Senator the Hon Simon Birmingham

The Morrison Government’s plan for a stronger future provides cost of living relief, creates more jobs, guarantees the essential services and keeps South Australians safe.

“This is a Budget that responds to the challenges that South Australians face today and also the opportunities of the future,” Minister Birmingham said.

“It delivers cost of living relief right now for South Australian families, secures funding for essential services across our state and provides a long‑term economic plan for Australia.

“Due to a stronger economy it will also provide SA with an estimated $7.4 billion in GST payments in 2022-23.”

Cost of Living Relief 

“The Government is introducing a new temporary, targeted and responsible cost of living package to take the pressure off household budgets,” Minister Birmingham said.

This package includes:

• One-off Cost of Living Tax Offset - 10 million low- and middle-income earners will receive a one-off $420 cost of living tax offset. This will mean eligible South Australians could be up to $1,500 better off for a single income household, or $3,000 better off for dual income households. 
• One-off Cost of Living Payment - South Australian pensioners, welfare recipients, veterans and eligible concession card holders will receive a one-off, income-tax-exempt payment of $250 in April 2022. 
• Temporary Fuel Excise Relief - reducing fuel excise by 50 per cent to 22.1 cents, flowing through to lower petrol prices for households and businesses over the next two weeks.
• More affordable medicines – PBS Safety Nets will be reduced which will make medicines cheaper for 2.4 million Australians who use them most.

“We are also backing homeowners to achieve their dreams sooner through expanding the highly successful Home Guarantee Scheme to 50,000 to enable more South Australians to achieve home ownership.”

Creating more SA Jobs and Backing Small Businesses

“We are investing in measures to expand and upskill the workforce to secure the workers we need now and for the future,” Minister Ruston said.

We will get Australians into more highly skilled and higher paid jobs by:

• introducing a 20 per cent bonus deduction for eligible external training courses to incentivise small businesses to upskill employees
• transforming Australia’s manufacturing sector and building resilient supply chains with over $1 billion in new investment, building on the existing $1.5 billion Modern Manufacturing Strategy
• new support to hire apprentices with an additional $2.8 billion investment, including through a new streamlined incentive scheme
• developing the next generation of innovative South Australian companies through our $2.2 billion research commercialisation action plan.

“We are also introducing a new Technology Investment Boost to encourage small businesses to go digital, make them more competitive and productive whilst also generating higher-paying jobs for their employees.”

Guaranteeing Essential Services 

“A strong economy enables us to continue to guarantee the essential services that South Australians rely on,” Minister Ruston said.

“Since coming to office, we have delivered record levels of funding for health, aged care, education and disability support.”

In this Budget we are:

• fully funding the National Disability Insurance Scheme and increasing support for home based and residential aged care, including 40 000 new home care packages;
• providing over $1.8 billion in health and hospitals funding to SA in 2022-23;
• entering into a 10-year strategic partnership with the Royal Flying Doctor Service worth nearly $1 billion to provide more certainty for SA regional patients;
• providing an additional $650 million investment into mental health and suicide prevention;
• providing over $2.0 billion in education and skills funding in SA; and
• delivering 20 weeks of fully flexible Paid Parental Leave for working families.

“We are also investing an additional $2.1 billion in key measures to support Australian women and girls in key priority areas across women’s safety, women’s economic security and leadership, and health and wellbeing,” Minister Ruston said.

Continuing SA’s Infrastructure Pipeline

“We are also delivering crucial funding for city and country roads that will better connect our state and benefit all South Australians as well as our businesses, farmers and tourism industry,” Minister Birmingham said.

We are investing $2.8 billion into SA’s infrastructure pipeline, including:

• $2.26 billion for the North South Corridor
• $200 million for the Marion Road – Anzac Highway to Cross Road
• $120 million for the Adelaide Hills Productivity and Road Safety Package
• $60 million for the South East Freeway Managed Motorways – Stage 2
• $60 million for the Targeted Investments to Improve National Supply Chain Resilience
• $16 million for the Main South Road Productivity Package

Keeping South Australians Safe 

We will invest in stronger defence and national security by:  

• increasing the Australian Defence Force by up to 18,500 by 2040; 
• providing $9.9 billion over 10 years to enhance Australia’s offensive and defensive cyber and intelligence capabilities;
• taking steps in this Budget to secure additional land around the Osborne Naval Precinct in Adelaide, in which to build the nuclear-powered submarine construction yard; and
• continuing to support naval shipbuilding projects in SA, which will see SA jobs in shipbuilding reach over 5400 by 2030.

“Our Government is backing the building of at least eight nuclear-powered subs in Adelaide, in addition to the maintenance and life-of-type extensions of the Collins Class subs, the construction of the Future Frigates and upgrades to the Air Warfare Destroyer combat systems,” Minister Birmingham said.

“This really is a budget for the times. One that eases cost of living pressures, creates more jobs and guarantees the essential services we all rely on, while carefully repairing the bottom line from the shocks imposed by Covid.”