Budget Review 2022–23 Index
Elliott King
Regional areas of Australia typically receive substantial
spending commitments in each Budget. Spending can be characterised as:
- direct spending through measures which have a particular region
or regions in focus, such as the construction of new facilities, or
- indirect spending through national programs, such as grant
programs, Medicare, research, and general assistance programs which are not
necessarily geographically confined and impact all Australians.
The minister responsible for regional affairs generally
releases a Regional
ministerial budget statement (RMBS) detailing current initiatives and
new measures that affect regional Australia across all portfolios. The RMBS
effectively provides a snapshot of programs that the Government considers
‘regional’. For example, the Keys2Drive
program (RMBS, p. 243) is reported, but is available to all Australians.
The 2022–23 Budget includes a range of new spending measures
with a regional focus covering infrastructure, dams, and ‘regionalisation’
packages. It also extends measures from previous budgets and repackages
measures that have previously been provided for in economic statements.
This article focuses on the Regional
Accelerator Program and Energy
Security and Regional Development Plan measures, and also includes some
other smaller measures targeted at regional Australia. Infrastructure
investment, dams, and energy measures are covered in other Budget review
articles.
Regional Accelerator Program
The Regional Accelerator Program (RAP) is a grant program
intended to administer $2 billion over 5 years across a range of sectors. Budget
measures: budget paper no. 2: 2022–23 (p. 150) describes the RAP as
providing dedicated funding for ‘regional businesses and communities to access
programs targeted to local priorities in infrastructure, manufacturing and
industry development, skills and training, research and development and
education’.
The RAP appears to operate as a grant program within a grant
program—specific RAP grant rounds will be run under other Commonwealth grant
programs. In a post-Budget media release, the Minister
for Regionalisation, Regional Communications and Regional Education set out
the amount of RAP funding allocated to each grant program:
The ‘Regionalisation Fund’ is a new grant program intended
to provide ‘investment
in regional infrastructure’ through ‘larger
grants, of, say, $10 million or more’. Minister
McKenzie’s media release states that program guidelines will be released
and applications will be open from 1 July 2022. The Infrastructure
portfolio budget statement allocates $400 million of the fund over the
forward estimates (p. 56).
At time of writing, it is unclear whether the RAP will have
specific eligibility criteria, and if so, what they may look like, given it is
running within other grant programs.
Energy Security and Regional
Development Plan
According to Budget paper no. 2 the Energy Security
and Regional Development Plan will provide $7.1 billion in funding ‘to
support existing programs’ in 4 regional hubs across Australia over the next 11
years (p. 133). The plan’s funding is intended for infrastructure projects
specific to each hub’s identified strengths (RMBS, p. 216). Budget paper no.
2 (p. 133) and Minister Joyce’s related media release include additional
details about these projects, including the total funding allocated to each
hub:
- $2.6 billion to the Northern Territory to support critical
mineral processing, local manufacturing, and ‘the region’s position as an
industrial and renewable energy hub’
- $1.7 billion to North and Central Queensland to support
the agricultural industry and ‘industry diversification’, water infrastructure
investment, and ‘supply chain projects that promote water security’
- $1.5 billion to the Pilbara region in Western Australia to
support mining, mineral processing and local manufacturing, and to provide
investment in hydrogen and renewable energy projects
- $750 million for transport infrastructure projects in the
Hunter region in NSW.
Specific projects earmarked for funding in each hub account
for about $5.39 billion of the $6.55 billion total allocation. According to the
minister’s
media release, the NT’s project list accounts for $2.55 billion, Queensland
projects account for $1 billion, WA comprises $1.47 billion, and NSW, $368.8
million. The minister has alluded to additional projects being announced under
this program ‘in
due course’.
Stakeholder views
The Regional Development Plan has generated some controversy
due to the absence
of projects in Victoria, claims that the funding
priorities are mistargeted, and that this package may only exist due to the
Liberal
and National parties’ agreement concerning the Government’s position on a
net-zero target by 2050.
A range of mining
companies operating in the Pilbara welcomed the measures targeted at the
region.
Other measures which target regional
Australia
Budget paper no. 2 details several measures that
support regional and peri-urban Australians. The 2 largest new measures are the
recently announced South
East Queensland (SEQ) City Deal and Albury-Wodonga
Regional Deal. Funding of $680.6 million has been allocated to projects in
SEQ over the next 11 years (p. 151) and $83.2 million has been allocated to
projects in Albury and Wodonga over the next 5 years (p. 129).
The Prime
Minister also announced on 17 March additional funding—amounting to $49.0
million over 3 years—through the Perth
City Deal to support the construction of Edith Cowan University’s Cultural
and Creative Industries CBD campus.
Funding for existing city and regional deals is generally
made under National
Partnership Payments (NPP) to the relevant jurisdiction. Table 1 sets out
the payments for the new expenditure items in the 2022–23 Budget over the
forward estimates. A full table showing NPPs under all regional deals and city
deals is available in the annex to this article.
Table 1 2022–23 Budget new city and
regional deals
Source: Australian Government, Budget
Paper No. 3: Federal Financial Relations: 2022–23, 62 and 66.
Note: These figures may differ from figures reported in the
annex due to the time differences in reporting for the Budget and the response
to Senator Sterle’s Question on Notice.
Other measures in Budget paper no. 2 that will
directly affect Australia’s regions and are not already covered in the Budget review,
include:
- the extension of Local
Roads and Community Infrastructure Program ($501.7 million over 3 years
from 2022–23) (p. 144)
- funding to support agriculture shows ($15.4 million over 2 years
from 2022–23) (p. 50)
- funding to support the development of community microgrid
projects in regional and rural Australia ($148.6 million over 5 years from 2022–23)
(p. 125)
- the extension of the Regional Airports Screening Infrastructure,
and an extension of the Regional Airline Network Support program to 30 June
2022 ($28.5 million over 2 years from 2021–22) (p. 132)
- upgrade the ACT’s Scrivener Dam ($38.5 million over 4 years from
2022–23)
- installation of 3
new sculptures in the Parliamentary Triangle ($38.5 million over 4 years
from 2022–23) (p. 147)
- support state-type
service delivery on Norfolk Island and continue funding for essential
services ($118.0 million over 4 years from 2022–23) (p. 150).
Annex
Table 2 presents the total payments and estimated payments
made under each city and regional deal since 2019. These agreements are usually
negotiated to last a decade and do not tend to have new expenditures announced
in different budgets. Details from Budget paper no. 3,
and the 2019–20
and 2020–21
Final Budget Outcomes have been compiled to show payment allocations
across all signed city and regional deals. It should be noted this reflects ‘on
budget’ expenditures and may not capture other financing arrangements (such as
concessional loans) to which the parties may have agreed.
Table 2 City
deal reporting in Budget documents ($m, nominal)
| Payments ($ million) |
2019–20 |
2020–21 |
2021–22 |
2022–23 |
2023–24 |
2024–25 |
2025–26 |
Total |
| Adelaide City Deal |
3.2 |
9.6 |
51.7 |
42.0 |
49.5 |
5.0 |
- |
161.0 |
| Albury Wodonga Regional Deal |
|
1.5 |
0.7 |
20.0 |
20.0 |
21.0 |
15.0 |
78.2 |
| Barkly Regional Deal |
1.3 |
3.8 |
11.4 |
10.8 |
- |
- |
- |
27.3 |
| Darwin City Deal |
25.0 |
45.0 |
27.8 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
99.7 |
| Geelong City Deal |
1.5 |
10.1 |
25.3 |
48.0 |
51.7 |
44.6 |
- |
181.2 |
| Hinkler Regional Deal |
|
0.3 |
7.5 |
3.0 |
- |
- |
- |
10.8 |
| Hobart City Deal |
- |
- |
128.6 |
254.6 |
351.2 |
194.2 |
91.2 |
1,019.8 |
| Launceston City Deal |
2.5 |
3.9 |
98.8 |
67.7 |
30.3 |
- |
- |
203.2 |
| Perth City Deal |
|
27.8 |
130.4 |
104.3 |
80.7 |
57.5 |
- |
400.7 |
| South East Queensland City Deal |
- |
- |
- |
44.8 |
122.0 |
111.5 |
85.6 |
363.9 |
| Townsville City Deal |
- |
15.0 |
48.0 |
121.4 |
74.2 |
18.0 |
- |
276.6 |
| Western Sydney City Deal |
|
23.7 |
530.2 |
717.1 |
780.1 |
452.3 |
192.3 |
2,695.6 |
| Total |
33.5 |
140.7 |
1,060.4 |
1,434.2 |
1,560.1 |
904.6 |
384.6 |
5,517.9 |
| Basis |
FBO |
Budget |
Total |
Source: Australian Government, Final
Budget Outcome, various years; Australian Government, Budget
Measures: Budget Paper No. 2: 2022–23; Senate Rural and Regional
Affairs and Transport Committee, Answers to Question on Notice, Infrastructure
Portfolio, Budget Estimates 2022–23, Document
provided in response to Senator Glenn Sterle, 31
March 2022.
Note: FBO means ‘Final Budget Outcome’ for the
corresponding financial year, and Budget means ‘Federal Financial Relations:
Budget Paper No. 3’ in this case for 2022–23. Figures are presented to one
decimal place.
All online articles accessed April 2022
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