Tonight, 25 October 2022 Treasurer The Honourable Jim Chalmers MP (Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Australia) and Senator the Honourable Katy Gallagher (Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Minister for the Public Service of the Commonwealth of Australia) announced the 2022-23 Commonwealth Budget.
The budget seeks to deliver on the Commonwealth’s commitments to:
- Provide responsible cost-of-living relief that delivers an economic dividend
- Build a stronger, more resilient and more modern economy
- Begin the hard task of budget repair to pay for what is important
There are two new programs for the regions:
- The Growing Regions Program will deliver on the Government’s strategic priorities for regional Australia through an open, competitive grants process.
- The regional Precincts and Partnerships Program will provide a strategic, nationally consistent mechanism for funding and coordinating projects that support the transformation of important locations across communities in regions, regional cities and rural Australia.
Telecommunications:
- $400 million to expand regional mobile coverage and improve the resilience of communications systems;
- $200 million for two further rounds of the Regional Connectivity Program, to improve connectivity in regional, rural and First Nations communities;
- $30 million over three years to accelerate Australia’s agricultural sector through the On Farm Connectivity Program, to extend connectivity for farmers and their machinery, and grow Australia’s agribusiness;
- $20 million for an independent national audit of mobile coverage to establish an evidence baseline to guide and better target future priorities; and
- a further $6 million over three years to extend the Regional Tech Hub to support better consumer awareness, connectivity literacy and trouble-shooting.
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