Brief Snapshot of the 2021 Federal Budget

This is a brief snapshot for QDN members of the budget initiatives announced on Tuesday 11 May 2021.

QDN welcomes the Federal Government budget announcements, specifically related to people with disability and looks forward to seeing more details about the specific commitments as the budget is rolled out.

QDN will keep members updated with more detailed analysis as we get more information about these budget announcements.

Summary of key announcements:

• $13.2 billion boost for the NDIS over 4 years. The Federal Budget forecasts that the NDIS will cost almost $32 billion in 2024-25, expenditure that is comparable to the cost of Medicare.
• $17.7bn aged care system overhaul will be invested over four years to respond to recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
• $2.3bn mental health package to include aftercare services for people who attempt suicide and a world-leading online platform for counselling, clinical support and referrals.
• $1.1bn additional funds for domestic violence prevention and early intervention
• $12.3 million will be expended over the next two years to improve the alignment of the regulation that applies to the disability and aged care sectors.
• Under the aged care payment measures, almost $106 million will be spent on introducing a nationally consistent worker screening, register and code of conduct for all care sector workers.
• A total of $12.7 million of new funds over five years will be directed to initiatives aimed at improving the health of people with intellectual disability. Including:
  • Annual Health Assessments ($6.7 million)
  • Scoping and co-designing a National Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability ($1.4 million)
  • Consultation on the inclusion of mandatory competencies in health care for people with intellectual disability in tertiary education health curricula.
• Almost $18 million over four years will be used to establish a new early childhood program delivering a range of disability-specific information, workshops and supported playgroups for young children aged 0 to 8 years with disability or developmental needs.
• For employment, a range of programs and initiatives will receive almost $260 million to provide additional support to job seekers, including:
  • $213.5 million over four years to expand the Local Jobs Program (which supports approaches to accelerate reskilling, upskilling, and employment pathways in selected regions)
  • $15.6 million in the next financial year to increase all wage subsidies to $10,000 for eligible participants in jobactive, Transition to Work, and ParentsNext. Unfortunately, this measure does not include DES.
  • 450,000 new training places for jobseekers and young people
• Over the next four years, $20 million will be spent on continuing and improving the collection of this data on school students with disability (which is used to make funding decisions).
• There were a range of housing focused announcements which mainly focus on home ownership measures including “Family Home Guarantee” for single parents, extension of first home loan deposit scheme by 10,000 places, first home owners super save scheme increased to $50,000 cap and for older Australians to make a tax-free contribution to their super from proceeds of selling their home.
• Childcare subsidy of up to 95 per cent for low and middle-income families
• Tax breaks of up to $1080 for workers earning up to $126,000.