IT'S ALL ABOUT THAT BASS (And Braddon)

BUDGET GOLD PLATES ROADS IN MARGINAL SEATS WHILE HOBART LARGELY IGNORED

MAJOR road and infrastructure projects in Braddon, Lyons and Franklin have attracted the lion’s share of funding in the federal budget, with $36.3m allocated for Bass’s Tamar River clean up.

The Bass Highway, which largely runs through Braddon, will get $80m for the Tasmanian Roads Package, which left Independent Member for Clark Andrew Wilkie asking if the gold-plated stretch of road was about get “diamond-encrusted cat’s eyes”. The capital city electorate of Clark has so far nabbed just $2m in budget commitments.

Tasmania’s slice of the GST will be $500m bigger than expected in the last federal budget, coming in at $2.8bn for this financial year and growing to $3bn next year.

More broadly, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s $87bn cash splash focuses on jobs, tax cuts and new apprenticeships.

SPLASHING out on tax cuts for millions, write-offs for tradies and small business as well as making it easier to get into a first home, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s third budget is a $41bn bid to boost jobs – and the Morrison government’s election chances.

is also a whopping $5.8bn in critical infrastructure funding waiting in the wings for Queensland should it win the 2032 Olympic Games bid.

Selling it as Australia “coming back” from the COVID-19 recession, Mr Frydenberg unleashed a budget about getting people back into jobs.

Job creation is linked to almost every part in the budget, including women, disabilities and training, aged care and pushing unemployment below 5 per cent by the end of 2022.

But it comes at a cost, with no surplus on the books before the 2032 Olympic Games and the $1 trillion gross debt being reached within two years.

The budget is extending what worked last year, like tax cuts and instant asset write There

offs as stimulus, while dumping failed measures like hiring credits for people under 35.

There is a specific focus on regional Queensland, with the $1.6bn in new roads and rail funding going outside the capital city.

There is also the $10bn reinsurance pool for Northern Australia will tackle the insurance crisis in cyclone-prone areas like Townsville and

Cairns.

It remains a pandemic budget, with $1.9bn extra going towards getting every Australian who wants a vaccine both jabs by the end of the year, with another $1.5bn for other COVID related health services like contact tracing and GP clinics. Key measures include: $7.8bn in tax cuts of up to $1080, which will go to just over 2 million Queenslanders earning $48,000 to $90,000, expected to create 20,000 jobs.

$20bn in extending the instant asset write-off to June 30, 2023 and ability for businesses to claim losses made against revenue in future years, expected to create 60,000 jobs.

$17.7bn for aged care, including 80,000 home care places and 33,800 new training places for personal carers.

$3.4bn for women, which includes $1.7bn in additional child care subsidies,

$1.1bn in safety initiatives around domestic violence like emergency accommodation and legal services, as well as $25.7m to encourage women into science, technology, engineering and maths careers.

$2.7bn for a 50 per cent wage subsidy on 170,000 new apprenticeships and traineeships.

10,000 extra places for New Home Guarantee, allowing first-home-buyers to get a loan with a 5 per cent deposit.

$1.6bn in road and rail projects in Queensland, expected to create 2800 jobs.

Last year, Opposition treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers said the test for the budget would be employment and “if unemployment is too high for too long” it had failed.

This year’s budget forecasts unemployment to fall to 4.5 per cent by July 2024, levels not sustained since the 1970s.

“I’m confident this budget will create jobs and … secure Australia’s economic future,” Mr Frydenberg said.