A Groundhog Day budget, without the laughs
New treasurer, new(ish) premier, same old story. Jaclyn Symes' first budget repeated this government's previous inaction on its rising debt, forecast to reach $188 billion by June 2028. The following year, debt is forecast to reach $194 billion, 24.9 per cent of gross state product. This was Groundhog Day, without the laughs.
The budget again reprised the government's lack of enthusiasm for significant reform, even in the face of its significant challenges. Once more, too, Premier Jacinta Allan has stuck to an increasingly Pollyanna approach to infrastructure spending.
The mantra of both the premier and Symes was that they were 'focused on what matters most'. Given the state's massive and still-growing debt, Victorians might have expected that is where the focus would sit. Not at all.
What mattered most to Allan and Symes, the headline act, was the surplus. In 2025-26, the government is expecting to deliver an operating surplus of $600 million, about $1 billion less than it forecast six months ago. This is projected to rise each year of the forward estimates to $6.2 billion, $7.9 billion, $6.6 billion and $5.8 billion. The $600 million is the first operating surplus since before the COVID pandemic.
As Symes said on Tuesday, numbers don't tell the full story. This cuts both ways. The treasurer was at pains to highlight the measures the government is providing to ease the cost-of-living crisis. Free public transport for kids (worth $318 million), free weekend travel for seniors, free kinder care for three- and four-year-olds and $123 million to parents to help with school costs will no doubt be welcomed by recipients.
Weighed against this is the fact Victoria reneged on a commitment to fund by 2028 its full 75 per cent share of the Schooling Resource Standard, meaning $2.4 billion will be stripped from government schools.
It's a similar story in health, where an extra $11.1 billion will go into the system over the next four years. Of this, $9.3 billion will go to hospital operating costs and $643 million will be for nine new and upgraded hospitals, including Footscray and Frankston hospitals. Many in the sector will see this as catch-up spending to fend off a damaging feud at a time when they are struggling to keep basic programs running.
The much-needed top-up to regional roads funding will also be viewed in a similar light. More, if limited, energy bill assistance to households, and more money for food charities, homelessness and those facing financial stress will help at the margins.
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West Australian
6 hours ago
- West Australian
‘No Boomers' Shares app now helping young Aussies crack the housing market'
A share trading app which famously had a blunt message for those born before 1970 is trying to get more Aussies into their own home through an unused government scheme. Pearler, a share trading app moving into the superannuation space, has launched a product they are calling 'HomeSoon' with the aim of simplifying the steps needed to take advantage of the government's first home savers scheme (FHSS). The company says it is also the first platform in Australia to allow customers to use open banking to track bank savings, FHSS savings, shares, and other assets in one place – regardless of whether those assets are held with Pearler. Pearler co-founder Nick Nicolaides said house price growth is outpacing savings, meaning it is no longer sustainable for the average person to park their money in a bank account while they are saving for a deposit. 'Bank savings are no longer sustainable for a seven-eight year journey, and with that it adds complexity,' Mr Nicolaides told NewsWire. 'I don't think people really have a choice but to have their house deposit spread across bank accounts, probably some shares and the FHSS. 'It is more of a case of getting to the end goal of being wealthy enough to buy into the housing market, you now need to not only understand savings and budgeting, you now need to understand investing and this scheme,' he said. NED-7083-Housing-price-changes Mr Nicolaides said ideation was simple – to help first home buyers get into the housing market by taking the complexity out of a current scheme. 'We've been talking to customers for a while with only a fraction of customers actually using the scheme,' he said. 'When we asked why, it was very clear that firstly the scheme was in super which people feel some nervousness about and if you then get your head around putting additional savings into super, tracking, knowing what you can withdraw and withdrawing it in time, it quickly layers up. 'So a combination of a complex superannuation system and a not very mainstream scheme really puts most people off.' The latest PropTrack Home Price Index shows it has never been more expensive for first home buyers to get into the market. National house prices hit a new peak in May, lifting by 0.39 per cent over the month for a 4.12 per cent year-on-year gain. All capital cities saw home prices grow in May, with Melbourne leading the way up 0.79 per cent, followed by Adelaide up 0.52 per cent and then Sydney up 0.39 per cent. Nationally, since the Covid falls starting in March 2020, house prices are up 50.1 per cent for a new median house price value of $809,000, while Australia's most expensive city, Sydney, will set the median buyer back $1,124,000. Pearler's latest superannuation move follows launching a fund in late March saying it caters for younger members with a simple slogan 'for people born after 1970 (sorry, Boomers)'. During the launch, Mr Nicolaides said the 'no Boomers' fund was more about solving a problem for younger Australians than a display of anti-Boomer rhetoric. 'If you take a casual interest in what is written about superannuation, most articles are written about how the superannuation industry can deal with retirement,' he said. 'It makes sense that it gets the most attention because it is an immediate problem now. 'But at the other end of the spectrum, the industry and the media recognise that engagement in super is lacking in younger people. If we don't fix that, then today's younger people will find themselves in the same boat in 20, 30 years time,' Mr Nicolaides said. The FHSS allows people to contribute and access up to $15,000 of their voluntary contributions into super each financial year (up to a total cap of $50,000) for a home deposit. The main benefit of saving for a home this way is super's lower tax rate – meaning Australians can potentially get to their deposit faster. The scheme currently has a relatively low take up, with Pearler saying just 13.7 per cent of home buyers bought through the FHSS. Mr Nicolaides said the onus was not on the government to market the product better but instead on the general financial advice sector to do a better job of educating people. 'The government got the ball rolling on a fantastic scheme but there is only so much that can be done,' Mr Nicolaides said. 'We have a situation in Australia where, whether generationally like it or not, most of our financial decisions are going to be self-directed for the average person on the average wage. 'It becomes our job as an industry to educate people by giving them the tools and the guidance in mediums people want to use.' Mr Nicolaides says he hopes over time three in four Australians trying to buy a house will do so through the FHSS.
The Age
9 hours ago
- The Age
Coastal village wins 10-year fight to stop housing sprawl
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Cape Paterson's boundary was not tightened, sparking a backlash from the residents' association. At the time, the government defended the decision by saying it was made after two rounds of public engagement, and informed by existing planning scheme policies and technical studies. An independent panel was tasked in 2023 with reviewing the Bass Coast planning policy. A renewed campaign in 2024 reignited debate over the Cape Paterson boundary expansion after the local council publicly opposed it and Crugnale advocated for a review. In December, the Allan government agreed to re-open Cape Paterson's boundary to public feedback until the end of January 2025. Peak bodies for the property sector and landowners wrote to Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny urging her not to wind back the boundary, arguing it was not the correct process for such a change and would cast doubt on the reliability of long-term planning. Kilkenny ultimately decided in favour of the community campaign, releasing a new draft plan for the Bass Coast this week that revokes expansion of the Cape Paterson boundary north of Seaward Drive. 'We can build more homes, while also protecting what makes our regions so special,' a state government spokesperson said. 'The Bass Coast is one of Victoria's most environmentally significant regions. This draft policy will help set a clear long-term plan that provides certainty to council, developers, and local communities about where more homes can be built while protecting the environment.' The consultation process received more than 1000 submissions, and the government said most of those supported tightening the boundary to protect the dune landscape and green space. Kilkenny's decision was made public at the same time as a conflicting report from the 2023 independent panel. That report, which had previously not been released, assessed one large area proposed to be subdivided north of Seaward Drive and found the boundary could remain. This was also the view of the planning minister at the time of the review. 'The committee supports the position of the proponent [planning minister] that the area defined for residential growth in Cape Paterson be upheld,' the report said. The report found further work to refine the boundary was 'unnecessary', that the boundaries were not a 'green light for urban development at any cost', and rules still required landscape character and environment to be considered in any development seeking approval. Bernard Collins, from development consultants Beveridge Williams, has been advising one group of prospective developers. He said their clients did everything asked of them as part of the process and had prepared the site so it was ready for future development and to become an established part of the town. 'As a planner, it's concerning where perhaps due process is not fully followed in considering the future, structural future growth of townships,' Collins said. 'Orderly planning requires an orderly process. If that's not followed it causes doubt at many levels of the development process.' Narracan MP Wayne Farnham, the opposition's shadow assistant minister for planning, accused Kilkenny of obstructing and interfering with a 'strategic evidence-based planning process'. 'The Allan Labor government talks a big game when it comes to their plans to build 800,000 homes, but their inconsistent approach makes it hard for homebuyers to get into the market, and hard for builders to deliver projects,' he said. 'This decision flies in the face of every strategic planning process, every recommendation and every cultural and environmental study done on the site.' Victorian executive director of the Property Council Cath Evans said the decision 'contradicts the evidence-based process that had been followed for more than a decade'. 'The sudden change not only undermines trust in long-term planning but also sets a concerning precedent for future developments,' she said. 'This could result in driving away further investment and development urgently needed to meet our state's ambitious housing targets.' A Bass Coast Shire Council spokesperson said an assessment had confirmed there was still enough supply to meet council's obligations for housing without needing the northern land.
West Australian
10 hours ago
- West Australian
BEN HARVEY: Why Rita Saffioti's the human punchline
Rita Saffioti, you are weak as p***. The writing was on the wall that bare-knuckle boxing was politically poisonous but you didn't have the guts to use your power as Sports Minister to veto it. Instead, you let the Combat Sports Commission do your dirty work by putting a last-minute kybosh on the Bare Knuckle Boxing Championship event. You were the only person who wanted this thing to happen, Rita. For weeks you failed to read the room, insisting community concern was a storm in a teacup that would blow over when West Australians realised just how much fun it was watching two people bash each other the way nature intended. You knew best. Perhaps it was because eight years ago you stared down those opposed to cage fighting. Perhaps it was because, having represented the good burghers of West Swan for so long, you know a thing or two about punch-ups. You refused to intervene even when it emerged that a former bikie who went to jail for bashing a police informant was being considered for the card. His opponent? A British reality TV 'star' called Aaron Chalmers who, presumably, decided that having his head punched in was worth it because it gave him the requisite brain damage for another season on Geordie Shore. 'The advice to me is that with very strict protocols and criteria that the event, if the organiser were to meet that, that it could be conducted in WA,' you said. In making it clear you were a woman not for turning you made the entire Cabinet look like hapless idiots. Why buy tickets to Cirque du Soleil when you can watch Meredith Hammat contorting herself while dodging questions about how a health minister could endorse what the Australian Medical Association was calling a blood sport. If it was up to the AMA the most dangerous sport in WA would be Ring a Ring o' Roses (perhaps accompanied by someone playing the lute) so we don't want to be led by the nose by medicos, but still. Your government, which adhered slavishly to medical advice during COVID, was very quick to discount the opinion of doctors on this one. I hope you apologised to Meredith for making her look such a fool. You owe Paul Papalia a beer as well. He didn't hesitate in going over the top for you, making out that bare-knuckle boxing was something the Famous Five might indulge in, refreshing themselves with lashings of ginger beer between bouts. At least Paul sounded like he believed what he was saying. Perhaps his performance was compelling because he was a navy clearance diver before politics. Let's face it, anyone who swims towards the bomb has a unique appreciation of risk. Rita, so terrified are ministers of your wrath in Budget expenditure review committee meetings, they would have built a Thunderdome in your honour. Two men enter, one man leaves, they would have chanted, had you asked. You took advantage of their pathetic weakness and insisted they back your absurd rationale that the Combat Sports Commission could never be questioned. It's not the bloody Roman Senate, Rita; it's sports administration. 'I can't stop one and then not stop others,' you said, hinting that your ministerial override risked the fall of the Westminster system. It was only when the July 19 card was confirmed that you appeared to have realised there might be a political problem. It turns out there is something as bad as a former bikie who bashed a police informant being the star of the show. Alex 'Godly Strong' is a 140kg, 195cm meat-axe who went to prison for bashing a drug dealer during an aggravated home invasion. It was a bridge too far. Labor had ceded the moral high ground to Basil Zempilas and was enjoying what must have been a novel view. Everyone knew the wound needed to be cauterised. But still you refused to act. And now you're asking us to believe that at the last minute the Combat Sports Commission 'independently' arrived at the conclusion that this show could not go on. The same commission whose chair, Bob Kucera, had been so enthusiastic about this event he was practically humming Eye of the Tiger. This was a contest between 'superb athletes', Bob told us a couple of weeks ago. Strict medical conditions had to be met before anyone could step in the ring, he said. And it was best to have these kind of events held out in the open, otherwise bare-knuckle fighting might go underground, the former cop warned ominously. Bob even managed to keep a straight face when he said that last one. I was waiting for him to gush, 'I would like to thank the Academy' at the end of each interview. He was so convincing the promoters started selling tickets to the fight! Bob had your back, Rita. And you hung him out to dry. You made him look like a stooge. Does anyone believe that there was no political pressure here? That nobody in the executive arm of government had a quiet word to the commission about the need to somehow get the shit back in the horse? That there were no phone calls asking that the commission take one for the team? Bull****. I can't imagine what the atmosphere was like in the State Solicitor's Office when the commission knocked back the event application. Did someone at least give them the heads-up that we were about to pick a legal fight with Conor McGregor, the man who owns Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship? Rita, do you have any idea how wealthy this bloke is? He earnt $US130 million in one fight against Floyd Mayweather, for the love of God. The only people richer than Conor are his lawyers. We were worried about Clive Palmer's lawsuit bankrupting us; wait for this costs order! Rita, I know that you didn't initiate this mess. That was your predecessor, David Templeman. David should never have recognised bare-knuckle fighting as a sport when the application was made prior to the last State election. He should have understood the politics but was probably distracted by the excitement of delivering his last end-of-year serenade to the Legislative Assembly. You, on the other hand, Rita, should have known better. You're no political fool. There's no excuse for allowing this public policy absurdity to run for so long.
