Statement 1: Budget Overview (Continued)
Budget priorities
This Budget will help build a stronger, smarter and fairer Australia, giving current and future generations the best opportunity to succeed in the Asian Century.
This Budget invests a further $24 billion in vital infrastructure projects from 2014‑15 to 2018‑19 all around Australia. This means the Government will have invested around $60 billion on essential infrastructure from 2008‑09 to 2018‑19.
This Budget supports once‑in‑a‑generation reforms to Australian school funding arrangements, through the National Plan for School Improvement. These reforms are critical to building a more productive and prosperous Australia by investing in our most important resource, our people.
This Budget provides funding to rollout DisabilityCare Australia across the country. This will support one of the biggest social policy reforms in our nation's history, ensuring that Australians with significant and permanent disability get the support they need when they need it.
The expenditure for DisabilityCare Australia and the National Plan for School Improvement investments have been fully offset to 2023‑24 and beyond.
Other key priorities in the 2013‑14 Budget are to:
- boost the Government's commitment to protect Australians at home and abroad, by: strengthening Australia's air combat capabilities; providing ongoing support to our soldiers, police and officials deployed on overseas operations; continuing to help overcome poverty through our aid program; and making a significant investment in combatting gang violence and organised crime;
- increase access to high quality, affordable and flexible childcare by undertaking a major investment in early childhood education, including new funding to assist child care providers to attract and retain qualified professional employees;
- build on the $16.4 billion National Health Reform Agreement by continuing to improve access to high quality health care, medicines and support services, and investing to improve cancer treatment and support services;
- support Australian jobs and industry by backing Australian companies to win more work at home and abroad, and helping small and medium businesses to grow and create new jobs;
- strengthen regional cooperation and the Government response to people smuggling;
- ensure Australia maintains a responsive education and training system and supports world‑class research by providing additional Commonwealth Supported sub‑bachelor and postgraduate university places and additional Future Fellowships to attract and retain the best researchers to our universities;
- support jobseekers in the transition to work including through the first increase in over a decade to the income free area for Newstart and other similar allowances from $62 to $100 a fortnight, and indexing from 1 July 2015;
- fund important investments in rural and regional Australia, and the National Drought Program Reform to better support farmers and their families;
- reform the superannuation system to improve its fairness, sustainability and efficiency;
- protect the corporate tax base from erosion and loopholes;
- assist seniors who want to downsize their home by providing a pension means test exemption of up to $200,000 for ten years;
- invest in the provision of vital homelessness services;
- support a thorough investigation by the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse; and
- support the role creativity plays in Australian society through Creative Australia, the national cultural policy.
Note: Where possible, Budget documents are available in HTML and for downloading in Portable Document Format(PDF). If you require further information on any of the tables or charts on this website, please contact The Treasury.
