HOW AUSTRALIA HAS BENEFITED UNDER A MORRISON GOVERNMENT

Tuesday, 22 December 2020

221220 2020 achievements

ECONOMIC SUPPORT AND RECOVERY
• More than 1.3 million Australians who lost their job or working hours are now back at work thanks to the strength of the Australian economy with the largest quarterly increase in GDP since 1976.
• Saved 700,000 Australian jobs through one of the world’s most generous job support programs, JobKeeper, which supported over 3.8 million Australians and one million businesses.
• Delivered tax relief for over 11 million working Australians.
Lower and middle income earners will this year receive tax relief of up to $2,745 for singles, and up to $5,490 for dual-income families, compared with 2017-18. Compared to 2017-18, someone earning $40,000 will pay 21% less tax. Someone earning $80,000 will pay 11% less tax.
• Providing $34 billion Cashflow Boost Payments, helping around 800,000 small and medium businesses to stay afloat.
• Boosting the Instant Asset Write Off, allowing 99 per cent of businesses to write off the full value of assets they purchase.
• Backing the jobs of the one million Australians employed in the construction sector through the HomeBuilder Program, supporting the construction or major rebuilding of around 42,000 homes.
• Supporting young people to find jobs through the JobMaker Hiring Credit, of up to $200 per week for
employers that hire young Australians on JobSeeker.
• Maintained our AAA Credit Rating (one of just nine countries in the world to be rated AAA by the three major rating agencies).
• Investing $1.5 billion in Australia’s Modern Manufacturing Strategy to make Australian manufacturers more competitive, resilient and able to scale-up to take on the world.
• Establishing a National Strategic Fuel Reserve and investing in new domestic fuel storage.
• Delivering the JobTrainer program that will provide up to an additional 320,000 training places to help school leavers and job seekers access short and long courses. Supporting more than 106,000 apprentices and trainees and over 58,000 employers, through the Supporting Apprentices and Trainees wage subsidy.
• Providing a new $500 million so Australian export businesses have access to business-saving loans
of between $250,000 and $50 million.
• Providing an additional $400 million to boost Australia’s film industry. This is on top of the $250 million JobMaker plan to restart Australia’s creative economy.
• Delivered the $240 million 2020 Women’s Economic Security Statement to provide additional targeted
support for women, complementing a wide range of existing Government support, including JobTrainer.
• Including $50 million for the Women@Work Program to help restore and exceed the pre-COVID-19 record levels of women’s workforce participation.
• Investing $35.9 million in the Boosting Female Founders Initiative to support up to 282 additional start-ups and 4,300 women entrepreneurs.
• Delivering a $250 million Regional Tourism Recovery Package to get visitors flowing again.
• Delivering on our $110 billion record infrastructure pipeline, which is already supporting 100,000 jobs.
This includes $14 billion in new and accelerated projects that will support a further 40,000 jobs.
• Delivering the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, a direct injection of investment across Australia. 2,544 projects have been approved in 537 council areas.
• Jointly funding the $10 billion Melbourne Airport Rail Link, which will support up to 8,000 jobs during construction.
• Signed NSW and Tasmanian Energy Deals with the Berejiklian and Gutwein Governments to reduce power prices and emissions.
• Released the first Low Emissions Technology Statement accelerating the deployment of low emissions and reliable technologies.
• Providing $190 million for a new Recycling Modernisation Fund that will drive $600 million of
investment in the sector.
• Backing Australian exporters by signing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement providing more secure, open trade with 14 other Indo-Pacific countries accounting for nearly 30 percent of global GDP.
• New trade deals with Indonesia, Hong Kong, Peru and the South Pacific nations in PACER Plus, which has entered into force, providing new opportunities for Australian exporters.
INVESTING IN AUSTRALIA’S HEALTH
• 42 million telehealth services have been
delivered to 12 million patients through Medicare. In total $2.15 billion in benefits have been paid and 79,511 providers have now used telehealth services this year.
• Securing access to around 100 million potential COVID-19 vaccines from AstraZeneca, Pfizer/BioNTech and Novavax, should the vaccines be proven safe and effective. In addition, we have secured Onshore Manufacturing Agreements for the Astra Zeneca COVID-19 vaccines to be manufactured at CSL’s Seqirus vaccine facility in Melbourne.
• Investing $1 billion to build a new high-tech vaccine manufacturing facility in Melbourne to secure Australia’s long-term supply of critical health products, including pandemic influenza vaccines and life-saving antivenoms. The new Seqirus complex will be the largest influenza vaccine manufacturing facility in the Southern Hemisphere.
• Providing $220 million to upgrade the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness in Geelong.
• Committed $300 million to improve access to vaccines in the Indo-Pacific, through Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
• Committing a record $131.4 billion in guaranteed public hospital funding through our National Health Reform Agreement.
• 246 new and amended PBS listings, providing new treatment options for many conditions including asthma, skin cancer, leukaemia and lung cancer amongst many more.
o Since being elected in 2013 we have listed more than 2,500 new and extended medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
• Providing a $400 million funding boost for health and medical research.
KEEPING AUSTRALIANS SAFE
• Continued work to keep our community safe with over 6,000 visas cancelled for serious and violent criminals since the powers were strengthened in 2014.
• Agreed in principle to an historic defence treaty with Japan. The Reciprocal Access Agreement will deepen the strategic and security relationship between the Australian Defence Force and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces.
• Reprioritised our defence posture with the 2020 Defence Strategic Update and Force Structure Plan, which commits $575 billion in defence funding over next decade.
• Accelerated $1 billion of Defence initiatives as part of our Covid-19 Recovery.
• Launched the Cyber Security Strategy 2020, providing $1.67 billion over 10 years – Australia’s largest ever cyber security investment – to make a more secure online world for Australians, their businesses and essential services.
SUPPORTING AUSTRALIANS
• Delivering 39,105 additional Home Care Packages, allowing older Australians to remain in their own homes for longer. Approximately 195,600 Australians will be receiving in-home care support by 30 June 2021 – three times more than when the Coalition was elected.
• Helped over 30,000 Australians return home on over 370 flights, including more than 11,200 people on 77 Government facilitated flights (since March).
• Providing additional support payments to around 5 million Australians during the pandemic, for pensioners, carers, veterans and other income support recipients.
• Providing a new Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment, supporting over 11,700 workers and carers while they quarantine or isolate due to COVID-19.
• Supporting 412,543 people with disability through the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
• Establishing the National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention to investigate all suspected veteran and Australian Defence Force suicides and causes to help save lives.
• Delivering 781 new affordable homes through the $100 million National Housing and Infrastructure Facility.
• Helping families dealing with traumatic situations such as stillbirths, infant deaths and premature births, by extending Parental Leave Entitlements to up to 12 months unpaid leave.
• Providing $150 million for a National COVID Domestic Violence Response to bolster services to meet increased demand including 1800RESPECT, crisis accommodation, frontline services and perpetrator intervention programs.
• Giving up to 75 percent of regional and metropolitan Australians access to ultra-fast broadband by 2023, with a $4.5 billion NBN network investment.
• Established the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements and started work on the recommendations.
• Established the National Bushfire Recovery Agency and a $2 billion for a National Bushfire Recovery Fund, providing support to families, communities and small businesses in need.
o In total more than $1.8 billion has already hit the ground to support bushfire-affected
communities and individuals.
• Boosted the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment, doubling the payment to eligible children.
• Supporting 9,500 farmers and their partners through the Farm Household Allowance.
• Funding an additional 12,000 undergraduate qualifications in National Priority Areas, such as
nursing, teaching, health, IT and science.
o We are also providing 50,000 fee free short course places to help Australians upskill or retrain.
• Providing a guaranteed $314.7 billion for Australian Schools under the Quality Schools package from
2018 to 2029.
• Providing $25 million to respond to education priorities arising from the COVID-19 pandemic which
will support students as the various impacts of shutdowns and homeschooling become evident over
time.
• Providing over $38 million to help The Smith Family support 76,000 disadvantaged young Australians build the skills needed to succeed at school and reach their potential over the next four years.
• Helping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students make academic gains as well as improve life skills and employment prospects with an additional $45 million in support.
• Providing over $27 million for STEM programs to give students the skills they need in a post-pandemic workforce.