LABOR splashed hundreds of millions for climate-smart agriculture and disaster resilience in this week's budget, but cut almost $900 million in water infrastructure, which it "redirected to fund other government priorities".
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The 2023/24 budget also increased the instant tax write off for small businesses, gave biosecurity a $1 billion boost and increased welfare payments.
About 400,000 regional and rural residents will benefit from cost-of-living relief, which includes raising welfare payments by $40 a fortnight, increasing rent assistance by 15pc (about $15 to $30 depending on the household) and raising the cut off age for payments for children of single parents from eight to 14.
The instant asset write-off threshold has been temporarily increased to $20,000 for businesses with a turnover of up to $10 million and $302m will support climate-smart agriculture projects that help farmers transition to a low emissions future or strengthen sustainability.
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Labor invested heavily in disaster preparedness after almost 70 per cent of Australians were impacted by storms, floods, cyclones and bushfires in 2022. More than $236 million over the next decade will address long-standing risks in Australia's flood gauge network, to give communities reliable access to flood forecasts and warnings.
The significant cuts in water infrastructure were anticipated, after Labor announced a review of all dam funding in the previous budget.
Dungowan Dam ($595m), Emu Swamp Dam ($162.5m), the Southern Forests Irrigation Scheme ($39.7m), the Fingal Irrigation Scheme ($35m) were all scrapped, while the government will save a further $40m on projects that are being re-scoped or not progressed.
The government deferred a decision on the $19m Wyangala Dam wall raising and the Hughenden Irrigation Scheme project, until after the planning work is completed.
About $200m of the funding will be reallocated to fund three water infrastructure projects; Northern Midlands Irrigation Scheme ($109m), Sassafras-Wesley Vale Irrigation Scheme ($62.1m) and the Quality Water for Wannon project ($26.1m).
The first statutory review of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan will be supported by a nearly $150m, with updated science to "future proof" the plan against the impacts of climate change, which delivers on another election commitment.
Labor plans to make the water market more transparent with a $32.7m investment, which includes a public website that publishes live water market updates, while $18m will be used to increase the integrity of the Australian carbon credit market.
An additional $166.7m will go towards enhancing the Pacific Australian Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme.
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