12 May 2021
Australian Council of Social Service CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said:
“After years of austerity, a pandemic and a recession, this budget provides much-needed funding to finally start fixing some of the gaping holes in our aged care, childcare, mental health, and domestic violence services.
“However, this budget misses the opportunity to deliver the change we need to reduce inequality and poverty, act on climate change and make the investments in crucial areas to support communities to rebuild from crisis, like social housing.”
ACOSS’ preliminary analysis on budget measures is set out under the following headings:
Investment in services will start to plug yawning gaps
Funding for equal pay must extend to all community services
People need much more help to get into paid employment
People on income support will continue to live in poverty
Nothing to improve access to secure housing for people on low incomes
No progress towards Closing the Gap
Budget fails to tackle climate crisis, create clean jobs and ensure no-one is left behind in the energy transition
Disaster Resilience funding must focus on communities and people at risk
Personal tax cuts will come at the expense of future services, and disproportionately benefit men on higher incomes
Business tax cuts are a costly and inefficient way to generate jobs
Super policies predominantly benefit the wealthy.
At the end of this analysis, we have included a table of costs and jobs created by major budget policies.