Treasurer Jim Chalmers delivered his first budget on Tuesday night. The first budget for a new Government is a time to establish its economic credentials. The key points are as follows:

• A more serious approach to climate issues
• Another mining revenue windfall and the offsetting of new spending with savings has resulted in sharply lower budget deficits this year and next, with the deficit this year expected to be $36.9bn (down from $78bn in March)
• Budget deficit projections are now worse beyond 2024-25 and will need to be addressed in next May’s budget, which is just over 6 months away
• In theory this avoids adding to inflation and interest rate pressure for the RBA
• Key measures include more on childcare, health, the aged, housing and the NDIS

The main announcements included:

• An increase in childcare subsidies
• An extension of paid parental leave from 18 to 26 weeks
• Several programs to help address housing availability and affordability including a national aspirational target to build one million new homes over 5 years from 2024
• More support for students including nearly half a million new fee free TAFE places and Government support for additional university places for under represented peoples in areas such as teaching, nursing and engineering.
• An additional $1.4b to expand the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) including for Covid treatments and cancer and a further $787m to reduce the PBS co-payments
• An increase in the permanent migration visas from 160,000 to 195,000 to help address labour and skills shortages.

Was there anything in it for Senior Australians?

Not really! Essentially the Treasurer reconfirmed initiatives that we already knew about:

• The increased thresholds for the CSHC were confirmed and the legislation is currently going through Parliament
• The work bonus increase to $11,800 for this financial year is also currently going through Parliament
• The contribution age for downsizer contributions was lowered to age 55 and above.  This will enable more people preparing for retirement to get more money into super.  As with the first two points, the legislation for this is currently passing through Parliament

There was also a commitment to increase Aged Care support, including:

• Mandating care minutes per Age Care resident
• Mandating the presence of a registered nurse 24:7
• Funding for the Maggie Beer Foundation to provide training to staff to meet new nutritional standards