THE federal budget will be handed down today by federal Treasurer Scott Morrison, on the verge of a double dissolution election that’s set for July 2 and due to be called within days.
The National Farmers Federation has low expectations of any new money being delivered in this year’s budget.
But the NFF’s leaders will cast a close eye on how the Treasurer’s announcement at 7.30pm tonight in Canberra, dovetails into the Coalition’s election platform, for agricultural policy measures.
Mr Morrison said this year’s federal budget was about ensuring Australia can make the economic transition from the mining investment boom however his pre-budget rhetoric has been largely silent on the farm sector.
He said changes in the tax system would be delivered in the budget, to support businesses to save and reinvest.
“The budget, I'll hand down is a national economic plan for jobs and growth for a stronger economy,” he said.
“It's not a typical budget.
“This is not a time to be throwing money around, you have to spend money wisely, you have to target it and the ultimate test is; will it drive jobs and growth?
“We’ll afford the things that need to be afforded in health and education and we have made our commitments plain there.
“We are not paying for those commitments by taxing Australians more, we have done the hard work of ensuring we have the savings in the budget to afford these commitments we are making in important areas like health and education.”
NFF President Brent Finlay has the $4 billion Agricultural Competitiveness White Paper delivered last year by the Coalition meant new spending allocations were not highly anticipated this year but given the pending election, the budget process will be more complicated.
“We will need to look at our budget asks and our election asks and see how they marry up and then we will go to an election within six or seven weeks of the budget being handed down,” he said last month.
The NFF wants the budget to produce a commitment to the White Paper’s various strategic measures like water infrastructure projects and backing for longer-term bipartisan goals that maintain the sector’s international competitiveness.
They have also asked the government to avoid cutting the agricultural budget and maintain traditional support for the fuel tax excise scheme and biosecurity measures.
The NFF also wants the government to show its commitments to building the $10 billion inland rail from Melbourne to Brisbane and a strategic infrastructure projects fund.
They’ve also requested additional agricultural counsellors in key markets to help overcome trade barriers and an extension of the $160 million Mobile Blackspot Program.
But speculation leading into the budget suggests the Treasurer won’t deliver on an industry proposal to soften the backpacker tax increase to 32.5 per cent on July 1 and help sustain critical seasonal workforces for farmers.
The NFF’s pre budget submission also called for an ongoing commitment to the broad architecture of the rural research and development corporation model, including the government’s contribution to matching industry levies.
It also asked that inadequacies in the current Intergovernmental Agreement on National Drought Program Reform be addressed.
Mr Finlay said some people looked for the word agriculture to be mentioned during budget speeches but he wasn’t as hard in assessing the Treasurer’s performance, on that basis.
The NFF’s budget submission has also asked for an investigation into specific electricity tariffs for the farm sector and an extension of programs to fund energy efficiency activities.
It also called on the government to allocate new resources to accelerate the implementation of key changes to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and establish a Fresh Food Ombudsman, as a priority.
Additional funding of up to $5 million was also requested, to fund additional technical and legal resources to underpin the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s new Agriculture Commissioner framework.