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epa08723440 Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is seen inside the Budget lockup ahead of handing down the Budget 2020/21 at Parliament House, in Canberra, Australia, 06 October 2020. The Morrison government is pitching its 2020/21 budget as the most significant since World War II. EPA-EFE/LUKAS COCH AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT
Tonight, Treasurer Josh Freidenberg will present the federal budget for 2021/22. Although it is already known that 10 billion dollars are planned in this budget for the care of the elderly, as well as 354 million for the women’s health care package, this is still a “pandemic budget”, as announced by Freidenberg, and will be based on the fact that international Australia ‘s borders remain closed until 2022.
Given the delay in opening the borders, the Australian government is also expected to revise the key assumption from last year’s economic forecast, which is that most of the population will be vaccinated against kovid in the middle of the year and that it will be fully realized by the end of 2021.
Package for the elderly
More than 10 billion dollars will be allocated over the next four years to improve the care of the elderly, as part of the coalition’s response to the bad situation in this sector, which was determined by the Royal Commission. The funds will support home care, as well as the improvement of housing for the elderly.
– We are committed to resolving what the Royal Commission has established, in order to strengthen our system and ensure that older Australians can retire and continue to live with dignity, with respect and security – Freidenberg pointed out.
Protection of women
$ 353.9 million is planned for the women’s health care package. $ 100.4 million is planned to improve cervical and breast cancer screening programs, as well as to support the mental health of new and future parents, and for new genetic testing of embryos before implementation.
Nearly $ 27 million will be earmarked to support people with eating disorders and their families, and women make up nearly two-thirds of people with these problems.
It is also planned that the budget will include grant programs for women entrepreneurs.
Short-term measures
While budget funds for care for the elderly and women’s health are long-term measures, other expenditures, such as new infrastructure projects and tax breaks, are short-term steps to boost the economy and return employment to pre-pandemic levels.
One of the government’s record spending is $ 90 billion for the Jobkeeper program. According to Freidenberg, thanks to those funds, Australia is recording a drop in unemployment and a relatively fast economic recovery from the pandemic, compared to other countries.
He also confirmed that 105,000 Ozis stopped receiving subsidies for workers in April.
The government has set itself a new goal, as Freidenberg said, to bring unemployment below five percent, which would be the minimum that has not been reached since the 1960s.
Currently, the unemployment rate is 5.6 percent, with the historical long-term average of the seventies of about six percent.
Custom budget?
According to Freidenberg, the reduction of unemployment will be achieved through new investments in staff training, employment programs and tax relief that will stimulate the economy and create new jobs in the short term.
“This is designed to boost the nation’s productivity in the long run, by strengthening demand in the short term and with incentives such as tax breaks,” Freidenberg said.
On the other hand, shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers says the budget should not be “another trillion dollars worth of political work in style – patch and paint” or another “missed opportunity”.
According to him, the government had an obligation to look beyond the imperative to fight for the next federal elections, which should be held next year.
– Unfortunately, what we have seen so far, it seems that a lot of money has been thrown at political problems and that the government is pushing for new federal elections – Chalmers concluded.
State debt trillion dollars
Since the beginning of the corona virus pandemic, the overall level of federal debt has risen sharply. It is projected to soon exceed a trillion dollars, almost five times the level seen during the height of the global financial crisis.
According to Freidenberg, a pandemic occurs once a century, and in 2009 gross domestic product fell by 0.1 percent, and last year by 3.1 percent, and therefore a comparison of the global economic crisis and the current situation – is out of place.
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