This is part  5 in a video series trying to explain every policy announced in the 2023 Federal Budget.

Investing in a stronger and more secure economy

The Australian Federal Budget is a document that contains the country's fiscal performance, policy, and projections. It's a big book, with a lot of data that goes over my head, reminding me why I hate maths. Importantly, It is very useful to find out what the government is doing. On the 9th of May, the Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers of the Albanese Labor government released the 2023-24 Federal Budget. 

This is the second budget delivered by the regime. After 10 years of a severely corrupt government poorly handling multiple major disasters on both a national and global scale, people are looking to The Prime Minister to fix Scott Morrison’s damage to our institutions. 

Trying to understand what is being done, I decided to go through most of the policies written in the budget and research them on a basic level. From there I hope to delve further into the more interesting ones at a later date.

AGRICULTURE

From the days of yams and native wheat, to lackadaisical sheep, laborious wheat, and arduous Cattle droving, Agriculture has been an important basis for this continent's economy. There have been changes and reforms to how this has been managed by the government.

~

A total of $1 billion dollars will be thrown at a new biosecurity system over the next 4 years, along with another $260 million every year after. 

The new system will involve:

Risk Analysis: Scientific experts consider factors like pests associated, fresh or processed, and country of origin to determine how risky it would be to accept the product.

Border screenings: checking if it meets the conditions of entry

Quarantine: Some products might need to be set aside for a time.

Surveillance: Product might need to be regularly checked for signs of disease by experts

Among other things.

According to Minister for Agriculture Murray Watt, the previous coalition government failed to make any sustainable reforms in biosecurity in spite of pushes by reviews and leaders in farming.

The affected sector produces an estimated $75 billion dollars in exports according to the budget.

~

Hey Guys, did you know that In Tasmania, Family members aren’t the only ones getting wet?

The government intends on increasing water security for Tasmanian farming. Using the National Water Grid Fund (NWGF) , a national infrastructure investment program, the government has funded two perfectly compatible schemes to unlock Tasmania's true potential in sustaining big growth.

$109 million towards the Northern Midlands Irrigation scheme, including 25 giga-litres of irrigation water affecting farmers in places from Campbell Town to Longford.

$62.1 for the Sassafras-Wesley Vale Irrigation Scheme which will include a 14 Giga-Litre boost to keep the 19’000 hectares involved perfectly wet.

In a dry cuntry like Australia, Greatly increasing our base stats for water security and having access to Irrigation defence will allow us to be more rough with our water.

~

$32.7 million will be invested to develop data and information systems by the Bureau Of Meteorology for water trading in the Murray-Darling, this will additionally help implement the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

From tweeting about name calling to saving the country's largest and most important water system, this has got to be one of the biggest departmental glow ups of the decade. 

~

The Department of Agriculture has $38.3 million to  spend over 4 years to enhance the capacity of the government to assist farmers with dealing with Climate Change impacts and better manage agriculture data.

Using the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) The department's research wing, about $16 million will be spent on simply improving data in the regions, $9.4 to collect information on low emission methods and tech used by farmers, and $12.8 million to look into the effects of international emissions policies on Aussie agriculture. All policies designed to give farmers access to the best information.

This policy will not solve all the problems that climate change will have on the industry, but it will be a start.

~

INDUSTRY GROWTH

~

$392.4 million will be spent on something called the Industry growth program

This program is designed to give funding and advice to small to medium businesses in specific areas like renewables, medicine, transport, and agriculture. The program will contain experienced advisors to guide small businesses, an independent committee responsible for granting funding, Centre of Expertise, and additional sources of industry advice from the not-for-profit sector.

~

The National Reconstruction Fund is a $15 billion dollar plan to rebuild Australia’s industry, which currently sits at the bottom of the OECD in self-sufficiency, and intends to grow to $30 billion dollars by partnering with businesses. 

Through a series of loans and guarantees, Australia will realise grand plans to manufacture its own transport and renewables, research medicine, Localise defence manufacturing, and greatly boost specialist sectors like IT along with already strong sectors like mining.  

~

The Construction of a Nuclear medicine manufacturing facility has been announced by the government to protect the rare radiopharmaceutical technetium 99m from supply chain issues like those caused during the pandemic, allowing nuclear imaging for diseases affecting half of Australians to continue without interruption. 

The process uses a reactor to fission uranium and produce molybdenum-99, which is extracted, purified, and placed in a special generator that extracts the technetium-99m from it. 

The purpose of this facility is not only to meet domestic supply, but also attempt to fill international demand for the sought after material. 

~

The Australian government wants to use its military budget to invest in new technologies.

$3.4 billion will be spent to establish the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ACSA) designed to transform defence innovation. This investment is in response to the Defence Strategic Review, which advocated for the army to have stronger links to newer technology.  

The main technologies that will be focussed on include Hypersonics, Directed Energy, Trusted Autonomy, Quantum Technology, Information warfare, and Long Range Fires.

~

Hypersonics, which are devices capable of reaching speeds faster than mach 5 at heights below 90km. Called at times `game changers' in warfare by people like Steven Simon of the New York Times, and treated with caution by ANU international relations fellow Benjamin Zala.

This technology has been around for decades, but recent changes have seen newer missiles be far more manoeuvrable. With most of the great powers like the US and China already developing them as a means to compromise an adversary's nuclear capabilities, it has a lot of defensive potential.

~

Directed Energy, in this case it refers to High Energy Laser (HEL) and High-powered radio frequency (HPRF) weapons…so literally Laser weapons. Straight up. The government wants to make Laser weapons.

Although still primitive in functionality, the applications of this technology are not hard to imagine. Already the United States has used this type of technology successfully, with the ATHENA laser weapon taking down 5 UAVs, and the 60kw HELIOS laser weapon system being added to a USA Destroyer. Most applications appear to be in dealing with electronics, which is certainly useful in the modern day.

~

trusted autonomy: Completely Automated weapons and robots like Mine Clearing devices, Support droids, and Automated Underwater Vessels. 

According to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers There are a lot of technical issues surrounding Automated Weapons Systems that makes its reliability still unachievable.

The applications of artificial intelligence in the defence of the nation, along with possible civilian applications of the technology make it a prime field to research to ensure the country’s prosperity.

~

quantum technology: $40.2 million will be added on top of ACSA to research quantum computing in ways that meet needs, fill markets, and can be achieved.

Quantum Computers are experimental devices that use the weird properties of subatomic particles to do calculations. The different way that these computers are able to do these computations means that certain calculations are done much faster than normal computers.

The National Quantum Strategy set the goal for Australia to develop the world's first error corrected quantum computer. Quantum computers are highly sensitive to the outside world and can lose “coherence” and become corrupt. Making the first error correcting computer will be monumental in making quantum computers useful. 

~

information warfare: the world moving from an Industrial to an information age means the government intends to increase it's influencer status to both protect Australia from foreign propaganda and spread information to other countries.

In the Industrial age people directly controlled their physical environment. If you had a car you would drive it with a steering wheel and stick, if you had a gun you would shoot and reload with the trigger and clip. With information environments there is not a non-physical element in between, you give commands to a software which then gives the command to a machine. Being able to manipulate that “in between” Space is the main focus of the Military.

~

long-range fires: Long Range Strike Missiles, used to fire at targets far from the launch location, would be sensible for the defence of a large and isolated country like Australia, a sentiment reflected by the Defence Strategic Update.

The government wants to Acquire the ability to produce A2AD system missiles like the Land 8113 Long Range Fires which have a range over 500km.

~

SUPPORTING SMALL BUSINESS

~

Replacing the previous governments business tax breaks snuck in during the pandemic,

$20’000 instant asset write-offs will be available for businesses with less than $10 million of annual income.

Asset Write offs are claims on the amount paid in taxes on an item purchased for use in business. Anything from Industrial ovens for your restaurant, to even video game skins for your channel.

This change increases the amount of money businesses can claim on their tax for equipment (20 '000 instead of $1000) while limiting what businesses can make those claims, (those making under $10 million are now eligible rather than those making up to $500 million in annual turnover). 

Big companies like Coca-Cola and Boeing can’t write off billions in assets anymore, and now  the more local businesses can make claims on expensive and important commercial equipment.

estimated to cost $290 million over four years in cash flow support, this policy is much cheaper than the previous version

~

One thing I always thought funny about America was how stressful they found taxes there, seems so much easier in Australia

And even easier it will become. It will now be even quicker to interact with the ATO. Paperwork duplication will be combatted through changes to the Single Touch Payroll (STP) system, giving tax agents the authority to act on a businesses behalf for longer periods of time. 

Additional tax clinics will also be opened, with at least 2 delivered through TAFE. These clinics have students studying tax-related courses to provide supervised tax advice for free.

~

The Federal Government has announced several policies to ensure a safe, and secure cyberscape for small businesses.

$2 billion will be invested in ICT to ensure digital services are accessible for people and businesses.

$23.4 million will also be spent to increase cyber security for businesses by training people in a business in basic cyber safety. Cyber security being responsible for about $33 billion in reported losses.

$88.8 million to support the Consumer Data Right (CDR). CDR is an opt-in service for specific sectors that allows you to upload your data securely in order to make comparing products and services easier. 

~~

INVESTING IN PEOPLE AND THEIR SKILLS

~

The government wants to make apprenticeships easier to obtain.

Australia has seen a reduction of trade apprenticeships by almost 20,000 since 2012, This has led to massive skill shortages including in the construction industry which is greatly impacting the housing affordability crisis as there isn’t enough people to build houses.

Improvements to Apprenticeship support services will be made with the goal of increasing completion rates of skills that will get them in the workforce. The plan will include assessments of each apprentices needs, Increasing the accessibility of mentoring, making existing supports more proactive, giving employers improved learning tools, implementing technology, and furthering workplace experience options.

 This was committed in the Jobs and Skills Summit and announced in the 2023 budget.

~

Remember the old reading writing hotline ad, 1300655506. Good times. Well it seems the government is spending more on programs like these.

Expanding foundation skills training to ensure Australians 15 years and over have the basic language, literacy, numeracy, and digital skills needed to participate in future work and education, known as Foundation Skills. 

Roughly three million working age Australians lack the basic skills expected from employers.

Programs considered a part of foundation skills training include the Skills for Education and Employment Program (SEE) near universally accessible training for basic literacy and numeracy skills, and Foundation Skills for Your Future Program which supports employed and recently unemployed Australians who need flexible training to improve basic skills.

~

The new Australia Skills Guarantee will ensure 1/10 workers in government construction and ICT jobs will be an apprentice or trainee.

Starting with major construction and IT sectors this guarantee intends to expand to every notable sector of trade in the country.

 Although yet to be implemented, key design and implementation timeframes have been announced  in the latest budget, and over 100 organisations and professionals have been consulted on how to do this. 

This program intends to prevent the major skill shortages facing the country like those in Construction, which is reducing housing supply and one of the many reasons that stable accommodation has become more difficult in recent years.

~

Negotiating with states for a 5 year National Skills Agreement (NSA) to strengthen the VET sector for critical and emerging industries.

If these negotiations are successful, funding will be available for reform in areas like Foundation Skills, fee-free tafe courses, Equality programs, and many more.

~

Increasing and retaining teacher supply, strengthening their education, and elevating them as a profession. Those are the key priority areas in the Federal Government's National Teacher Workforce Action Plan

Expanding on $328 million from the previous budget, $9.3 million will be added to the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan, including assistance and guidance for early career teachers.

Although this reflects an attempt to fix one of the greatest issues facing the teaching sector at the moment, the AARE says more needs to be done to address other concerns like compensation for pre-service teachers taking professional placements, and the need to upgrade and maintain school infrastructure.

~

$72.4 million dollars will be spent to support Early Childhood Education training, including $34.4 million to support educators professional development and $37.9 million to give financial assistance to educators in getting a bachelor or postgraduate degree. 

This new policy intends to affect 80 '000 Childhood Educators, many from the regions.The package will include backfilling positions and upskilling existing educators to meet the demand for more childcarers. 

~

CONCLUSION

This Budget in my opinion is like one of those treat dispensing dog toys. Inside of it is something for everyone, whether you are struggling to get by, or struggling to keep your business afloat, this toy will slowly drip the little treats you need as you chew it out. It's not the food bowl you need to stay fed, but it will stave of hunger and keep you busy.