Here Are All The Winners And Losers From This Year’s Federal Budget

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has handed down the Budget for 2022/23 and, as always, there are some clear winners and some losers.

Here’s how this year’s budget will affect trains, flood victims, private schools, and more.

Winners

Trains

A major winner in this year’s budget is train enthusiasts — perhaps Scott Morrison is a fan of everyone’s favourite train watching TikToker, Francis Bourgeois.

The Budget features record funding for faster rails between a number of regional and capital cities, including the Brisbane to Sunshine Coast and Sydney to Newcastle rails. It won’t make transport cheaper for those who utilise these train lines as part of their daily commute, but it will save time for anyone travelling on the plethora of train lines being upgraded with the funding.

This is in addition to the $120 billion already spent on infrastructure projects by the Morrison government so far.

Tradies

Anyone in the market to pick up a trade — or those employing apprentices are winners in this year’s Budget, with both apprentices and employers being incentivised.

New apprentices will receive $5000, while up to $15,000 in wage subsidies will be offered to those who actually take them on. Additionally, there’s a $3.7 billion investment in training for skilled workers — offering 800,000 places for apprentices to learn.

Private Schools

Tonight, Frydenberg announced that this year’s Budget includes “record funding for schools”, sharing that the government will provide more than $180 billion in education funding over the next four years.
But who exactly will be getting a big chunk of this record-breaking funding? Unsurprisingly, the answer is private schools.

Non-government schools are expecting an extra $167.3 million in funding, due to “increased student enrolments”.

Breast Cancer Patients

While it will not impact a large portion of the population, there is an obvious win for anyone suffering from a rare form of breast cancer who depends on the life-saving medication Trodelvy.

The medication has now been added to the PBS, which will save patients up to $80,000 per treatment. It goes without saying that we would all hope we’d never need to purchase Trodelvy, but the fact that it is now on the PBS is quite literally life-saving for those who need it.

High-Income Earners

Josh Frydenberg did high income earners a solid in this year’s Budget by neglecting to mention the huge tax cuts they stand to benefit from in his annual speech. While these tax cuts were previously announced, the fact that they weren’t actually mentioned in Frydenberg’s speech essentially allows the rich to slip under the radar, while the rest of us continue to struggle with the impact of inflation.

Flood Victims

Despite the obvious loss they’ve faced amid the ongoing floods that have ravaged most of the east coast, there are some wins for the victims in the 2022/23 Budget.

Victims in “catastrophically impacted areas” will now be eligible for two additional disaster recovery payments on a personal level, in addition to $25 million for Financial Wellbeing and Capability activities such as food relief, emergency services, and financial counselling.

Additionally, $31.2 million will be spent on mental health treatment for those in flood-affected areas. In total, the flood package included in this budget is worth $1.241 billion, which is, obviously, desperately needed right now.

Small Business

Small businesses not only benefit from lower tax rates but are also being incentivised to invest in training and new technology with a tax rebate of $120 for every $100 spent on training employees or digital technologies like cyber security and web design.

Investments made up to the value of $100,000 will be eligible for the tax deduction in what can only be described as a major win for small business.

Regional Areas

Regional areas are also expected to benefit greatly from the 2022/23 Budget, particularly in the Hunter, Pilbara, Northern Territory, and Northern and Central Queensland area.

Funding will be split across dams and water projects, telecommunication, skills, education, and infrastructure, which serves to benefit regional areas in a broad sense. In addition, health services will be improved across regional and remote areas, particularly with improved access to MRIs, mental health services, and childcare.

Losers

Low-Income Earners

There is no immediate plan for how exactly the government plans to increase wages, and until there is any real action here, low income earners will continue to struggle with the rising cost of living.

First Home Buyers

While there are twice as many places in the Home Guarantee Scheme, the government has failed to address the fact that house prices have skyrocketed, which means that while you may be able to purchase a home with a smaller deposit, it remains unlikely that you’ll actually be able to afford to pay it off.

The Environment

Again, it should come as no shock to anyone who saw how the government behaved at COP26 to see that the environment is a loser in this year’s budget.

While there is funding for the Great Barrier Reef, koalas and recycling, the government continues to invest in outdated and widely scrutinised technology like carbon capture and “clean” gas, rather than truly green energy.

Electric Vehicles

Despite much speculation in recent weeks over electric vehicle funding, the government neglected to mention EVs even once in the entire budget. Considering fuel prices show no sign of actually lowering in the long term, this is particularly disappointing for both the cost of living and the environment — two major issues for Australians.

Welfare/Unemployed

It should come as no surprise to see that the rate of JobSeeker has not increased in this year’s Budget. While this isn’t shocking, it does — unfortunately — mean that welfare recipients are among the losers as the rising inflation rate means that welfare payments don’t stretch as far as they used to.

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Lavender Baj is Junkee’s senior reporter, focusing on news, politics, and finance. Follow her on Twitter.

Photo Credit: Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images, Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images