As we’re all wrapping our heads around everything the federal government announced in the 2021 Budget – and importantly who the big winners and losers are this time around – Budget responses from political parties and other groups are flowing in thick and fast.
Twitter is ablaze with Budget discussion and arguments, and official responses on different facets of the Budget have been delivered from bodies like the Clean Energy Council, Mission Australia, and the peak body for Australia’s international aid efforts.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese released a video response to the Budget, claiming that tonight’s announcements were “more of the same from a tired old government”.
My reaction to #Budget2021:
Australians have endured eight long years of flat wages, insecure work and skyrocketing cost of living under the Liberals and Nationals – and this Budget does nothing to change that.
It’s just more of the same from a tired old government. pic.twitter.com/Og8q06JYud
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) May 11, 2021
Meanwhile Greens leader Adam Bandt has fired off a series of tweets, slamming the Budget as being more for “billionaires and big corporations” than it is for the majority of Australians. In the thread, Bandt says the Budget should have invested in renewables and building up essential services, raised the JobSeeker daily rates, and public housing.
This tweet really sums up the Greens leader’s thoughts, to be honest.
This budget is champagne for the billionaires, and real pain for everyone else.
— Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) May 11, 2021
Sally McManus from the Australian Council of Trade Unions was short and sharp with her response to the Budget, focusing in on wages and its effects on standards of living for Australians.
The budget shows that
The Liberals love low wages
8 years of wage suppression
8 years living standards going backwards
And doing absolutely nothing about it#Budget2021— Sally McManus (@sallymcmanus) May 11, 2021
The Australian Council for International Development – Australia’s international aid and developmental NGOs peak body – released a statement saying that the budget is not as fast-evolving as the pandemic situation for our neighbours in the Asia-Pacific region.
“We must leverage our success in managing the pandemic at home, assist our neighbours and deepen our ties through development cooperation. This budget does not give us confidence that the Government has this long-term strategy in mind.” ACFID CEO, Marc Purcell #Budget2021 (2/3)
— ACFID (@ACFID) May 11, 2021
Back at home, Mission Australia is disappointed in the lack of funding allocated for affordable housing, as it anticipates the number of homeless Australians will rise with the incoming 2021 Census statistics – especially after the 2020 bushfires and the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The group is welcoming of several things in the Budget, giving a positive response to the National Disaster Recovery and Resilience Agency, investment in preventing domestic violence, and into mental health – though it believes more support is needed for the health of young Australians.
Mission Australia’s response also welcomed the commitment to reducing unemployment and investment in the care workforce – but isn’t stoked with the Government’s refusal to increase income support to an acceptable level for people facing and enduring serious financial stress.
There was a disappointing lack of leadership on housing in tonight’s budget. The budget does not do enough to address the structural problems with housing and homelessness in Australia.
You can read our full response here. #Budget2021 https://t.co/gll93NtEvY— Mission Australia (@MissionAust) May 11, 2021
The Clean Energy Council believes the Government missed out on a “jobs bonanza” in the renewable energy sector by not looking to transition to clean energy and “utilise our country’s extraordinary renewable energy and energy storage potential to jumpstart Australia’s economic resurgence”. The council now believes it’ll likely be up to individual states and territories to push towards renewable energy instead.
Federal Budget misses opportunity for renewable energy infrastructure and jobs bonanza.
Read our full response to tonight’s #Budget2021 here: https://t.co/j9fLG72Nkm#auspol pic.twitter.com/xZhvPnfjho
— Clean Energy Council (@cleannrgcouncil) May 11, 2021
Greenpeace has straight up said the Government is “putting on a show” of tackling the symptoms of climate change while doing absolutely nothing to stop it at its root cause – fossil fuels.
Dr. Nikola Čašule – the Head of Research & Investigations at Greenpeace Australia Pacific – also said the Federal Government is not being entirely truthful about the National Recovery and Resilience Agency.
“Adaptation measures like the National Recovery and Resilience Agency and Australian Climate Service Initiative are necessary because Australians are feeling the impacts of climate change right now, which is driven by the mining and burning of coal, oil and gas,” Dr Čašule said.
“Continuing to use public money to fund gas, a polluting fossil fuel, will only make those climate impacts worse.
“No amount of adaptation and resilience measures will take the place of real action on climate change, which is phasing out fossil fuels, scaling up renewable energy, and reaching net-zero emissions by 2035.”
[MEDIA RELEASE] Greenpeace response to Federal Budget #Budget21 #auspol https://t.co/A0ml41MDpC pic.twitter.com/Yc0WNq7clq
— Greenpeace Australia Pacific (@GreenpeaceAP) May 11, 2021
Change The Record – Australia’s only national Aboriginal led justice coalition who work to end family violence and the incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People – slammed the 2021 Budget as “shameful”, and fails to live up to the promise of closing the gap.
The group, made up of Aboriginal peak bodies and non-Indigenous allies, believes there was inadequate funding to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal and family violence prevention services, failure to invest in real measures to address Black deaths in custody, and a failure to support First Nations people with disabilities, and children and families accessing support and services.
MEDIA RELEASE: Australia’s only First Nations-led justice coalition Change the Record has condemned the #2021Budget as failing to live up to the Government’s talk of ‘closing the gap’. It instead entrenches more of the same 👇🏾https://t.co/pl3Owdn1kA
— Change the Record (@Change_Record) May 11, 2021
PEDESTRIAN.TV spent today pouring through the 2021 Budget, and we pulled together the nine things from it that will affect young Aussies, as well as who’s getting the $1080 tax cut, and why the hell $200m is being spent on MyGov.
