Yahoo Finance Parental leave, equality, family violence: What Budget 2022 means for women
The women’s economic statement has become a fixture of Budget 2022.
A modest $2.1 billion in targeted measures are planned, which is miniscule in the context of the broader pre-election initiatives across transport ($18 billion for new road and rail projects) and defence ($15 billion for submarine, naval and other projects).
Here are the main olive branches to an army of voters who may feel disenfranchised, disenchanted and – amid discrimination and sexual abuse revelations – even disgusted with the government right now.
Also read: Budget 2022: 10 million Aussies to get extra $420 cash bonus
Also read: Budget 2022: Three shocking charts show cost-of-living pain
Also read: Budget 2022: What it means for you
A suite of sweeteners
As wages inflation has stagnated, prices inflation has spiked on pandemic-induced demand, transport bottlenecks and geo-political tension.
We’ve seen this in foods including cheese, cereal, vegetables, cereal, juice, pork and lamb, while beef prices are up a huge 17 per cent since December 2019. And more is likely to come.
Three moves totalling $8.6 billion are designed to combat price pressures.
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The first is a one-off $250 cost-of-living handout to people in receipt of Centrelink benefits or a concession card. Six million Australians will automatically get the payment in April.
The second measure to ease hip-pocket pain is a $420 increase in the Low and Middle Income Tax Offset, before it ends altogether next financial year. Payable on incomes of more than $18,200 and less than $126,000, this will up the tax discount to as much as $1500 for singles and $3000 for couples.
Thirdly, the price of petrol should immediately fall, or it should when a halving of the fuel excise to 22.1 cents a litre passes parliament. The savings for a two-car family could be $30 a week.
More flexible Paid Parental Leave
There is $346 million over five years in amendments to government parental leave.
The idea is to allow the total 20 weeks payment to be split between two parents as they choose. At the moment, the primary carer must take 18 weeks.
It’s also proposed that single parents could access the full 20 weeks, as opposed to the only 18 weeks they can get now.
On the surface of it, this seems more equitable. But the government will essentially get rid of the two weeks of use-it-or-lose-it leave for partners.
The concern is that it will have the opposite effect; with mothers often earning the lower wage, fewer fathers may take leave.
Households earning up to $350,000 will now be eligible.
Funding to fight family violence
$1.3 billion over six years has been allocated for a women’s safety package, more than doubling the Commonwealth’s previous commitment in a bid to cut domestic and sexual violence.
This is money for emergency accommodation, frontline services and legal and health support.
Some $30 million has also been ear-marked for initiatives to reduce the rate of child abuse and neglect and its intergenerational impacts.
Moves to equalise leadership
There is $107 million over five years, $37 million of which is for women in trades, to facilitate more females making it to leadership roles.
Faster free and discounted scripts
The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme safety net will be lowered to $85, meaning about 2.4 million Australians will get cheaper medicines quicker.
Concessional prescription holders will qualify for free or lower-cost prescriptions roughly 12 scripts earlier and general patients, in probably two-fewer scripts.
A doubled Home Guarantee Scheme
$138.7 million over seven years will see the number of ‘discounted-deposit’ house purchases per year double from 25,000 to 50,000. This allows you to buy before you have saved a deposit of 20 per cent.
How it works is that the government goes guarantor for the difference to make up a deposit to 20 per cent, the level at which you escape expensive Lenders’ Mortgage Insurance.
Eligible first home buyers can purchase with just a 5 per cent deposit, with the government guaranteeing the other 15 per cent. A new Regional Home Guarantee will extend this outside of the capitals, where prices have increased fast, to eligible Aussies who have been out of the market for five years.
For single parents, a situation in which women often find themselves and for whom a property purchase might otherwise be unattainable, the government will take on the risk for 18 per cent, meaning only a 2 per cent deposit is necessary.
Of course, you want to be confident the market will rise rather than go backwards and eat up your minimal equity.
The question is: will the above garner enough female votes?
Nicole Pedersen-McKinnon is the author of How to Get Mortgage-Free Like Me, available at www.nicolessmartmoney.com. Follow Nicole on Facebook, Twitter andInstagram.
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