost of this scheme will grow quite quickly over the life of the next decade, but where we can moderate those cost increases.
Because if we can do that we'll secure the future of the scheme at the same time we put the budget on a more sustainable footing.
Does the government have a 'plan B' to tackle pressures on the housing market?
By Bridget Judd
That question was just put to the Treasurer.
Mr Chalmers says they've got "three parts of plan A", pointing to the Housing Australia Future Fund (which needs to pass parliament) and tax breaks for build-to-rent properties.
Chalmers: These tax incentives with build to rent and for depreciation, they will make a difference. We will build more rental properties as a consequence of those policies.
I was really proud, frankly, to include in the budget last night the biggest increase in rent assistance for three decades.
And I know that that won't make the pressures in the rental market disappear but it will help people get through while we try to build more supply, which is our overwhelming objective when it comes to the housing market.
When will 'middle Australia' see some relief in the budget?
By Bridget Judd
The Treasurer has been asked about middle-income earners, and when they're likely to get a reprieve.
Here's the full exchange:
Reporter: John Howard had his battlers, Scott Morrison had quiet Australians, Kevin Rudd had working families. What do you call that group? And more importantly, given their taxes helped create that surplus last night, when will their household budgets get that bit easier?
Jim Chalmers says he doesn't want to "carve up Australians in different groups and try to pit them against each other".
Chalmers: We are genuinely trying to govern for the whole place. Sometimes that means giving extra help to people who are doing it toughest, but typically, we are trying to be a good, decent, middle of the road government which recognises the legitimate aspirations that people have in middle Australia.
Budget boost for rent assistance well below what advocates hoped for
By Tom Williams
By social affairs correspondent Norman Hermant
The federal budget revealed 1.1 million households will receive an increase in Commonwealth rent assistance. It will be boosted by 15 per cent, taking the maximum payment to $180 a fortnight for a single person. Most of the recipients are pensioners or those receiving Centrelink benefits.
"It’s good, it’s important that it’s been raised,” says Homelessness Australia CEO Kate Colvin.
“When people are struggling to put three meals a day on the table, every dollar makes a difference.”
The increase has been budgeted at $2.7 billion over four years.
But Colvin says an extra $15.50 a week won’t make much difference to how people feel about their ability to pay the rent.
“It’s just that rents have increased so much,” she says.
A recent report from Anglicare found less than one per cent of private rental properties were deemed affordable.
Before the budget, the Australian Council of Social Service had recommended doubling the Commonwealth rent assistance payment.
Last week, the ABC spoke with 20-year-old Abby Manning, who until recently had relied on the Youth Allowance payment and Commonwealth rent assistance while studying at TAFE.
After seeing the budget last night, she says the rent assistance increase wouldn’t make much difference.
“I was hoping the government would take this as a chance to do something bigger and better,” she says.
“Obviously I’m disappointed. I mean, it’s like two dollars a day.”
If the RBA increases interest rates, will the Treasurer be to blame?
By Bridget Judd
That question was just put to Jim Chalmers, amid ongoing debate about the impact of the budget on inflation.
The Treasurer says he doesn't pre-empt decisions made by the Reserve Bank board.
Chalmers: Never have. Never will. Don't intend to do that today.
The defining influence on our decisions around the cost of living package, our decisions around the growth package, and the historic restraint that we have shown in spending has been this inflation challenge.
We are supremely confident that the budget that we handed down last night will take some of these cost-of-living pressures off without adding to inflation.
The Treasurer says "such a big proportion of that spending in 23-24 is legacy issues that we had to clean up".
Chalmers: The fact that the cost of living package only adds 0.1% of GDP in that period, the fact that our energy plan, the combination of the price caps and the bill relief takes three-quarters of a click off inflation next year.
All of these things, I think, are important demonstrations for why so many of the bank economists in particular have come out today and said at worst the impact on the economy is neutral and many of them have said better than that.
There won't be unanimity about that, you can always find if you look hard enough, you can always find a view on either side of the spectrum.
