The nine biggest changes in the budget
AAP
Confused by Joe Hockey’s announcements? Here they are in a nutshell.
1. Small business tax cuts are worth $3.25 billion. These are part of the plan to win voters hearts and spark the economy simultaneously.
2. The childcare and nanny subsidy costs $3.2 billion. The government hopes it will help women stay attached to the workforce and therefore provide a boost to the skills available to business.
• Hockey’s ‘have a go’ budget
• A budget to save Joe’s bacon: Paul Bongiorno
• The strangest things in the budget
3. Backing down on the plan to charge $5 to see a doctor under Medicare (and other Medicare changes) will cost $2.99 billion.
4. Cutting pensions for recipients with valuable assets will save the budget a cool $2.44 billion.
5. The government wanted to make young people wait six months to get the dole. That will now be cut to four weeks. The cost is $1.85 billion.
6. Letting small business owners write off the value of their assets straight away will reduce their tax burdens. It costs $1.75 billion.
7. A concerted attack on welfare compliance will see payments reduce. The Budget will bank an estimated $1.69 billion of savings.
8. Adding new drugs to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme – including treatments for cancer and multiple sclerosis – will cost taxpayers $1.58 billion.
9. The government will save $1.5 billion by taking back the funds it had allocated for the east-west link road tunnel in Melbourne. The Victorian government decided not to build the road