Federal Budget

2021-22 FEDERAL BUDGET ANNOUNCEMENT AND WHAT IT MEANS

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg handed down a big-spending, pre-election budget on Tuesday 11 May. From an extension to last year’s massive instant asset write-off, to a new franchise registry and more funding for apprenticeships, the budget includes a suite of measures that may make a difference to many SMEs.

The construction industry benefitted from a focus on skills and training, infrastructure, and mental health. The JobTrainer Fund received 450,000 new training places to upskill job seekers and young people. Further, at a cost of $2.7 billion, more than 170,000 new apprenticeships and traineeships will be created. There is support for more women to break into “non-traditional trades”, with training support for 5,000 places.

There was $15 billion in additional infrastructure commitments, but after reviewing the major infrastructure commitments it appears that the Bruce Highway is the main major infrastructure funding project for Queensland.

Mental health is a major issue in the construction industry and the budget included a $2.3 billion commitment to mental health care and suicide prevention. These funds will be spent on more Headspace centres to support more young Australians, expanding this model to those aged over 25, with a new Head to Health national network of 40 centres, greater access to psychiatrists, psychologists, and GPs through Medicare, and a new National Suicide Prevention Office.

Apprenticeship Subsidies Extended

An extra $2.7 billion will be spent over four years to expand the government’s Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements wage subsidies, which reimburse employers for the wages of new apprentices and trainees by up to 50%.

Under the expanded program, the number of eligible places will be uncapped and the duration of the 50% wage subsidy will be increased to 12 months.

Businesses of any size will be able to claim the subsidies for new apprentices and trainees who begin their employment between October 5 2020 and March 31 2022, with a maximum amount of $7,000 per quarter available.

For more information visit www.budget.gov.au, or MPAQ members can call 07 3273 0800.

BUDGET SUMMARY:

At a glance

A small summary from the 2021-22 Budget as the government looks towards building a healthy recovery.

Taxation

• Extra $7.8 billion in tax cuts for low- and middle-income earners, worth $1,080 for individuals or $2,160 for dual-income couples • $25.1 billion of announced personal tax cuts will flow to households in 2021/22

Business

• Extension of temporary full expensing for an extra year to June 30 2023 and temporary loss carryback extended to include the 2022/23 income year • Small businesses to get an easier path to pause or modify tax office debt recovery action through the Administrative Appeals Tribunal • $16 billion in tax cuts for small and medium sized businesses by 2023/24 • Superannuation guarantee will increase to 10% from 1 July

Housing

• Extension of the HomeBuilder construction commencement period • Further 10,000 places under the New Home Guarantee for first home buyers

Infrastructure

• Extra $15.2 billion in infrastructure spending over the decade • $215.4 million to support investment in dispatchable power generation • $1.2 billion over 10 years for low-emissions technology

The Bush

• $3.5 billion National Water Grid Fund • $414.5 million biosecurity package • $172.5 million to be allocated out of the Future Drought Fund for projects, such as climate and soil data gathering • $250 million extra from the Building Better Regions Fund • Reinsurance pool for northern Australia backed by $10 billion government guarantee • $189.6 million for ‘Our North, Our Future’ five-year plan, developing northern Australia • National Recovery and Resilience Agency and Australian Climate

Service to be set up in response to bushfires royal commission

Health

• Mental health plan includes new adult mental health centres,

Medicare listings, suicide prevention services, and workforce improvements • Further $1.9 billion investment in the vaccine rollout, expanding the number of doses on order to 170 million • Investigating local production of mRNA vaccines