MEMBER for Ballarat, Catherine King, has said Tuesday\u2019s Federal budget is about reining in inflationary impacts on Australians.<\/p>\n
Dubbed a \u201ccost of living\u201d budget, the fiscal plan contains a range of spending measures targeting health, welfare, and energy costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of those combined really are important cost of living measures,\u201d Ms King said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are always going to be people who say we\u2019ve done too much\u2026 but then you\u2019ll have people who say we don\u2019t have enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got the balance right.\u201d<\/p>\n
With cost of living a focus for the budget, Ms King rejected the idea an increase in the levy paid by road transport providers would drive up prices at the supermarket checkout.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a road recovery charge for the use of our roads by heavy vehicles,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that living in our country areas there\u2019s a lot of damage done by heavy vehicles on our roads and we\u2019ve been struggling to keep up with the maintenance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just making sure that road users charge is doing what\u2019s it\u2019s intended to do, which is compensate for the cost that heavy vehicles are on our roads.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got treasury to model the inflationary impact of that and it\u2019s absolutely minimal.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes to unique spending in Ms King\u2019s electorate of Ballarat there\u2019s not lot new in the budget.<\/p>\n
However, a range of already announced and election commitment projects still have money set aside for their completion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt reconfirms our commitment to really important projects across Golden Plains and Hepburn Shire,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWoady Yaloak, Maude, Glenlyon, and Linton are all getting major sporting upgrades. We\u2019ve got the Sebastopol Senior Citizens Centre, we\u2019ve got the urgent care clinic in Ballarat. All of that money is still there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we want to make sure is we\u2019re delivering on the commitments we\u2019ve made. We\u2019re building those and making sure that money comes into local communities rather than focusing on the press release announcement.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the budget contains $3.4 billion over 10 years for Brisbane Olympics, no money was allocated for the Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis puts pressure on Premier Andrews to honour his commitment to deliver the Games in regional cities\u2026 without increasing the costs for local communities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Yet Ms King said there was never any expectation that the Federal Government would contribute to funding for Regional Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll continue working with the Victorian State Government about what commitment the Commonwealth will put,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unusual we [the Federal Government] would participate in a Commonwealth Games. It\u2019s unusual we would participate in an Olympic Games, but we inherited a commitment without any money, there was no money in the budget for the Olympics at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe inherited an agreement between the two governments of 50\/50 on the Olympics that we\u2019ve had to find money for.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What\u2019s in the Federal budget?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Economy<\/strong><\/p>\n – Budget surplus of $4.2 billion in 2022\/23<\/p>\n – Deficit of $13.9 billion in 2023\/24<\/p>\n – Commonwealth net debt rising to $574.9 billion (22.3 per cent of GDP) in 2023\/24<\/p>\n – Economic growth to fall to 1.5 per cent in 2023\/24<\/p>\n – Unemployment rate of 4.25 per cent in 2023\/24<\/p>\n – Inflation as measured by CPI to be 3.25 per cent in 2023\/24<\/p>\n – Wages to rise by four per cent in 2023\/24<\/p>\n Cost of living<\/strong><\/p>\n – Energy bill relief of up to $500 for five million households and up to $650 for one million small businesses<\/p>\n – 170,000 households save on energy bills by financing energy saving home upgrades<\/p>\n – Reducing out-of-pocket health costs by tripling bulk billing incentives<\/p>\n – Cutting the cost of medicine by up to half for at least six million people<\/p>\n – Supporting 57,000 single parents by expanding eligibility for Parenting Payment (Single)<\/p>\n – Increasing the base rate for JobSeeker and other payments by $40 a fortnight<\/p>\n – Increasing Commonwealth Rent Assistance<\/p>\n Health<\/strong><\/p>\n – $106.5 billion in total funding for 2023\/24<\/p>\n – $5.7 billion over five years to strengthen Medicare<\/p>\n – 15 per cent pay rise on award wages for aged care workers<\/p>\n