Budget 2023-24
Cost of Living Relief
We know family budgets are under pressure. That’s why we’re giving tax cuts to all Australians, making childcare cheaper, strengthening Medicare, cutting the cost of medicines, and delivering targeted energy bill relief to help families and businesses save money on their power bills. We are:
- Giving a tax cut to every Australian. 11.5 million Australian taxpayers will get a bigger tax cut under Labor compared to the Liberal's original plan.
- Relief for students. We’re wiping $3 billion in student debt and changing the way HELP loans are indexed to make it fairer and cheaper over the life of a loan.
- A fair go for consumers. We’re holding supermarkets to account with a strong competition watchdog, and making the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct mandatory. By strengthening competition and accountability in the sector we will secure fairer prices.
- More help for renters. We’re providing the first back-to-back increase to Commonwealth Rent Assistance in more than 30 years. On top of the 15% increase in our last Budget, this year we’re delivering a further 10% increase.
Energy
Energy price relief
The Australian Government is providing $3.5 billion to extend and expand the Energy Bill Relief Fund and provide electricity bill rebates to Australian households and eligible small business electricity customers in 2024-25 to ease cost of living pressures.
Australian households with electricity bills will receive a $300 rebate and eligible small businesses $325 from the Australian Government. In most cases the rebate will be paid in quarterly instalments on your electricity bill throughout 2024-25.
For more information, click here.
Supporting Students
Making the HECS-Debt system fairer
- In response to the Australian Universities Accord, the Government will cap the HELP indexation rate to be the lower of either the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or the Wage Price Index (WPI) with effect from 1 June 2023. This will provide $3 billion in HECS relief for students.
- The National Student Ombudsman will be a new statutory function of the Commonwealth Ombudsman and will begin taking complaints from 1 February 2025. The National Student Ombudsman will be independent, impartial, and have powers to investigate student complaints and resolve disputes with higher education providers.
- From 1 July 2025, the Government will lift the minimum repayment threshold from around $54,000 in 2024-25 to $67,000 in 2025-26 and introduce a system where repayments are based on the portion of a person’s income above the new $67,000 threshold.
Health
Cheaper Medicines
There are now more Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medicines available for 60-day prescriptions. This will give many Australians twice the amount of their medication on a single prescription. There are now almost 300 medicines available for a 60-day prescription.
Since September 2023, locals have said nearly $6,000,000 in cheaper medicines thanks to the Albanese Labor government.
Help for Parents
More Paid Parental Leave for Australian families than ever before
Australia’s Government Paid Parental Leave has been expanded by two weeks as we progress towards 26 weeks in 2026.
From July 1, parents will receive 22 weeks of Paid Parental Leave, up from 20 weeks, resulting in more support as parents take time out of work to care for their newborn.
The scheme will continue to expand each year until the Government’s Paid Parental Leave scheme reaches 26 weeks in July 2026.
When fully rolled out to 26 weeks, families will receive around $24,000 in government-funded parental leave.
Superannuation will also be paid on Paid Parental Leave from July 2025. This will result in around $4,000 extra in the retirement incomes of parents who take time off to care for their newborn.
Housing
We are committed to ensuring all Australians have a place to call home, that’s why we are:
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We’re making it easier for low- and middle-income Aussies to buy their own home. With Help to Buy, The government will provide between 30% and 40% of the purchase price of the house meaning that participants can pay a smaller mortgage.
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Incentivising the construction of 80,000 new BTR rental homes within the next 10 years. 10% of all of homes will be affordable housing. This is thanks to our Build to Rent legislation.
Improving our aged care system
The rights of older people are now at the heart of the Aged Care Act, as we build a new way of working that values the safety, dignity and respect of older people in aged care.
The Albanese Labor Government has now addressed the number one recommendation of the Royal Commission and 57 further recommendations through the passing of the Bill.
Starting from 1 July 2025, the new Act will deliver a range of improvements including a tougher regulatory model, strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards and a Statement of Rights to ensure older people and their needs are at the centre of the new aged care system.
Older people and their loved ones will have a greater say about the care and services they receive.
Our $4.3 billion dollar Support at Home system will improve home care wait times and add 300,000 more places over the next 10 years, with around 1.4 million participants in care in 2035.
Income support
Building on last year's Budget investments for those Australians relying on the social security safety net, the Albanese Government will:
- Increase maximum rates of Commonwealth Rent Assistance by a further 10 per cent to help relieve rental pressures, building on the 15 per cent increase in September 2023 which (combined with indexation) will take maximum rates over 40 per cent higher than in May 2022.
- Extend the higher rate of JobSeeker Payment and Energy Supplement to single recipients with an assessed partial capacity to work of 0‑14 hours per week so that those with barriers to employment who have limited or no capacity to work due to their condition – but who do not qualify for Disability Support Pension - will receive an additional $54.90 a fortnight;
- Continue the freeze to deeming rates for a further twelve months to provide continued relief for around 876,000 income support recipients.
