Tarek Dale and Kai Swoboda
The 2014–15 Budget included a number of policy changes which
proved controversial, and in some cases the Government has not yet been able to
gain Parliamentary approval for particular measures. While some measures have been
reversed in the 2015–16 Budget (for example, reductions in the Automotive
Transformation Scheme and changes to Age Pension indexation), others are still
included in the Budget estimates, despite not being legislated.
The 2014–15 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook included
estimates of the ‘Impact of delays in passing legislation’ grouped by
portfolio, but did not outline individual measures in detail.[1]
Similarly, there is no definitive list in the 2015–16 Budget of measures for
which the Government has not been able to gain Parliamentary approval.[2]
The table below provides a high-level summary of selected
measures from the 2014–15 Budget and other budget updates, which are either
unchanged but do not yet have Parliamentary approval, or were amended or
reversed in the 2015–16 Budget.
Table 1: Status of selected measures from previous budget
updates
|
Unchanged
measures
|
|
Measure
|
Legislative
status
|
|
Abolition of the Clean Energy
Finance Corporation.[3]
|
Bills
to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation were introduced but negatived
by the previous Senate on two occasions. A bill has been reintroduced but not
yet voted on in the House of Representatives.[4]
|
|
Fair Entitlements Guarantee –
aligning redundancy payments to national employment standards.[5]
|
A bill
to cap the maximum amount of redundancy pay entitlement available under the
Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme has been introduced but not yet voted on
in the Senate.[6]
|
|
Increase the Age Pension
qualifying age to 70 years.[7]
|
A bill
that included this measure (amongst other changes) was discharged from the
notice paper in the Senate. A bill reintroduced for this measure (amongst
other changes) has not yet been voted on in the House of Representatives.[8]
|
|
Increase in Pharmaceutical
Benefits Scheme co-payments and safety net thresholds.[9]
|
Bill
not yet voted on by the Senate.[10]
|
Limit Family Tax Benefit Part B
to families with children under six years of age.[11]
Maintain Family Tax Benefit
payment rates for two years.[12]
New Family Tax Benefit Allowance.[13]
Revise Family Tax Benefit
end-of-year supplements.[14]
|
Two
bills that included these measures (amongst other changes) have been
discharged from the notice paper in the Senate. A second Bill including these
measures has been reintroduced but not yet voted on in the Senate.[15]
|
|
Reintroduction of fuel excise
indexation.[16]
|
A bill
has been introduced but not yet voted on in the Senate. The measure was
subsequently implemented temporarily through tariff and excise proposals.
Legislation to ratify the reintroduction of indexation from 10 November 2014
will need to be introduced and passed by Parliament prior to 10 November
2015.[17]
|
|
Removing caps on student
contributions.[18]
|
Bills
introduced but negatived in the Senate on two occasions.[19]
|
|
Repeal higher tax-free threshold
from 1 July 2015.[20]
|
Initially
a budget measure by the previous Government to delay a legislated higher
tax-free threshold.[21] Bills introduced but
negatived in the Senate on two occasions. A bill has been reintroduced but
not yet voted on in the House of Representatives.[22]
|
|
Revised
or reversed measures
|
|
Measure
|
Changes
in the 2015–16 Budget
|
|
Abolish Climate Change Authority.[23]
|
One
Bill to abolish the Climate Change Authority was negatived in the Senate, and
the re-introduced Bill has not been voted on in the Senate. Revisions
announced in the 2015–16 Budget provide for a reallocation of funding to extend
the Climate Change Authority until 31 December 2016.[24]
|
|
Automotive Assistance – reducing
funding.[25]
|
Measures
in the 2013–14 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook and the 2014–15 Budget to
reduce funding for the Automotive Transformation Scheme were reversed in the
2015–16 Budget.[26]
|
|
Changes to GP rebates.[27]
|
Changes
included in the 2014–15 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook in relation to
GP rebates are not proceeding.[28]
|
|
Index pension and pension
equivalent payments by the Consumer Price Index.[29]
|
Not
proceeding.[30]
|
|
Maintain eligibility thresholds
for Australian Government payments for three years.[31]
|
Elements
affecting indexation of income test and deeming rate thresholds for pension
payments are not proceeding. Elements affecting indexation of assets test
thresholds and limits for all income support payments and the Child Care
Rebate annual limit have been passed by the Parliament.
It is
unclear if elements affecting indexation of income test thresholds for
non-pension income support payments, Family Tax Benefit and Child Care
Benefit will proceed—attempts were made to legislate these measures but
either did not pass or were discharged from the notice paper. Bills have been
reintroduced for those measures and are currently in either the House (Child
Care Benefit elements) or Senate (all other elements).[32]
|
|
Reset the Assets Test Deeming
Rate Thresholds for pensions.[33]
|
Not
proceeding.[34]
|
|
Stronger Participation Incentives
for Job Seekers under 30.[35]
|
Revisions
announced in the 2015–16 Budget to reduce the waiting period to one month
(from six months), and only applying the measure to those aged under 25
(instead of under 30).[36]
|
Budget briefs have been prepared by the Research Branch in
relation to a number of these measures, including:
-
Medicare
-
The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
-
Pensions and
-
Family Payments.[37]
Identifying the impacts associated with particular measures
which have not yet received Parliamentary approval is difficult. The
Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) released analysis in February 2015 (prior to
the 2015–16 Budget) entitled ‘Update of major yet to be legislated payment
measures’, which provides budget estimates in relation to some measures
(although not all those identified above).[38] The PBO is also expected
to publish updated estimates in the near future. While the PBO noted that their
February estimates would no longer be accurate after the 2015–16 Budget, that
analysis suggests the orders of magnitude involved with some measures in the
2015–16 financial year, including:
- ‘Family Tax Benefit Reform package—Maintain FBT payment rates for
two years’—$719 million
- ‘Family Tax Benefit Reform package—Limit FTB B to families with
children under six years of age’— $88 million
- ‘Increase in co-payments and safety net thresholds’ (in relation
to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme)—$306 million.[39]
[1].
J Hockey (Treasurer) and M Cormann
(Finance Minister), Mid-year economic and fiscal outlook 2014–15, p. 23.
[2].
Budget
strategy and outlook: budget paper no. 1: 2015–16 does include estimates
of the ‘Total impact of significant decisions not to proceed with prior Budget
proposals’ and ‘Impact of delays in passing legislation’ (p. 3-11), but not by
individual measure.
[3].
J Hockey (Treasurer) and M Cormann
(Finance Minister), Mid-year economic and fiscal outlook 2013–14, pp. 144–145.
[4].
Parliament of Australia, ‘Clean Energy Finance Corporation (Abolition) Bill 2013 homepage’, Australian Parliament website; Parliament of
Australia, ‘Clean Energy Finance Corporation (Abolition) Bill 2013
[No. 2] homepage’, Australian
Parliament website; Parliament of Australia, ‘Clean Energy Finance Corporation (Abolition) Bill 2014
homepage’, Australian Parliament
website.
[5].
Australian Government, Budget measures: budget paper no. 2: 2014–15, p. 95.
[6].
Parliament of Australia, ‘Fair Entitlements Guarantee Amendment Bill 2014
homepage’, Australian Parliament
website.
[7].
Budget measures: budget paper no. 2:
2014–15, op. cit., p. 202.
[8].
Parliament of Australia, ‘Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014
Budget Measures No. 2) Bill 2014 homepage’, Australian Parliament website; ‘Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014
Budget Measures No. 5) Bill 2014 homepage’, Australian Parliament website.
[9].
Budget measures: budget paper no. 2:
2014–15, op. cit., p. 140.
[10].
Parliament of Australia, ‘National Health Amendment (Pharmaceutical Benefits)
Bill 2014 homepage’, Australian
Parliament website. The 2015–16 Budget measure ‘Pharmaceutical Benefits
Scheme—increase in safety net thresholds on 1 January 2019’ builds on the
2014–15 budget measure to extend an increase by an additional year, and
includes a revised start date of 1 January 2016 (Australian Government, Budget measures: budget paper no. 2: 2015–16, pp. 107–108).
[11].
Budget measures: budget paper no. 2:
2014–15, op. cit., p. 198.
[12].
Parliament of Australia, ‘Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014
Budget Measures No. 1) Bill 2014 homepage’, Australian Parliament website; ‘Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014
Budget Measures No. 2) Bill 2014 homepage’, op. cit.; Parliament of Australia, ‘Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014
Budget Measures No. 4) Bill 2014 homepage’, Australian Parliament website. For a summary of the social security
measures in different pieces of legislation see M Klapdor, The 2014–15 social services budget Bills: a quick guide, Research paper series, 2014–15, Parliamentary
Library, Canberra, 2014
[13].
Budget measures: budget paper no. 2:
2014–15, op. cit., p. 199.
[14].
Ibid., p. 199.
[15].
Ibid., p. 200.
[16].
Ibid., p. 17.
[17].
Parliament of Australia, ‘Excise Tariff Amendment (Fuel Indexation) Bill 2014
homepage’, Australian Parliament
website; Parliament of Australia, ‘Customs Tariff Amendment (Fuel Indexation) Bill 2014
homepage’, Australian Parliament
website; Parliament of Australia, ‘Summary of Alterations – Excise Tariff Proposal (No. 1)
2014 and Customs Tariff Proposal (No. 1) 2014’. A subsequent measure in the 2014–15 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal
Outlook (MYEFO) amended the start date, but not the underlying measure (Mid-year
economic and fiscal outlook 2014–15, op. cit., p. 115).
[18].
Budget measures: budget paper no. 2:
2014–15, op. cit., pp. 84–85. While
other aspects of the measure were amended in the 2014–15 MYEFO, there were no
changes in relation to the proposal to remove caps on student contributions (Mid-year
economic and fiscal outlook 2014–15, op. cit., p. 151).
[19].
Parliament of Australia, ‘Higher Education and Research Reform Amendment Bill
2014 homepage’, Australian Parliament
website; Parliament of Australia, ‘Higher Education and Research Reform Bill 2014 homepage’, Australian Parliament website.
[20].
Mid-year economic and fiscal outlook 2013–14, op. cit., pp. 144–145.
[21].
Australian Government, Budget
measures: budget paper no. 2: 2013–14, p. 24.
[22].
Parliament of Australia, ‘Clean Energy (Income Tax Rates and Other Amendments)
Bill 2013 homepage’, Australian
Parliament website; Parliament of Australia, ‘Clean Energy (Income Tax Rates and Other Amendments)
Bill 2013 [No. 2] homepage’,
Australian Parliament website; Parliament of Australia, ‘Labor 2013-14 Budget Savings (Measures No. 1) Bill 2014
homepage’, Australian Parliament website.
[23].
Mid-year economic and fiscal outlook
2013–14, op. cit., pp. 143–144.
[24].
Parliament of Australia, ‘Climate Change Authority (Abolition) Bill 2013 homepage’, Australian Parliament website; Parliament of
Australia, ‘Climate Change Authority (Abolition) Bill 2013 [No. 2]
homepage’, Australian Parliament
website; Budget measures: budget paper no. 2: 2015–16, op. cit., p. 87.
[25].
Budget measures: budget paper no. 2:
2014–15, op. cit., p. 163.
[26].
Mid-year economic and fiscal outlook
2013–14, op. cit., p. 170; Budget
measures: budget paper no. 2: 2015–16, op. cit., p. 128.
[27].
Mid-Year economic and fiscal outlook 2014–15, op. cit., p. 166.
[28].
Budget measures: budget paper no. 2:
2015–16, op. cit., p. 102.
[29].
Budget measures: budget paper no. 2:
2014–15, op. cit., p. 203.
[30].
Budget measures: budget paper no. 2:
2015–16, op. cit., pp. 169–170.
[31].
Budget measures: budget paper no. 2:
2014–15, op. cit., p. 204.
[32].
Budget measures: budget paper no. 2:
2015–16, op. cit., p. 167; Parliament
of Australia, ‘Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014
Budget Measures No. 6) Bill 2014 homepage’, Australian Parliament website; Parliament of Australia, ‘Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care
Measures) Bill 2014 homepage’,
Australian Parliament website; ‘Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014
Budget Measures No. 1) Bill 2014 homepage’, op. cit.; ‘Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014
Budget Measures No. 2) Bill 2014 homepage’, op. cit.; Parliament of Australia, ‘Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care
Measures) Bill (No. 2) 2014 homepage’,
Australian Parliament website; ‘Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014
Budget Measures No. 4) Bill 2014 homepage’, op. cit.
[33].
Budget measures: budget paper no. 2:
2014–15, op. cit., p. 208.
[34].
Budget measures: budget paper no. 2:
2015–16, op. cit., p. 168.
[35].
Budget measures: budget paper no. 2:
2014–15, op. cit., p. 210.
[36].
Budget measures: budget paper no. 2:
2015–16, op. cit., pp. 159–160.
[37].
These are available as part of the Parliamentary Library’s
Budget Review 2015–16 (Parliamentary Library, Budget
Review 2015–16, Research Paper, 2014–15, Parliamentary Library,
Canberra, 2015).
[38].
Parliamentary Budget Office, ‘Update
of major yet to be legislated payment measures’, Response to request for
budget analysis – outside the caretaker period, 27 February 2015.
[39].
Ibid., p. 3.
All online articles accessed May 2015.
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