This budget needed to do two things. It needed to protect people who were hurting the worst, those with the least, and it needed to do the big reforms that this country needs for now and into the future. What we have tonight is a mixed picture.
This is a reforming budget that addresses inequities in the tax system, helps reduce home prices, boosts productivity and kicks off a transformation of our failing employment services system. The government deserves credit for taking on some of the hard issues that have been kicked down the road for too long.
ACOSS welcomes the measures to improve the skills recognition system, important first steps to prioritise women and children's safety in the child support system, and funding to help 4,000 young people get community housing.
The government's reforms to capital gains tax and negative gearing are long overdue, will improve fairness and housing affordability, and reduce speculation in home values. They will increase revenue by $3.6b over the forwards and eventually raise much more.
The minimum 30% tax on private trust distributions will, for the first time, introduce an element of fairness in the tax treatment of private trusts, which have been used and abused by well-off taxpayers for many years. These reforms will raise $4.5b in 2029/30, and more ongoing.
The government's commitment of $316m to improve and redesign the employment services system is a welcome investment towards reforming a system that has failed so many. This is especially vital now with Treasury projections indicating that a prolonged Middle East war would increase unemployment to 5%, meaning at least an extra 100,000 people unemployed. We also welcome the $85m to boost skills recognition, as well as the government taking steps to establish a skills migration commissioner.
I do want to highlight what is not in this budget, because it's a big missing piece. What about the 4 million people who are still waiting?
The government has made the wrong decision to prioritise another income tax cut for people who are in paid work, right up the income scale, costing $3 billion in the first year (on top of $28b in 2024 tax cuts, and additional $2b in tax cuts already announced). The Working Australian Tax Offset (WATO) does not help the more than 4 million people on the lowest incomes in the country, including people receiving the $409/wk JobSeeker Payment, pensions and single parents without paid work. Around 30% of adults' incomes are too low to pay income tax, and they are most in need with unemployment and cost-of-living rising.
This comes in the same budget as $37 billion in cuts to the NDIS - the biggest cut in the budget. We are deeply concerned about the effect of these cuts on people with a disability, who must be at the centre of any reform to this vital scheme.
We strongly support the creation of 3,000 further jobs in remote areas to support remote communities as part of its commitments to Closing the Gap announced in February. However, we are very disappointed that the government has not increased the Remote Area Allowance tonight, despite the hardship experienced by these communities, who are bearing the brunt of the fuel crunch. Remote Area Allowance was established in 1984 and has virtually remained unchanged since then because it is not indexed.
This budget has made historic reforms to address some of the inequity in our tax system that has overwhelmingly benefitted the wealthy. It also starts to address key problems in our employment services and child support systems, which is welcome. However, people with the least, who are most in need of help, especially when cost of living is sky high, do not get the real increases they need in this budget.
Comments attributable to Dr Cassandra Goldie, CEO of ACOSS
