Yesterday, my team and I had the chance to dive into the budget lock-up and review the pre-election Budget.

It’s a pretty modest piece - the government clearly hadn’t expected to have to present it – and it seems more focussed on the upcoming election than on the long-term.  

Here’s a summary of highlights relevant to Kooyong:

Cost-of-Living Relief and Tax Cuts 

The Budget brings some cost-of-living relief:

• Tax cuts: Starting 1 July 2026, a person on an average wage will receive a modest income tax cut of $268, increasing to $536 the following year. The timing of these tax cuts means they shouldn’t be too inflationary – but they won't give much help to people who are struggling right now.These changes don’t represent the sort of tax reform we need to tackle the big issues for this country, like forcing multinationals to pay tax on our fossil fuel exports, or addressing the housing crisis. The Budget is taking us back into deficit – we’re likely to stay there for at least a decade. Unfortunately, we didn't see any action on the indexation of tax brackets – which I and other independents have recently called for. Today in Question Time I asked the government to urgently legislate the small business instant asset write-off for this financial year. Many people will have budgeted for that already, but the government has not yet passed the legislation – despite this likely being the last sitting week of this parliamentary term. 
• Energy bill relief: $1.8 billion has been allocated to extend energy bill relief, providing every household and small business with two rebates, each of $75, off their energy bills later this year. It’s a temporary continuation of the energy rebates in the last Budget. Again, this is a small piece which will help a little but doesn’t address the need to help households and small businesses bring down their electricity costs by accessing solar and batteries. We need to action more visionary policy measures – like the Renew Australia for All household packages which call for more significant federal investment in financing energy upgrades which will permanently bring down electricity costs for homes and businesses. 

Health and Medicare The Budget's investment in healthcare is significant and will make a meaningful difference for many Australians. This includes:

• Lymphoedema garments and allied health: As the founding chair of Parliamentary Friends of Lymphoedema Awareness, it was fantastic to see $10 million allotted for lymphoedema garments and allied health care in this Budget. Survivors of breast cancer and other forms of malignancy will benefit greatly from this additional support.
• Expanded Bulk-Billing Incentives and lower maximum cost of medicines on the PBS. PBS-listed medications will decrease in price, from $31.60 to $25.00 (with no change in the charge for concession card holders). 
• Urgent Care Clinics: The government's putting $644 million into additional urgent care clinics. I spoke about this in the media last week; the existing clinics have never been subjected to a cost-benefit analysis, and some have struggled to recruit the staffing required.There is a gap between what GPs can offer during the day, and the need to keep people with relatively minor health issues out of emergency departments, where possible – so I support these clinics - but I'll continue to push for an independent evaluation of where they are located and how they operate.
• Women's Health will receive $793 million for endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics, more funding for contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy. This funding is long overdue.
• Primary care workforce: Boosting the primary care workforce with 400 new places, allowing 2,000 new GPs to enter training each year.

Education

• HECS: HECS debts will be slashed by 20%, giving an extra $16 billion in debt reduction beyond the changes which we secured last year. There's also an increase in the minimum repayment threshold and reduced repayment rates. These changes do mean that most people will carry their HECS debts for longer, which can be a problem for those looking to secure home loans. I'll continue to advocate for more significant HECS reform, including reversal of the punitive doubling of costs for some degrees under the Morrison government, for financial support for prac placements for all students in the healthcare sector, for more fair accounting of HECS payments, and to ensure that HECS debts don’t stop first home buyers from getting a loan. The Coalition has no policy on HECS. It remains a big issue for many people in Kooyong.  
• Early childhood education: $427 million for the new 3-day guarantee to ensure that all families are eligible for at least three days per week of subsidised early childhood care and education. There’s also $3.6 billion for a wage increase for the early childhood education and care workforce.

Investment in Housing

• 55,000 social and affordable houses funded under the Housing Australia Future Fund, plus $4.5 billion to support essential services to new builds.
• The Help to Buy scheme is being expanded to help an additional 40,000 home buyers in the next 4 years, and the Budget includes incentives for apprentice training positions
• $9.3 billion to combat homelessness, provide crisis support, and repair social housing. This includes a new women’s shelter in Kooyong. 

Social Cohesion

• $178 million five-year package to support several social cohesion measures.
• $60.4 million or improved security for Jewish and Muslim community sites.
• Funds to support the Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Program (CRISP). This is wonderful news - we’ve been working with CRISP for several years, and several Kooyong groups have helped families resettle through their program. CRISP needed certainty of funding, we advocated for them, and it’s great to see them get it.

Climate action

• $8 billion investment in renewable energy and low emissions technologies, largely focussed on green steel and iron, hydrogen and critical minerals.

All in all, there's not much forward vision in this Budget. I'm hoping to see more in Peter Dutton’s reply tomorrow night.

At a time when Australia deserves economic certainty and forward thinking, the major parties seem much more focussed on the next election than the next generation.