Australian budget March 2022
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Treasurer delivers budget speech – as it happened
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Federal budget 2022: Josh Frydenberg promises cash splash for households with billions on offer
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The complete 2022 Australian budget: choose what matters to you
Explore all of our 2022 Australia federal budget coverage
Tory Shepherd (now) and Christopher Knaus (earlier)
Tue 29 Mar 2022 06.28 EDT First published on Tue 29 Mar 2022 04.01 EDT
What we learned: Budget 2022-23
Reactions to the 2022 federal budget
Treasurer details 'cost of living' package
Release of the Australian federal budget 2022-23 imminent
Budget 2022 live updates: treasurer Josh Frydenberg prepares to hand down the Australian federal budget which is expected to focus on cost of living relief. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
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29 Mar 2022 06.23 EDT
As expected, cost of living ruled the day. The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, was spruiking the fuel excise cut, those tax offsets, and the relative strength of the economy.
That excise cut will give some short-term relief at the bowser, but as with most of the other measures, it's "targeted" but "temporary".
It was truly a pre-election budget, with money funnelled to critical seats and cashback offers for taxpayers. National security was high on the list, and we all just hope one day we'll find out who came up with operation Redspice.
And keeping the Nationals on side was obviously front-of-mind, what with that extensive regional Australia package.
Debts and deficits as far as the eye can see barely make people blink these days.
If too much budget is barely enough, the whole team will be back tomorrow to keep pulling the various threads of this pre-election fiscal plan.
If you want to look at the yarns we've unspooled so far, click here.
Updated at 06.28 EDT
Josh Butler
More from the conga line of stakeholders and experts after the budget – the line seems to be almost running out now, with most voices having had their say.
Ian Henschke, from National Seniors, was upset the government didn't do more to let pensioners get back into the workforce without their pension being affected. He called it a "missed opportunity" and said:
I don't understand why they didn't listen to us.
Helen Dalley-Fisher, of the Equality Alliance, claimed the budget had "forgotten" Australian women. She was critical that the women's budget statement had less money than it did last year, and was critical the Coalition didn't start paying superannuation on paid parental leave.
Annie Butler, the secretary of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Foundation, claimed aged care workers had been "let down" with no word on wage increases in the sector. She noted some "announcements around the edges" on training more people to go into the sector, including a $50m pledge to train 15,000 workers, but questioned how successful that program would be. She asked:
What is the point of training more people to go into a sector in complete crisis until the core issues are fixed?
Fix the staffing crisis.
James Brown, the chief executive of the Space Industry Association of Australia, has welcomed the announcement of more than $1bn towards developing satellites.
This is a significant investment to develop Australia's first national civilian space mission in 40 years. It will mean we can begin to guarantee access to essential space services for weather, disaster monitoring, and science. In the next decade we will be able to design, build, test and launch satellites from Australia which is critical to protecting our space infrastructure and leveraging opportunities in the booming global space economy.
Daniel Hurst
Quite the gear change at the procession of stakeholders addressing reporters at Parliament House in Canberra, with the oil and gas industry giving its response before making way for the Australian Conservation Foundation.
The chief executive of the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association, Andrew McConville, said the sector could "reinvigorate Australia's economy" and ensure the reliability of the energy supply. He voiced support for initiatives to support low-emissions technologies and said innovation and cost-competitiveness was important in the global "war for capital".
Freya Cole, of the Australian Conservation Foundation, then stepped up to the microphones to declare that Australians were "living through a climate and extinction crisis". She criticised the projected reduction in climate spending and criticised fossil fuel subsidies.
Josh Butler took a look at that big spending in regional seats, for industrial hubs in key electorates:
'Unprecedented' regional infrastructure budget spend targets battleground seats
Paul Karp
The director of aged care at the United Workers Union, Carolyn Smith, said that despite providing some money for training there was "nothing extra for staff, wages or home care packages" in the budget.
Teresa, a home care worker from Newcastle, noted the 22 cent cut to the fuel excise – but said her fuel allowance is just 72 cents a litre, while petrol currently costs $2 a litre. Home care workers don't take residents on shopping and other trips as a result of the cost squeeze.
Fuel prices are listed on a fuel price board at a petrol station. Photograph: Diego Fedele/AAP
We've had the spice ... now here's the sugar and all things nice, from Paul Karp:
Petrol and tax cuts: budget showers voters with $8.6bn in one-off payments and sweeteners
Redspice. You know you want it, and Daniel Hurst has it here for you:
Redspice: budget ushers in Australia's 'biggest ever' cybersecurity spend
Uniting Care said there were "a few welcome" measures in the budget, backing the women's safety package and the one-off payments for pensioners.
But the charity said it was disappointed there was no sign of adding superannuation to paid parental leave or wages increases for aged care workers – two reforms Uniting Care said they would be pushing both major parties to commit to before the election.
Georgie Beatty, from the National Union of Students, said the $250 payments going to concession card holders "won't even make next week's rent". She said students who travel great distances to get to class would be happy at the cut to the petrol excise, but "it'll need much more than that … not band aid solutions".
The president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Omar Khorshid, slammed the government for a "lack of vision" on healthcare. He was heavily critical that the Coalition had still not taken any action on resolving the ongoing hospital funding crisis "blame game" between the federal and state governments, an issue several state premiers have been livid about for years.
Khorshid claimed GPs would be "let down" by the budget, but he was also calling on Labor to outline its health policies soon. He said he was waiting for the opposition to come to the table on health funding too, and that he was "very interested to talk to Labor and hear their vision".
Uniting Care said it's disappointed there was no sign of wages increases for aged care workers in the budget. Photograph: Westend61/Getty Images
Oh, did I mention yet that the budget banks on another Omicron wave this winter? Anne Davies takes a look at health spending:
Health budget tops $132bn as Treasury says new Covid wave likely to hit this winter
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says he definitely knows how important climate change is, that's why he mentioned it in his speech. Meanwhile, as Adam Morton reports:
Budget papers show Morrison government plans to cut climate spending if it wins election
The reduction in spending across Australia's clean energy agencies represents a 35% annual cut over four years. Photograph: Natalie Grono/The Guardian
The leader of the Greens, Adam Bandt, says Australia needed a budget that tackled the climate crisis, the inequality crisis and the housing crisis – but tonight's document did none of those things.
Addressing reporters at Parliament House, Bandt said jobseekers were being left in poverty. He said pensions needed to increase by $250 a week, "not $250 an election":
This budget will not keep you safe from the climate crisis, will not put an affordable roof over your head.
Bandt said the government had never correctly predicted wage growth and there was "no reason to believe they've got it right now".
Ian Yates, the chief executive of the Council on the Ageing Australia, welcomed the cost-of-living relief for millions of older Australians. He said this year's budget commitments on aged care did not rate alongside last year's budget package.
Yates said he was disappointed by the absence or oral and dental health programs aimed at older Australians. He hoped pledged would be forthcoming by the parties in the upcoming federal election campaign.
The Greens say Australia needed a budget that tackled the housing crisis – which they say tonight's has not achieved. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian
Innes Willox, of the Australian Industry Group, said the government's budget had to "walk a high wire" balancing act between dealing with short-term uncertainty and making long-term change.
He welcomed a focus on skills and apprenticeships, but was critical that the number of skilled migrant places wasn't increased further – saying this was "deeply troubling" to business, claiming labour shortages was "the number one issue" some firms have.
Medicines Australia called it a "steady as she goes budget", and praised "some great new listings of new innovative medicines". The body also noted there needed to be continued investment in health.
Andrew McKellar, chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the budget was a "mixed bag". ACCI backed the new national skills agreement, praising it as a "significant step forward", but said it could have been "better designed". McKellar echoed Willox in calling for higher skilled migration figures, saying future governments must set more ambitious benchmarks. He also backed the "very positive" tax deductions for training employees in digital skills.
Michele O'Neil, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, savaged the government for not doing more on wages growth.
Nothing in this budget delivers real wages increases for working people. One off payments are not the same as wage increases," she said:
That's workers' wages going backwards under the Morison government… all we have is one off payments that will be quickly eaten up.
O'Neil also rubbished Frydenberg's claims earlier today that the looming 3.75% unemployment rate would lead to wages growth. She said that was "a theory that's been disproven":
What we see now is a break between what used to be a connection between the unemployment rate and people's wages. That's because we've got so many more people now in insecure work.
The PwC chief economist, Jeremy Thorpe, told reporters in Canberra the government had provided "additional, targeted and limited support" because it needed to be seen to be addressing cost of living pressures – which he said was "understandable, and relatively restrained".
Asked whether this would add to inflationary pressures, he said one benefit of the halving of petrol excise is it will have a deflationary impact that should flow through to the rest of the economy.
John Falzon, from progressive thinktank Per Capita, said the budget was like the "last lolly bag" at a party, that "promises everything but contains next to nothing".
Falzon criticised the government for "one-off fixes that are no fix at all", warning that a worker earning $68,000 faces real pay cuts of $600 (due to inflation outstripping wage growth).
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