With a mountain of debt looming over the Victorian budget, the government has directed help to families with young kids but pushed back election promises.
Workforce shortages have delayed the rollout of free kinder and mental health hubs, but a $700m shared-equity scheme to help people buy homes has been extended for a year.
Winners from Tuesday’s budget include the families of 700,000 government school students; their carers will get $400 for uniforms and extracurriculars, and the government’s “free glasses for kids” scheme is expanding.
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READ NOWTreasurer Tim Pallas says $11bn of investment across the forward estimates represents “the biggest investment in our healthcare system, ever”.
First Nations Australians will see a $273m investment, including $42m for better cultural heritage laws and $51m for Aboriginal decision making in schools.
The shared-equity scheme has raised the price of applicable homes in regional areas. The government will now take a stake in homes worth up to $700,000, from $600,000.
On the flip side, a Covid-19 pandemic era sick days for casual workers scheme will come to an end.
The scheme gave casual workers five days of sick pay, but that will end next financial year.
The Labor government went to the last election spruiking reform after the Royal Commission into Mental Health, but substantial worker shortages have delayed that.
Travellers have been hit with the short end of the stick as well.
The budget brought an admission that a rail line to the airport is effectively at a stalemate and now officially delayed by four years.
Looming large is the state’s debt, and the burden on generations of Victorians. Interest payments alone will top $25,000 a day in four years, as the debt reaches $187bn.