She's On The Money - FRIDAY DRINKS: The Federal Budget 22/23

Episode Date: March 31, 2022

In the highly politicised environment of an election year Federal Budget, we bring a special Friday Drinks to start to wrap our heads around the promises, the pitfalls and the palaver! Plus of course we give a wrap of the week and share YOUR money wins.The advice shared on She’s on The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She’s on The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. Victoria Devine is an Authorised Representative of Infocus Securities Australia Proprietary Limited ABN 47 097 797 049 AFSL - AFSL 236523See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Just before we get started, we'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. They're the traditional custodians of the lands, the waterways and the skies all across Australia. We thank you for sharing and for caring for the land on which we are able to learn. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and we share our friendship and our kindness. She's on the money. She's on the money. Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial

freedom. This is our Friday drinks episode where we celebrate the money wins from the She's on the Money Community. As you guys know, it is the time of the week where George, Jess, and I, we sit down with a bevy. We've all got some form of cola this week. None are equal. Jess has what? You've got a vanilla Coke.

Not a Pepsi. Not a Pepsi. She sat on me. I've got the Pepsi, but it's a Pepsi Max, so it got quickly dismissed by Jess as an option. And Georgia, as always, has the little hippie option of a cola kombucha. It's delicious, guys. Tastes just like Coke.

no intention of trying that for a second. No, thank you, sir. But we are here this week because we know that every single week there are epic money wins and confessions shared in our Facebook group and our community do some epic things as well as the fact that the budget happened to this week. And I really, really, really want to talk about it. But this week we are talking about the She's on the Money community, what they got up to, how it worked. And if you missed the Monday and the Wednesday episodes. Jess and George, they recap them for you here. So let's jump straight in. Miss Jessica Ricci, as always, what happened on this week's Money Diary? So this week's diarist was just living her best life, really. Her work-life balance, doing all different things.

She's studying, she's working, she's a gardener, she's a sex worker. She just had all of the variety, which I personally think is the way to go. The spice of life. A thousand percent. And her life was indeed spicy. So she chatted to us a little bit about how COVID really impacted her income because obviously both gardening and sex work are roles that require face-to-face contact that was not an option during COVID. No. So she lost pretty much all of her income, which would have been so, so stressful. And she's really still working on pulling herself back out of that re-budgeting. And she just spoke to us a little bit about how she didn't have the clarity that she needed. And we had a really good conversation around financial advice and when to get it and

when to not and what resources are out there so you can figure things out by yourself. And ultimately, she said she just needed a little bit of clarity, which I think a lot of people do. And it was just a really good down to earth, I think, diary that a lot of us have probably been in that space before. Yeah, I really liked her. I wanted to be friends, but I don't think that there's been an episode of Money Diaries where I haven't wanted to be friends with the diarist after we've recorded. Yeah, like we just haven't met you all yet. So moving on, Georgia, G King on tour as your Instagram handle names you. What happened on the Wednesday ep? Wednesday ep, ladies, we discussed growth versus dividend investing strategies.

It was actually really interesting. Was it actually or are you saying that because you're like, oh, I can't tell them it's boring. I sound surprised. No, it was a good ep. We got some really good feedback as well this year. Did we? Yeah, we did. We're focusing on drilling down in investing at the moment. We're working with our friends at Sharesies to bring you a whole investing series. So more in-depth, high-level investing-specific content. We'd love to see it. And if there's anything you want to see

specifically, let us know because we're planning out that little series as we speak. And Jess wants you to do all her work for you. Exactly. All right. So let's dive into it, G King on tour. What have you got from the community that you would like to share with the group? I feel really honoured to read out these wins every week. And as always, they're stunning. They're amazing. They're gorgeous. Why are you guys laughing? Are you accepting an Oscar?

I'm just honoured to be here. I mean, Oscars are all the rage at the moment. It's a hot topic. I don't believe anyone's been punched in this studio before. Well, not yet. Let's get into the wins of the week. The first one comes from Emily. Money birthday win. I set the goal a while ago to have all of my debt paid off before I turned 24. My birthday was just last week, and I'm very proud to say I am 100% debt free. Yes, Emily! I have closed down all my buy now, pay later accounts like Afterpay and ZipPay, paid off

all of my student debt, which is very impressive, and all the other debt I've accumulated over my adult life. It's such a refreshing and motivating feeling starting 24 with so much growth on the horizon. Happy birthday, Emily. That's such a good way to start. You're absolutely right. Oh my gosh. I was having this conversation the other day about words that we use, and I feel like the

word liberated is so useful here. You would feel liberated once you pay off all your debt. You just feel free to do whatever you want. And that makes me so excited for you, Emily. Congrats and happy birthday. The next win comes from Michelle. Money win. I ended my dog food subscription as they were going to put it up by $80.

$80? I decided I'm going to cook it myself and I'm going to save myself nearly $100 a month. Yes, I lose the convenience, but I'd rather save the money. I'm glad she's still feeding her dog, not just cancelling the subscription like I would cancel my Netflix and not replace it with anything. She's doing the right thing. The next win comes from Emily. Money win. I have a bunch of wild Monstera in my garden. Ladies, this one's for you. We can liberate those plants, Jess. I propagated them and now they look amazing in my house. I might start selling them on Facebook Marketplace. Do it. Genius. Your two first

customers are sitting in this room. Emily? We aren't customers when it comes to plants. If you've listened to any good She's on the Money episode, let's move on though. The next win is a bit of a quirky one. One of my favourites, ladies. It's from Yana. In 2020, in the first lockdown, I bought a packet of men's beard dye to dye my brows. It's now 2022 and I've used it at least 15 to 20 times and I still have about a quarter of the dye left. It cost me $16 for two years of dyeing my own eyebrows. Pre-COVID, I was paying $22 per session to get them dyed. Ladies, what do we think? I do that myself. Do you? Yeah, it's the all for men brand. I totally do that. And if you want to get even spicier, you can buy the black one and put it on your eyelashes. I mean,

they probably don't want you putting it anywhere near your eyes, but like for money, we don't do it. The safety directions, we're not responsible if you go blind. No, I do. It's really, really good. So that's what you do with your beautiful brows. You get complimented on them all the time. Disclaimer, I do have tattooed brows, so I am at a bit of an advantage, but I do have to tint the hairs because naturally I am quite light haired. So yeah, anyway, very good money wean. I like that. And it does last pages. Don't buy the actual female one. Pink tax written all over it. Is it more expensive? Yeah, much more expensive. For way less product. Way less product.

For women's beard dye. No. Okay, moving on. The next win comes from Carla. My MacBook Pro died 14 months after I bought it and I thought it was out of warranty. Took it into the Apple store and turns out the Australian consumer law warranty was still valid. I saved myself $1,575 in repair costs. I am cheering. I love that. But also, Jess, why are you dancing? Because I have been in this exact situation where Apple tried to tell me that my $4,000 MacBook after two years when it just stopped functioning, they're like, well, it's outside of warranty. And I was like, that is absolutely not a thing. Are you joking? Consumer law friends know it,

understand it, and when necessary, bring it up. Did you bring it up? Oh, yeah, I did. And funnily enough, as soon as I said that, they replaced the laptop. Interesting. Yeah, so, like, know your rights because stores' personal policies are overridden by federal law, funnily enough. So, like, know it.

Obviously, only invoke it when it's applicable. But you are protected. When you spend a lot of money on something, you can expect it to work for a reasonable amount of time. When you're older, Jess, and you're, like, in your 60s. Yeah, do you reckon you're going to change your name? Yeah, maybe. There's a new restaurant in Melbourne called Karen's I keep seeing on TikTok.

I'm like, was this made for me? Can we go? Apparently they just are absolutely awful to you. You walk in and they throw their menus at you and stuff and I'm just slightly intimidated. We should go. Team outing. Lock it in.

All right, the final win here, ladies, is from Nicole. Future money win. I am predicting Victoria will do a budget pod and that will be a win for us to understand in more detail. Welcome to that budget pod, my friends. Precisely. That was very strategically picked. Well done, George.

Thanks, ladies. She's on the content. All right, let's go to a quick break and then we'll turn this into a budget pod. Excellent. All righty. So we are talking budget because, I mean, if anyone knows us, it's like a holiday in our office the way Victoria Devine has been talking about this week. It wasn't just a holiday.

It was an excuse to sit on the couch with not just one, but maybe a couple of cheeky glasses of wine, a notebook, and my partner who was thoroughly confused about why I was so excited about watching essentially a budget. Yeah. So there was a lot covered, obviously, a lot of which was just honestly not that interesting. Sorry, sorry. But can you give us the- Look, it can be really bland and really boring. And I think it was really dry, Jess, because they aren't podcasters, they're politicians and they aren't exactly trained and they don't have peachy branding, which makes them interesting. So much to write to the federal government and let them know if they just rebranded Impeach, people would probably be

way more interested. Yeah, I think that's good. They can even borrow our title. Instead of she's on the money, it's she's in parliament. That has like a great campaign written all over it. More women in parliament, please. VD for PM 2050. Oh, holy dooly. That's a big call. Not a chance. Not a chance, my friends. I swear way too much and have too much of a shady history. No, but moving on this year's budget was particularly interesting, especially for someone like me, because this year is an election year. So this is a year where our current prime minister, who clearly wants to stay prime minister, is making all these promises where he is hoping that you will hang on that and go, all right, well, let's vote ScoMo again, because that makes me feel really comfortable and I really

like that. But I did feel personally like there were a few missing pieces. So it was really interesting for me personally, because if you listen to our budget recap on the federal budget last year, I'm pretty sure I mentioned that I didn't think that there was enough information and allocation of funds towards healthcare, aged healthcare and what's going on in the healthcare system right now and the amount of pressure that we know they are still under. There was basically nothing on that, but they were jumping up and down about the first homebuyers grants and stuff like that. So I was like, oh, where are your values at? And obviously it's been very driven by making sure that they are getting votes. Another thing to understand about a budget is that's this

government's budget. So if they're promising things and changes that are going to be made and our government changes, that doesn't mean that they have to uphold the promises that were made with the budget another government proposed. They can change things. So it's proposed changes, nothing in the budget that was allocated yesterday, except for the fuel thing, which we'll get to in a hot second, has been set in stone. So it's all like, here's the proposal of the budget. And then they kind of go through a phase of objections and people might jump up and down and be like, oh my gosh, that's awful. Please don't do X, Y, Z. And then they might change their strategy. So it's essentially them sitting down and going,

hey Jess, we've done all the work in the background. Here's our proposed budget. What do you think? Yeah, I love it. There was obviously a provision, and I'm sure you're going to touch on this in a second, a few tax cuts and things like that. If we changed government, how likely is it that they would take those away? It depends on how big the tax breaks are. I highly doubt that they would take them away because there has been some pretty good tax breaks. But let's get to that in a hot second though, Jess, because I have a few like head topics that I want to talk about and we'll break down what it looks like under each so you don't feel like you're jumping back and forth from super

to tax cuts to what it means for paid parental leave. Is that all right? Does that make sense? Yeah, let's do it. So the first one, Georgia King, I'm very excited about this, as are you. You are obviously incredibly excited about parental leave. Yeah. No? Well, no, I mean, I'm obviously not a parent yet, but over the past two years, we've spoken about it a lot and it's something that's really been lacking. So what are the changes? I really like this because I feel like the changes aren't just financial now. They are actually just about being a bit more inclusive. So first things first, obviously, she's on the money, financial changes. The budget this year included $346 million to increase the paid parental scheme from 18 weeks to 20 weeks.

So now parents who are taking time off get two extra weeks. And I think that that is a lot of time in the grand scheme of things. And that's a really good step in the right direction. and now guys they are combining the paid parental leave scheme with the dad and partner pay scheme into one single scheme which you might go what's the point of that especially because you guys you're not parents so you haven't had to look into this but instead of the old scheme where it was the primary caregiver gets to take that leave now both parents can actually choose how they spend that 20 weeks as they see applicable so Jess if you have a baby you can just go my partner's taking this I'm taking that or I'm taking it all and my partner's not taking anything

and I just feel like that's so much more inclusive and so much more 2020 than are you the main primary caregiver which is from my perspective incredibly outdated as is the term 2020 because 2022 oh sorry you know what let's not even change that I am who I am guys much more inclusive right just recognizing that like the family dynamic nowadays is very different from what it was a couple of decades ago, and the primary caregiver can in fact be not the female. Yeah, which I'm not surprised by, but turns out politicians are a little bit weirded out by it. Better late than never. Yeah, slowly, slowly. From little things, big things grow, don't we say?

That's it. That's it. What's next on the list, V? Let's talk about health, because just before I made a comment about how I was disappointed in health, and if you actually watched the budget like I did, you'd be like, V, they did allocate money towards health. I don't believe enough, but they did allocate some really good money towards some really good prevention initiatives. So they allocated a total of $547 million over the next five years, including $52 million for Lifeline, obviously very important, $43 million towards suicide prevention initiatives regionally, which I think is incredibly important as well, $29 million to increase the number of psychiatric workers in the country

$24 million for programs about eating disorders and $18 million is being targeted at multicultural communities which I think is really great all of those things are steps in the right direction but where was aged care? or anything physical health related that's all mental health and mental health is so great

it is so great but I think it's also really important to talk about the fact that, you know, we've just been through COVID and I think from my perspective, hospitals and nursing staff and a lot of our listeners are nursing staff and they're just not getting the support they deserve, the bonuses they deserve, and they're working overtime and they're absolutely being thrown under a bus at the moment and being expected to lay there happily. Where was the funding for them? Where was the funding for the hospitals to support that? And I just feel like that was such a missing piece from this year's budget. Isn't it interesting as well, like the

pandemic really exposed, I think, some huge gaps in our preparedness for things like that. I would have thought that they would then allocate to prevent that from happening again. Like there's no money there for research or strategy or any kind of additional resources. So if we, God forbid, get hit by another plague, are we just going to be back in the same spot we were in? Yeah, look, as much as, Jess, I think that they have definitely not allocated enough, they've also allocated some resources to creating an mRNA vaccination here in Australia, which is the first time they've done that. And that's incredibly exciting. But it's only one step. It's not, you know, as much as I had hoped they would be allocating. I don't know what they

were expecting. And that's why I did feel like that segment was quite lean. They did have some funding in other healthcare areas. So, for example, in women's health, they announced last week, not during the budget, but they announced last week an additional $58 million for endometriosis support, which is obviously incredibly important. They also allocated $40 million to the McGrath Foundation's Breast Cancer Nurses Program. Important, but what about all the other nurses? And I know that that sounds really entitled. I'm so grateful that we have support. So many countries don't have this, but I just feel like that missing piece is like grinding my gears significantly. And then there was an additional $131 million that was allocated to treatments

funded through Medicare. So that was stuff like genetic testing for stuff like cystic fibrosis and spinal muscular atrophy and fragile X syndrome, and also MRI diagnoses for liver and breast cancers and myocarditis. So all of that is really good. And I don't want to like go into the numbers and break it down because that's not what you guys are here for to be like oh 131 can't believe they did that I thought it was going to be 129 like that's not the important thing I think what we're here learning about is where their priorities are sitting and looking at it and going okay cool like they've allocated funding to healthcare great how's that broken up and I just think it potentially could have been broken up in a different way or found funding from a

different location to add to it because it's not like these areas that have had funding allocated to them aren't deserving of it. They absolutely are. And that's why I feel a bit, I feel like a bit of a dick saying that guys, but at the same time, I'm like, okay, cool. But what about the support for the average nurse? Like in mental health, why wasn't there some kind of mental healthcare plan put in place for nurses or for healthcare workers from the past two years? I feel like if we've learned anything, it's that we really need to be looking after our frontline workers. Where was any support for them? So I think that's the thing that's grinding my gears, But let's move away from health because I feel like that clearly is a trigger for me, guys.

What do you want to hear about next? So let's talk petrol prices. Love a good petrol price. We do. Obviously, that has gone up significantly this year because of everything happening overseas. Yes. You would have seen it go down this week. I actually haven't had to fill up, so I haven't noticed.

I noticed because I had to drive to work yesterday and I noticed that the prices had decreased because the day before the budget I had actually filled up. So I'm a little bit salty on this. because I kind of knew it was coming, but I didn't know it would be immediate. So what happened was there was a fuel excise, which is very exciting for us. If you know what a fuel excise is, little jokes, no one knows what a fuel excise is, but it's essentially where they cut the amount of tax for a specific period of time. So the current flat petrol tax is 44.2 cents for every dollar of petrol. So that's pretty hefty, I reckon.

But for the next six months, it's being cut down to 22.1 cents per dollar with the intention of that being passed directly onto the consumer. So instead of, you know, the big corporates saving some tax and just charging you the same amount, the government is actually going to be watching and making sure that the distributors of fuel are actually passing that onto the consumer because they're trying to help out hip pocket, which is very nice of them. There's no real reason why it's just six months, maybe because they want their tax paid at some point, but hopefully that will get increased. And obviously there's been significant

market pressure around the world from, you know, we talked about the war that has been declared and all of the other stuff going on, but I don't think that's going away as quickly as six months. So we'll see what happens then. But for now, let's just revel in the fact that we get a discount on our fuel and that is very, very welcome. We'll cop that. Was there anything else in the way of cost of living that they've addressed in this budget? Yes. So there are two things that I want to talk about in addition under the bracket of cost of living. And the first, my friends, is a tax cut. We love a tax cut and it's for the average bear. So if you earn under $126,000, this year when submitting your tax return, you can expect a $420 tax cut, which is a money win

for anyone earning under $126,000. Important to understand though, you obviously have to have paid that much in tax to be able to get it. So if you're in a position where you earn under $18,000, you're probably not going to be eligible. But for those of us who have average bare wages, that's a nice little tax bump at tax time. Certainly. Very nice. Very nice. Not bad. And for a little bit of context there, 90% of Australians are within that bracket. Really? Yeah. Not bad. Good size, guys. Well, that is good for all of us. But if you're not in that situation, guys, there has been a $250 payment for welfare recipients

declared, which is very exciting as well. It's a one-off payment of $250 that will be paid to anyone who is currently receiving welfare. So that's our friends who are on youth allowance or on job seeker payments. They could be on a parenting payment, a disability support payment, or on the age pension. So that's a nice little cash bonus that will be hitting your back pockets if you are in that situation. It might take a little bit of pressure off the fact that we have been paying exorbitant amounts of money on fuel, George King. So what's the idea behind that? because to me, obviously, super privileged person doing okay in life, $250 doesn't sound like very much. Should that have been more or is the idea behind that, that it just helps out with the

groceries for a couple of weeks and petrol and stuff like that? What's the logic behind it? At the end of the day, if you are on any kind of welfare payment, the plan isn't to create wealth. It's actually to put you in a situation where you can put a roof over your head and put food on the table. It doesn't exist so that you can go and save a whole heap and create wealth and go on holidays. Like that's not what welfare is for. It's to make sure that you are being able to do those things. But over the last few months slash year, especially with the rate of inflation and fuel price, I think it's a very reasonable thing for the government to go, you need a little bit of a cash bonus. You need a little bit extra in your back pocket. And I would be urging you,

if you have gotten that, to put it into something of use. Like don't just blow it, but if you don't have an emergency fund, that would be a really great start for one. If you have some debt, maybe that's a really good chunk of that debt that could be paid off. I'd be trying to make that money work as hard for you as you do. Yeah, cool. Yeah. From my perspective, it's a nice little bonus. Do we really need to review welfare? Absolutely we do. But this is a step in the right direction, guys. When was the last time or how often do they review welfare payments? Because I've heard a lot of conversation from people who are welfare recipients that it's literally not enough to live on. And that's the whole purpose of it, right? Like you said. Yeah. Yeah. Like the

idea, and I don't agree with this, this just is what it is, is that welfare is meant to be an interim measure, not a long-term solution. And it's an amount of money that puts you in a situation where hopefully you can put a roof over your head and food on the table, but also puts you in a position where you're motivated to get back into work or motivated to go and earn an income. So I agree that it's not enough and it needs to be reviewed. From my understanding, it hasn't been reviewed properly or fully in the last 10 years. And as you guys know, with the rate of inflation last year being 2.8%, like if that's happened for the last 10 years, that's pretty significant. So I think it does need a good review, but it's never going to be changed to

be in a position where it's like, oh my gosh, now it's $60,000 a year and you guys can sit comfortably. I think there is a lot to say about welfare. You know, a lot of people have a lot of colourful experiences. This is not opinion. This is just fact. The reason it is so low is because they don't actually want people relying on it. They want people to want to get into paid work because that amount of money is coming from taxpayers. And, you know, at the end of the day, the world needs to keep going around. Obviously, everyone knows I'm going through a home journey right now because I haven't talked about it enough. So I was really interested to see what was changed for first home buyers. Fee, what can you tell me about that? All right. So I'm excited

about this because there's a regional aspect to this but the government has announced that there are 40,000 more positions being added to the first home buyer scheme and 10,000 of those are being segmented into a new component specifically for our regional friends which before wasn't the case and I think is absolutely necessary which is really really exciting when it comes to housing prices though my friend the budget they didn't predict that housing prices would go down yeah I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. It's not what we wanted to hear, but it is expected that as the interest rates climb and get a little bit higher, it's going to be putting a little bit more pressure on people and they're going to want to borrow less, which is ultimately going to take

housing prices down slightly. So no, they're not predicting a housing price valuation drop, but I think with the pressure that an interest rate hike puts on people and families, it's going to mean you're going to either be borrowing less or not looking to get into the market as soon as you would have before. I noticed in my reading today, V, that there was a bit of criticism about the lack of climate change action within this budget. Is there truth to that? I think there's a fair bit of truth to that. I expected a whole heap more, especially after the absolute garbage fire that has been the last few years. In terms of bushfires. Bushfires, floods, everything. I feel like also I was talking to my good friend Alicia who hi Alicia she listens to this show and she

is heartbroken at the moment because she's been in New South Wales helping with flood relief and I had a tear in my eye watching her Instagram stories last night I think they're private so sorry you can't go watch them but she's been out there volunteering and she's just like the media are gone no one's talking about this there are people with their houses still full of mud there is black mold growing in people's homes like this stuff isn't being moved we just need more hands on deck. And none of that was covered. The fact that our country is literally still suffering and they're kind of glossed over climate change and environmental parts of the budget was really disheartening. That said, they have devoted $300 million to quote resilience and a cleanup measure

in areas that do have major damage. That sounds like a lot of money, but can we quickly break down what the average house price in Sydney and Melbourne is? It's about a million dollars. So what, 300 houses? Is that all that was impacted? There's a lot more to this story because you're taking into consideration labor and tools and things to rebuild. And there's just so much more to this story than $300 million. And don't get me wrong, that's a lot of money, but is it enough? And Northern River has just got an evacuation warning for, again, this week. I would say coming into winter, surely these areas are at risk of the same thing happening and it's just devastating. And it's been split. So $150 million of that $300 million is going to the Northern

Rivers. And that's good. But from my perspective, I just don't think it's enough. And we're not talking about this enough. There's been an additional $31 million allocated for mental health support, which makes a lot of sense. Again, I would want to see that being a bit higher because mental health support is going to be incredibly important. But yeah, I felt like it was really light on when it came to the environment. Like there was $1 billion, but over nine years to protect the Great Barrier Reef, which is, let's be honest, is already dying and needs a lot more than nine years worth of strategy. There was also $100 million allocated over three years to quote an environment restoration fund and $53 million over five years to support the recovery

and conservation of koalas. So I get that and I totally understand that koalas are important. I just feel like there's a lot of people in Australia that need a lot more right now. So climate change specifically though, V? There is one funding measure of $247 million to encourage, quote, the private sector to invest in low-emissions technology, which will mainly be hydrogen.

That's not enough. It's not enough. It's not enough, but also is that all you got? Isn't there other things that we can do? I thought there would have been. It's so confusing our country's lack of action, isn't it? It's actually really embarrassing. Like I'm embarrassed that we have so much support and so many people that back us and so many things that we do as a country that are so impressive. And then it's like, oh yeah, we're not, we're not doing much there though. When we know it's a problem. Yeah. It's

like how we treated our First Nations people. Like I just can't believe it took that long to get where we are. So there was some allocation in the budget this year for our First Nations friends, which I think is incredibly important. So first things off the bat is there is a $20 million allocation to make sure the transfer of the copyright to the Aboriginal flag moves across to the Commonwealth, which I think is really exciting because historically, or over the last few years, it has been licensed by a company who has stopped people using it. And I think it should be able to be liberally used by absolutely everyone in that community. So that is absolutely a step in the right direction. Then there is $32 million that has been allocated towards

establishing 35 local and regional voice bodies for First Nations people to participate in policy discussions and service delivery, which I'm really excited about. There's then $173 million going to be allocated for critical services in the Northern Territory and a further $317 million for the Ngurah Cultural Precinct near Parliament in Canberra, which is going to include the National Resting Place to house ancestral remains with unknown providence. We've got this space where they are actually going to be recognised, which is really, really special. So I think that that is absolutely a step in the right direction. Bit disappointed that we were talking about things like welfare and there weren't any specific mentions of First Nations people who we know

are under even more significant financial pressures, especially living regionally most of the time. So I would have liked to see that, but it just wasn't there. Let's talk now about women fee. You mentioned earlier the endometriosis package. Yep, in healthcare. Yep, paid parental leave. That's amazing. Is there anything else that we really get out of this budget? Yes, specifically, there has been a total of $1.3 billion over six years, not as sexy, but over six years allocated towards a range of programs to reduce violence against women

and children, which is obviously welcomed with open arms. It is what they are calling the first phase of the government's, quote, national plan to end violence against women and children by 2032. Very, very exciting. However, I guess to put a little bit of a negative spin on that, the current national plan that was established in 2010 hasn't actually fulfilled on any of the deliverables or most of the deliverables that it set out to. So I think that's really important to point out because that's a lot of money being allocated

to something really important. Why can't we make that work? Yeah. So important. To break that down, though, that funding is going to include $104 million for national prevention organization, Our Watch, $128 million for national counseling services for victim survivors, $48 million for an early intervention campaign aimed at boys and young men, love to see it, $240 million to extend an escaping violence payment, which I think is really, really powerful,

which is actually going to mean that women who are in a situation where they are forced to leave an abusive relationship can access up to $5,000 to help them out of that situation. There's $100 million being extended to the Safe Places program, which provides emergency accommodation for those experiencing family or domestic violence, and $151 million on recovery services for victim survivors, which is very, very important. The other thing, guys, really excited, this year in the budget, they talked about consent. So very separately to the national plan, the government is actually going to be spending a total of $32 million on a consent campaign that is going to be aimed at youth aged 12 years and older and their parents. And this wasn't actually news to us

on budget night. We knew that this had actually been announced a little bit earlier, but $5 million is also going to be spent to conduct a national survey of high school students so we can fully comprehend what their understanding of consent is. So I think that's a really good step in the right direction and some data collection that hasn't been done before that I think will be really powerful over the next few years. I wonder how much that was influenced by Chantelle Contos. Is that how you pronounce her surname?

I think so. That's how I would have pronounced her surname. There's just so many women did such incredible work and they have been doing for the last two years. So for those who might not know who Chantelle is or what her impact has been. George, who is she? Quick rundown.

So forgive me if I get this a little bit wrong, but she essentially started this kind of movement in, I think it was Sydney's like golden suburbs. And she basically said, I've been a victim of sexual assault. How many of you have had the same thing happen to you? And it was targeted at private school boys, I believe. Anyway, the response was incredible. so many women had experienced the same thing. And from that, it just kind of grew into this huge

national movement. Yeah, exactly right. And not unlike the Me Too campaign, I guess a little bit, but on a more local level. And she's, yeah, she's done incredible work. Yeah, no, I think it's really important to talk about that kind of stuff as well, because as much as the budget is kind of dry and kind of boring, understanding it means you're going to understand what our government's priorities are over the next few years and what it means for you and how it's going to impact you. And at the end of the day, this is not a political podcast by any stretch of the imagination, but understanding how different governments allocate or are proposing to allocate funding is going to tell you a lot about their values and what they stand for. Because they can say

one thing and say, oh my gosh, we're really going to stand behind women and violence. But then if they've allocated nothing in their proposed budget, you kind of go, okay, well, you weren't serious about that, were you? So it's about making sure that their words are kind of aligning with their actions, which I think is very deep. But, you know, move away from politics, I think, for a second. I think it's interesting to really understand how our budget and how our taxpayer dollars are distributed and whether you're happy with that or not. Because at the end of the day, like we do get a say in this, not a super deep say, but we do get a say in this and that's how it all falls out. But of course, guys, it's also really important to remember that these are

promises. They are not set in stone. So it'll be really interesting to see if they do get elected, if they're actually going to put their money where their mouth is, or if maybe they were running their mouths a little bit to get into a position of power. So I think let's look at historicals and make sure that if someone is saying they will do something, have they been known to do that before? Like, do they walk the walk when they talk the talk? I don't know. Forgive me if this is a potato question ladies but if scott morrison scomo scomo is voted out and albanese albanese albo gets in voted in yeah then what happens to this budget is it thrown away a different it doesn't get thrown away per se i'm sure that they will be like oh cool we'll just take notes like

i'm not going to let you do an entire assignment and leave it on the table i'm gonna maybe try and copy you borrow a few bits maybe make sure it doesn't look too play drives reform it make it look like it was my idea. Change the font. Yeah, change the font. Put an explanation mark at the end of a few sentences. Brilliant. Original. But the federal budget that just came out was the current budget for the current government and the opposition will actually give a budget based on what they think the money should be allocated towards very soon. So it'll be interesting to see the dimensions of how things change and what that actually looks like and what our friend Alba is actually going to do so that you can have a look at that and go, how is he allocating funds?

What does this look like so that I can make the right decision for me in line with my values? It's handy for the opposition because they can read the feedback, read the room and make adjustments as they see fit. Cut, paste. It's not plagiarism. I hope that has given you a little bit of insight as to what the budget actually means, how it works and what this year's budget has delivered us or potentially proposed.

But as always, if you guys have any questions, jump into our Facebook group, slide into our dms and have a conversation with us but as always that is all we have time for so gee would you please let everybody know that i am quite literally a licensed financial advisor absolutely would be a pleasure remember guys that the advice shared on cheese on the money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances cheese on the money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or a financial decision victoria divine is an Authorised Representative of InFocus Securities Australia, Proprietary Limited, ABN 47097797049, AFSL 236523.

Oh, she's getting speedy. Happy Friday, guys. We will see you next week. Bye, guys. you