Tobacco, urgent care & a stadium top of mind in Federal Budget

You know when you get to the last bit of soup in the pot and you have to divvy it up between everyone? That’s what this budget feels like. Trying to give a little bit of something to everyone, but not enough to leave anyone satisfied.

Some of the headline announcements are good, but don’t have enough substance behind them. An example: the Urgent Care Clinics are working well - if you’re sick during their opening hours. None of the clinics in Tassie are open from 8am - 10pm as Labor promised they would be. Labor should be focusing on making sure the UCC’s we have are open as promised before opening new ones.

$17bn additional tax cuts:

The tax cuts cost the budget far more than they should because it gives a tax cut to everyone. I would rather see this tax cut limited to low and middle incomes. The money you’d save could go to further bill relief.

Tobacco excise:

The Government shot themselves in the foot when they restricted access to vapes. Black market smokes and vapes are more popular than ever and the budget is spending over $200m to fight that.

The Government makes more money from the tobacco excise than they spend on student support payments and veterans and their families combined. If vapes were regulated and taxed - even at a much smaller rate - it would raise money to go back into the health budget. And it means adults are free to make their own choices when it comes to their health. A win-win to me.

Debt: 

Every family knows when you sit down at the kitchen table to do the budget, tough choices have to be made to afford the necessities. The Federal Budget is no different. If we’re looking for savings, I reckon we should start with infrastructure projects we don’t need - like $240m for a stadium in Hobart that we might not even be able to play cricket at.

Tas Freight Equalisation Scheme:

Labor can use my recommendations to make immediate changes to this broken system today. Starting with making sure the Tassie freight scheme operates under one department - not two - and having an annual standard rebate claim.