Transcription
In business tonight, Australia has unveiled its latest budget for the financial year beginning in July. Introducing measures to help cushion the impact of rising energy costs and east of costs of living pressures. The budget also points to continued deficits in the years ahead. But SNP global ratings says the new tax and spending changes will marginally improve its bottom line. Treasurer Jim Chalmers says that the plan is designed to strengthen the economy. "This budget is ambitious in the face of adversity. It's a responsible budget and it's a reforming budget which builds resilience and bolsters our economy. There's more cost of living, more Medicare and more aged care and more housing. It makes the tax system fairer and stronger. For the workers, businesses, first-time buyers and future generations."
That was you tiao, tracking this story for CNA. She joins us live from Sydney. Natasha, what measures is the government taking to tackle soaring fuel costs and how would that impact the budget?
Indeed, the war in Ukraine is perhaps the major unforeseen event that this government has had to tackle. And this global crisis that has caused these soaring fuel prices has led to a large chunk of the budget to be allocated towards fuel concerns. So what is the government doing? Well, they're setting aside $11.9 billion to secure more fuel and strengthen supply chains. The government says it will increase the minimum stock holding obligation for every type of fuel by about 10 days. That ensures at least 50 days of supply for jet fuel and diesel, and about 40 days of petrol. Now, to help refiners and importers meet these obligations, the government is spending $7.5 billion in loans and equity to allow companies to purchase the extra stock. The budget will also spend $3.2 billion on establishing a government-owned fuel reserve, holding 1 billion liters of emergency supply. And there's also targeted support for electric vehicles. The government plans to build more charging stations and provide continued tax discounts to encourage more Australians to buy electric vehicles.
So what are the key issues being addressed in this budget? They're quite a few, but I'd like to focus on three key issues: housing, cost of living, and better healthcare. So let's start with housing. The government claims it is leveling the playing field for first-time home buyers and helping bring the dream of home ownership within reach of more young Australians. This has, of course, been a major, major concern, the housing crisis. Now, the reforms in this budget will bring the government's total investment to a record $47 billion. The government says it will help first-time buyers with a 5% deposit and tax reform to help more young Australians on home ownership. Changes in capital gains tax and negative gearing will also favour first-time homebuyers over investors, that's something, you know.
Second, cost of living. The new budget is introducing tax cuts to help with the cost of living. Specifically, a $250 working Australians tax offset for more than 13 million working Australians, starting the second half of 2027. This offset will automatically be paid to tax returns of working Australians every year.
And lastly, better healthcare. This budget includes another $25 billion for public hospitals and an investment of $5.9 billion to make more medicines affordable. So that Australians can access life-changing medicines at cheaper prices. And lastly, there's an additional $1.8 billion over 5 years to keep walk-in urgent care clinics up and running long-term.
All right, thanks for that update, Natasha. A good guy out, tracking this story. Foresee any life from Sydney.