Keeping worthwhile programs alive made up half of new Budget spending, says Jones

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The Albanese government managed to find major savings in the federal Budget while still keeping funding for vital projects that would have been terminated, assistant treasurer Stephen Jones has told an accounting industry breakfast function.

Jones spoke to a post-Budget breakfast audience hosted by the Institute of Public Accountants and Canberra Business Chamber. He told the audience that there were significant projects that were at risk if the government failed to intervene with funding.

“We had to trawl through the Budget over the last six months and find all the projects that the previous government had announced but hadn’t funded just to make sure the lights are kept on on a whole bunch of projects that frankly are not optional extras,” Jones said.

“We’ve had to spend $4.1 billion in the October Budget to do that and another $7.5 billion in this one to ensure that those essential projects that everyone thought were funded into the future, and we don’t have an option of not continuing with, are continued.”

Jones said that measures that would otherwise have been terminated because of a lack of funding made up more than half of the $20 billion of new spending.

These projects included $1.8 billion in legacy health funding, the minister said, and $800 million for the biosecurity system for the agricultural sector as well as funding for cultural institutions like the National Gallery of Australia.

“The Australian Radioactive Waste Agency, [which] sounds like the sort of thing we might want to invest money into and keep doing, would have terminated in July this year,” Jones said.

Jones said the federal government also had to ensure it provided relief to those who needed it through a range of measures. This included funding to increase the availability of bulk billing at medical clinics, an increase in JobSeeker and the rent assistance payment.

“Bulk billing had been decimated, GP numbers were plummeting and the system was creaking like never before,” Jones said.

“The Budget and the injection of $3 billion into the bulk-billing incentive, in addition to the other changes that we’ve made to the Medicare system, [are] absolutely critical to ensure we can get Medicare back on track.”

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