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Young Australian athletes and their families will benefit following the Morrison Government’s expansion of the popular Local Sporting Champions program with the number of annual grants to increase from 9000 to 12,000.
In addition, a new Local Para Champions program will provide extra financial support of up to $1,000 for more than 900 aspiring Paralympians to participate in competitions, recognising the added costs for equipment and travel.
This new funding of $5.5 million for the program comes through the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) announced today by the Treasurer.
Minister for Sport Richard Colbeck said with the removal of most state borders and COVID restrictions, young Australian athletes were looking forward to being able to once again compete at championship level around Australia and overseas.
“This expansion in Local Sporting Champions grants for young athletes, officials and coaches will bring them one step closer to making their sporting dreams a reality,” Minister Colbeck said.
The Local Sporting Champions program provides financial assistance to coaches, officials, and competitors aged 12 to 18 who are required to travel to participate in state, national or international championships. Age eligibility for the new Local Para Champions program will be those aged 12 to 24.
Applicants receive between $500 and $750 towards the cost of attending championship events which help ease the financial burden on individuals and their families.
With the announcement of Brisbane hosting the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Local Sporting Champions program over the next decade will be pivotal in supporting both able bodied and para athletes attending state, national and international competitions.
At Tokyo 2020, more than 150 of the athletes competing for Australia received a Local Sporting Champions grant on their journey to the Olympics.
This included champion swimmer Ariarne Titmus who received a grant as a 13-year-old to attend her first Australian Age Championships in Sydney from her then home in Launceston.
“Everyone around Australia is eager to see the start of the green and gold decade, where Australia hosts many of the biggest and best international sporting competitions in the world, reaching its crescendo with the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Minister Colbeck said.
The Morrison Government will also invest $5 million over two years to support the UCI Road World Championships 2022 being hosted by Wollongong – the first of a string of major sporting events.
“This Government support for the UCI Road World Championships will also help establish legacy programs which will work with young people in regional, rural and remote communities, and people with a disability to engage in the sport of cycling.”
MYEFO also details additional support for our Olympians and Paralympians.
“Of course, for many Australians our Olympians and Paralympians represent the pinnacle of achievement in world sport and the Morrison Government is ensuring the efforts of our Paralympians to bring victory and glory to Australia at the coming Beijing Winter Paralympics are rewarded,” Minister Colbeck said.
“Australia’s Tokyo Paralympians shared in $1 million in one-off medal bonuses from the Australian Government in recognition of the 13 gold, 23 silver and 24 bronze medal haul from the delayed event held earlier this year.”
“We will also extend this one-off bonus to each Paralympic athlete who wins a medal at the upcoming Beijing Winter Paralympics recognising the extraordinary efforts these athletes go to particularly with the impact of the global pandemic.”
The Australian Government has also provided $2.1 million to support the Australian Olympic Team which competed at the Tokyo Games earlier this year. This funding is being provided to the Australian Olympic Committee to help cover unprecedented COVID-19 return quarantine costs for the hundreds of athletes and support staff who made up the Australian team.

The Morrison Government today announces an additional $22 million to ensure senior Australians can access sustainable, high-quality residential care, under a new round of funding through the Business Improvement Fund (BIF).
Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians, Richard Colbeck, said latest investment underlined the Government’s commitment to strengthen the business framework for providers across the country.
The Morrison Government invested in nearly 200 residential aged care providers through the first round of the BIF to improve service delivery and viability and ensure the needs of senior Australians are met.
It brings the total investment to more than $100 million since March 2020.
This includes $26.8 million as part of an extended first round of the Business Improvement Fund to support an additional 54 providers, a majority of which are in regional and rural areas.
“The BIF provides grants to providers who may be facing financial challenges, particularly those located in regional, rural and remote areas,” Minister Colbeck said.
“Improving the financial stability of residential aged care enables providers to focus on what really matters, high quality care for their residents.”
Masonic Care Tasmania CEO, Jackie Howard, said the organisation’s residential aged care services, several located in regional Tasmania, has benefited significantly from support it received through the fund.
“This funding has brought us forward, at least a couple of years faster than if we had to do the improvements ourselves. It’s certainly taking this organisation to where it’s never been before,” Ms Howard said.
“It will allow us to have some robust core IT infrastructure across our residential aged care facilities. This will help us future proof the business,” Ms Howard said.
Minister Colbeck said the Morrison Government is improving the sustainability of aged care to meet the demands of a competitive market aligned to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety final report recommendations.
“Our investment and commitment to continue to support the sustainability of the aged care sector is about putting the needs of senior Australians front and centre.
“This investment will enable our diverse senior Australian community to access quality residential aged care no matter where they live,” Minister Colbeck said.
“Aged care providers are also encouraged to use the Government’s Business Advisory Service to gain free, independent and confidential business advice for improving operations, which will ultimately result in better services being delivered to consumers.”
Eligible providers can apply for the Business Improvement Fund to implement improved business strategies, as identified by the Business Advisory Service, such as restructuring business operations and upgrading of financial management or IT systems.
Business Improvement Fund applications are now open through GrantConnect.
Today’s funding announcement is part of the Australian Government’s Structural Adjustment Program, to improve operations and viability to meet the demands of a strengthened aged care market.

Labor welcomes the Morrison-Joyce Government’s belated intension to reject the proposed extension of Advent Energy’s Petroleum Exploration Permit 11 (PEP-11).
This is a decision that is more than 300 days overdue and could have been made quickly in February with a stroke of a pen by Scott Morrison’s Minister for Resources, Keith Pitt who had the final decision on the future of the licence.
Extending PEP-11 has never made sense from an economic, environmental, or energy perspective.
It would have put at risk thousands of local jobs in tourism, hospitality, and recreational and commercial fishing.
Let’s be clear: the Morrison-Joyce Government has left our community in limbo and ignored our wishes for nearly 12 months despite the overwhelming opposition to PEP-11.
Scott Morrison doesn’t care about our community, otherwise he would not have inflicted this uncertainty on us for so long.
This is a Prime Minister whose priorities are his Liberal mates and making announcements that suit his short-term political prospects.
He has surrendered to the massive campaign ran by the community and Labor to stop this awful project.
Actions speak louder than words.
Mr Morrison has been saying he doesn’t approve the PEP-11 extension since March, so Labor looks forward to the official confirmation that it has been rejected once and for all.
This is a huge win for our community, and they deserve to be congratulated and recognised for their advocacy.

It’s often said that the future is what you make of it.
That is especially true when it comes to Australia’s economic future.
Our nation is blessed by the privilege of proximity. We sit in the region experiencing the fastest economic growth in human history.
We have an opportunity to lock ourselves into this strong economic growth, much of which will be driven by the global shift to renewable energy.
But to seize this opportunity, we need a government with a plan.
Federal Labor’s plan for government is to use Australia’s comparative strengths as a foundation for our next great wave of economic prosperity.
First, we must utilise our abundant reserves of solar and wind energy to provide the cheap power needed to revitalise our traditional and emerging industries.
Cheap energy will be critical to the development of new renewable industries, using our resources like lithium and copper and iron ore, the key materials used to make batteries, wind turbines, electric vehicles and other low-emission products.
Australia can become a renewable energy superpower for the world. We can establish lucrative new sources of export income and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
But achieving this aim requires government action.
A Labor government will create the National Reconstruction Fund to provide loans, loan guarantees and other assistance to support the expansion of Australian industry.
The fund will support the expansion of existing sectors such as manufacturing of military hardware, vaccines and medicines, agricultural produce as well as transportation vehicles and equipment.
It will also support emerging industries in manufacturing that add value to our existing resources exports.
It makes no sense to ship bulk resources overseas for others to process and then buy them back at a higher cost. We should add value here, creating new jobs, particularly in regional Australia.
But on its own, supporting business investment will not be enough.
We must also invest in the skills of our greatest asset – our people.
It is unacceptable that there are 85,000 fewer Australians engaged in apprenticeships or traineeships today than on the day the Coalition government took office.
For Australia to prosper in the 21st century, our training system must produce the skills demanded by employers.
Otherwise, skill shortages will continue to act as a handbrake on economic growth.
Labor will create 465,000 free TAFE places and up to 20,000 new university places in areas of skills shortage.
Our Made in Australia Skills Plan will skill up a new generation of mechanics, construction workers and engineers.
It will also train people in resources, digital and cyber security and advanced manufacturing.
And, critically, we will train a new wave of early childhood educators, registered nurses, teachers and aged care and disability care professionals.
The work of care is often done by women, operating in full sight but without due recognition. We should be treating care workers as the national assets they are and investing in their education and Training.
Labor’s new TAFE and university places will provide new opportunities to hundreds of thousands of young people about to embark on their adult careers.
But they will also be available to older Australians who need to retrain because their jobs have been eliminated by mechanisation or other changes, as well as unpaid carers – predominantly women – who want to re-enter the workforce.
A Labor government will further support Australian industry and jobs with the power of purchasing. We’ll develop industry plans in defence and rail manufacturing to boost the capacity of local businesses to supply our nation’s needs.
Too many state governments have bought trains, trams and ferries from overseas suppliers, only to find them unfit for purpose when they are delivered.
Then we get Australian workers to fix them. It doesn’t make sense. We should build ferries, trains, trams and buses here.
Skills and industry will build a stronger future. One of the biggest lessons from the Covid pandemic has been that our nation has lost some important industries that are critical in times of trouble.
Our inability to make mRNA vaccines, for example, left us badly exposed when the Morrison-Joyce government failed to secure enough vaccines from overseas to meet our national needs.
We should make our own medical supplies and news that mRNA vaccines will be made in Melbourne from 2024 is welcome, but late. We can’t allow ourselves to be hostage to unpredictable global supply chains that collapse in a crisis.
Labor will make Australia more resilient by supporting critical industries. In addition, our 10-point Buy Australia Plan will ensure every government department prioritises buying from local industries wherever possible, rather from overseas.
Increasing our resilience and expanding Australia’s export footprint will be challenging, but also provide opportunities.
Labor has the plan to turn these opportunities into jobs.

Australia today signed a landmark free trade agreement with the United Kingdom that will make Australian exports to the UK cheaper, create new opportunities for workers, young people and businesses and further strengthen the special relationship between our two countries.
This is the most comprehensive and ambitious free trade agreement that Australia has concluded, other than with New Zealand. It demonstrates our countries’ commitment to free trade as a driver of economic growth and stronger bilateral relationships.
The Australia-UK FTA delivers benefits for Australians across the board:

• Exporters will benefit from immediate elimination of tariffs on over 99 per cent of Australian goods exports to the UK, valued at around $9.2 billion, when the agreement enters into force.

• Farmers will have improved access to more than 65 million UK consumers who value safe, sustainably produced foods and beverages with the strong provenance Australia offers.
  • Around $43 million in annual customs duties will be removed from Australian wine when the agreement enters into force.
  • For beef, a tariff-free quota of 35,000 tonnes at entry into force will expand to 110,000 tonnes in year 10. Tariffs on beef will be eliminated after ten years.
  • For sheep meat, a tariff-free quota of 25,000 tonnes at entry into force will expand to 75,000 in year 10. Tariffs on sheep meat will be eliminated after ten years.
  • For sugar, a tariff-free quota of 80,000 tonnes at entry into force will expand to 220,000 tonnes in year 8. Sugar tariffs will be eliminated after eight years.
• Professionals will have the same access to the UK’s lucrative jobs market as their European competitors, except from the Republic of Ireland. This means Australian job seekers can compete on an equal footing with EU nationals in the UK for the first time in more than 40 years.
• Australian households and businesses will save around $200 million a year as tariffs on British imports into Australia, such as cars, whisky, confectionery, biscuits and cosmetics, are phased out within five years, with tariffs on almost all UK goods being eliminated on entry into force.

• Young people will have more time to travel to the UK for a working holiday and will be able to stay longer, with eligibility to participate in working holiday opportunities raised from 30 to 35 years of age, and stays allowed for up to three years in each country.
• Australian businesses will have the guaranteed right to bid for a greater variety of UK government contracts in a procurement market worth an estimated half-a-trillion dollars annually.
• UK businesses will be encouraged to invest in Australia thanks to best practice investment rules, including to set up regional headquarters in Australia to leverage our network of free trade agreements.

Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Dan Tehan signed the agreement on behalf of Australia during a virtual ceremony with the UK Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan in Adelaide today.
The Morrison Government will now work to bring the agreement into force in 2022, so Australian exporters, farmers, workers, businesses and consumers can access the benefits of this gold standard agreement as soon as possible.
When the Australia-UK FTA enters into force, around 75 per cent of Australia’s two-way trade will be covered by free trade agreements, representing preferential access to 2.9 billion customers, up from 27 per cent when the Morrison Government came to office.

Labour force figures released today by the ABS show that seasonally adjusted employment surged in November, by an unprecedented 366,100 (or 2.9 per cent) to stand at a record high of 13,177,300, exceeding market expectations. Employment is now 181,800 (or 1.4 per cent) above the level recorded in March 2020 (when Australia recorded its 100th case of COVID-19).

• Employment for women rose by a robust 215,200 (or 3.6 per cent) in November, accounting for nearly 59 per cent of total jobs growth over the month.
• Full-time employment increased by 128,300 (or 1.4 per cent) over the month, while part-time employment rose by 237,800 (or 6.1 per cent).
• The rise in employment at the national level was primarily driven by strong increases in New South Wales (up by 179,800 or 4.6 per cent) and Victoria (up by 141,000 or 4.3 per cent), reflecting the easing of restrictions in both states. Importantly, employment rose in all states and the ACT.

Against this backdrop, the level of unemployment fell by 69,400 (or 9.8 per cent) over the month, to 636,700 in November. The unemployment rate fell by 0.6 percentage points over the month, to 4.6 per cent in November, well below the 5.3 per cent recorded in March 2020.
The easing of restrictions and strong labour market conditions encouraged 296,800 people to enter the labour market in November, pushing the participation rate up by 1.4 percentage points, to 66.1 per cent in November, above the 65.9 per cent recorded in March 2020.
Encouragingly, employment for youth increased by 122,900 (or 6.9 per cent) over the month, accounting for around one-third of the rise in overall employment in November. The youth participation rate also rose considerably over the month, up by 3.7 percentage points, to 70.1 per cent in November 2021, the highest rate recorded since March 2009.
The ABS has noted that most people remained attached to their job during the Delta lockdowns, and to a greater extent than was the case earlier in the pandemic, which meant that as restrictions were eased many people were able to return quickly to work. This resulted in a rapid recovery in employment and participation between October and November.
Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business, Stuart Robert, said today’s figures reflect the large rebound in labour market activity, as businesses have been able to reopen under the National Plan, particularly in the most populous states of New South Wales and Victoria.
‘Today’s figures demonstrate the National Plan is working—Australians are getting on with their lives safely, but there is more to be done,’ Minister Robert said.
‘We remain cognisant of the Omicron variant, but it is pleasing to note that online job advertisements are at a 13-year high, while the NSC’s latest Recruitment Experience and Outlook Survey results show employer expectations around increasing staff numbers have hit a new peak.
‘This shows Australia’s continued prosperity is depended on ensuring we continue to stick with the National Plan.’
In addition, the Morrison Government is building the workforce of the future with the right skills to meet the demands of the economy and community, as well as the agility to rise to the opportunities presented by emerging industries.
‘As part of MYEFO, the Morrison Government has announced a range of measures designed to help Australians connect to meaningful employment and inform and empower industry to play the important role of attracting and retaining employees,’ Minister Robert said.
‘We will spend $8 million to increase the number of Job Fairs in regional and metropolitan areas and connect more Australians with local jobs. We will expand the successful Launch into Work program to $74.7 million worth of projects to be funded each year to prepare job seekers for vacancies through work experience, training, and mentoring. We will also expand the 1800 CAREER service to Australians aged 25 and older who are self-managing their search for work using the Government’s online employment services.
‘We will work to fast-track entry into the workforce through the apprenticeship and traineeship sector by investing $10.5 million over the next three years to work intensively with the New South Wales and South Australian governments to pilot novel approaches to accelerate qualification completion time.’
‘We will also look to those who have migrated to Australia, and how we can support them to take up work in areas of demand which our domestic workforce is unable to fill. We will spend nearly $20 million through to 2023-24 to deliver faster, cheaper skills assessments which will acknowledge the valuable skills migrants have brought with them and their ability to contribute to the Australian workforce. Our targeted migration settings will continue to be considered holistically, informed by Australia’s broader domestic workforce objectives to ensure they complement each other.’
Minister Robert said the new measures announced as part of MYEFO would complement the Government’s existing programs, with all job seekers and those looking to reskill and upskill benefitting.
‘Our vision for skills reform and a funding model that provides national consistency for students, underpinned by improvements to the collection, timeliness and transparency of data across the Vocational Education Training (VET) system, will ensure we’re training Australians with the right skills to get the jobs in demand,’ Minister Robert said.
‘We will also ensure jobactive providers take a stronger, more proactive brokerage role in identifying local employment opportunities and referring job seekers to suitable work. Both job seekers and jobactive providers must be outcome-focused, with providers working closely with their region’s Employment Facilitator to develop strategies that better connect job seekers with local business needs, and support job seekers to upskill so they are ready to take up work when opportunities arise.
‘From 1 January 2022 through to June 2024, we will provide over $49 million to double the number of places in The Skills Checkpoint for Older Workers Program and increase the number of Skills and Training Incentives available, to assist older Australians to adopt a lifelong approach to learning, upskilling and reskilling, all while reducing their reliance on income support.
Minister Robert said the Morrison Government is committed to providing strong incentives and support for older job seekers to remain engaged in the labour market.
‘Aged pensioners who choose to re-enter the workforce or increase their work hours will benefit from an easier return to the Age Pension if they exceed the income limit due to their employment and will be able to keep their Pensioner Concession Card for two years,’ Minister Robert said.
The Morrison Government would also invest $10 million to develop an integrated data tool which would deliver a comprehensive, near real-time, regional view of Australia’s workforce, skill, and labour market.
Moreover, the Government is continuing to back Australia’s small business-led recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic by extending the SME Recover Loan Scheme by a further six months to 30 June 2022. To date, around 80,000 loans worth approximately $7.3 billion have been provided to businesses since the scheme commenced in March 2020. The extension of the scheme will continue to provide unprecedented support for SMEs and help even more businesses get access to the funding they need to adapt, innovate and bounce back from the impacts of the pandemic.

The 2021-22 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) underscores the importance of sticking to the plan to secure Australia’s strong recovery from the greatest economic shock since the Great Depression.
Having performed more strongly than any major advanced economy throughout the pandemic, the Australian economy is poised for strong growth underpinned by Australia’s high vaccination rate and unprecedented economic support to households and small businesses.
Real GDP is expected to grow by 4½ per cent in 2021, and by 4¼ per cent in 2022 reflecting strong and broad-based momentum in the economy and demonstrating our economic plan is working.
Income tax cuts and a strong recovery in the labour market is seeing household consumption increase at its fastest pace in more than two decades.
Temporary tax incentives will drive the strongest increase in business investment since the mining boom with non-mining investment expected to reach record levels.
Consistent with the strong economic recovery the unemployment rate is forecast to reach 4¼ per cent in the June quarter of 2023.
This would represent the first time since before the Global Financial Crisis that Australia has sustained an unemployment rate of below 5 per cent and only the second time since the early 1970s.
The rapid recovery from the Delta imposed lockdowns is expected to see the addition of around 1 million jobs between October 2021 and the end of the forecast period, which is around 150,000 more jobs than forecast in the 2021-22 Budget.
As a result, the MYEFO shows an improvement in the fiscal outlook since the 2021-22 Budget, even after accounting for the impacts of the Delta imposed lockdowns.
The underlying cash balance in 2021-22 is expected to be a deficit of $99.2 billion (4.5 per cent of GDP), a $7.4 billion improvement since the 2021-22 Budget. And $2.3 billion stronger across the forwards.
This significant improvement in the underlying cash balance occurs at the same time that tax receipts as a share of GDP are forecast to fall from 22.9 per cent in 2020-21 to 22.1 per cent in 2024-25 due, in part, to the Government’s tax reform measures that continue to grow the economy and deliver a stronger budget.
The improvement in the forecast budget balance in 2021-22, together with the much stronger fiscal outcome in 2020-21, flows through to an improved outlook for debt.
Gross debt is projected to be lower in every year of the forward estimates and medium term than at the 2021-22 Budget.
Gross debt is now expected to be 41.8 per cent of GDP at 30 June 2022 and is projected to stabilise at around 50 per cent of GDP in the medium term.
Australia’s gross debt as a share of GDP is less than half the average across G20 advanced countries today, with Australia only one of nine countries in the world to have a AAA credit rating from the three leading rating agencies.
There is also a material improvement in the net debt position which now peaks at 37.4 per cent of GDP as opposed to 40.9 per cent in 2024-25, $65.7 billion lower than what was expected in May.
Australia’s world leading economic and health outcomes have been supported by a further $25 billion in direct economic and health support committed during the Delta outbreak, bringing our total pandemic support to $337 billion or 16.3 per cent of GDP.
This included more than $7.3 billion in business support payments, $12.6 billion in payments to individuals through the COVID-19 Disaster Payment and further investments in our vaccine rollout and hospitals.
The Government has also provided additional funding to sustain capacity in sectors significantly disrupted by COVID-19 such as aviation, tourism, early childhood education and care, and the arts.
Building on our COVID-19 response, funding in today’s MYEFO includes:

• $2.3 billion in funding commitments for new and existing infrastructure projects and more than $500 million to support rural and regional Australia.
• $896.0 million to support a strong labour market recovery, address workforce shortages and build workforce capability, equipping Australia’s workforce with the skills needed now and into the future.
• $2.7 billion in 2021-22 and $26.4 billion over the four years to 2024-25 to support the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
• $1.1 billion to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in areas such as health, education, early childhood, justice, languages and assisting families.
• $1.1 billion over 10 years to support reliable energy supply and a technology-driven approach to emissions reduction as part of our roadmap to net zero by 2050.

The global pandemic will continue to pose headwinds for domestic and global recovery for some time to come.
However, Australia’s high vaccination rate and increased investment in health system capacity will assist in mitigating the challenges presented by the ongoing global pandemic, including managing new variants.
Australia has a proven record of dealing with COVID-19 and the Government remains focused on securing the recovery, guaranteeing our essential services and setting Australia up for the future.
The 2021-22 MYEFO is available on the Budget website www.budget.gov.au