Federal Budget 2022 – 2023

Federal Government Budget Page

Last night, Treasurer the Hon Jim Chalmers MP brought down the Labor Government’s 2022-23 Budget.  The themes of the budget are centred around cost of living relief, responsible budget repair, building a stronger, more resilient economy and targeted spending (paying for what’s important).

For more information about the Budget please go to https://budget.gov.au/.

Read more:

• 2022-2023 Budget Papers
• Treasurer’s speech
• Regional Ministerial Budget Statement
• Women’s Budget Statement
• Ministerial media releases

Budget Highlights:

The key numbers:

• Deficit of $36.9 billion for 2022-23
• Net debt predicted to increase to $1 trillion
• GDP growth forecast of 3.5% for 2022-23 before slowing to 1.5% in 2023-24
• Inflation expected to peak at 7.75 per cent later this year before moderating gradually to 3.5 per cent by June 2024. 

Key Measures:

Child care

$4.7 billion is being spent over four years to deliver cheaper child care for 1.26 million families.

Paid parental leave

$530 million spent to progressively scale up the generosity of the paid parental scheme, reaching six months’ paid leave in 2026.

Aged care

A new investment of $3 billion to deliver better aged care, including more registered nurses in aged care homes.

Health

$6.1 billion more is being spent on hospitals and Medicare.

Environment

$1.8 billion has been allocated for environmental and heritage protection. That includes an extra $204 million to accelerate the defence and restoration of the Great Barrier Reef.

Defence

Funding for Defence will increase by 8 per cent in 2022/23 and rise to more than 2 per cent of GDP over the forward estimates – a key sticking point during the election.

Energy

Labor will push ahead with a $20 billion ‘Rewiring the Nation’ fund which aims to spur investment in cheaper, cleaner and more secure energy.

Infrastructure

The Budget includes more than $120 billion of investment in transport infrastructure over the next 10 years.

Women’s safety

$1.7 billion will be spent over six years to support women’s safety.

Disaster preparedness

In the face of floods and fires, $200 million a year will be set aside for disaster prevention and resilience initiatives.

Medicines

$787 million is allocated over four years to make prescription medicines more affordable.

Manufacturing

The Albanese Government is establishing a $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund “to support a future made in Australia”. The money is earmarked for things like clean energy manufacturing, medical manufacturing, new technologies in agriculture and in critical minerals.

Better NBN

$2.4 billion is allocated to extend fibre access to 1.5 million more premises and $1.2 billion for the Better Connectivity for Regional and Rural Australia Plan.