Australia's Federal Budget: Achieve the Global Goals
Updated: Nov 3, 2018
Image credit: Got Credit
Across the country, hundreds of thousands of Australians sat glued to their TV on Tuesday night as Scott Morrison presented the 2016 / 2017 federal budget.
What Australians didn’t get to hear is how the federal budget is actually working to achieve the Global Goals.
We took the liberty of breaking down a mere handful of aspects of the federal budget into how they’re working to achieve the Global Goals!
$96.1 million to identify groups at risk of long-term dependency on welfare
$5.1 million over four years for early intervention and prevention trials
While it wasn’t announced in the budget, the government has recently launched a campaign to promote the new “country of origin” food-labelling for all food sold in Australia.
Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being
$27 billion for National Disability Insurance Scheme
Extra $1.2 billion school funding
$100 million for gender equality programs in Indo-Pacific countries allocated under the Foreign Aid Budget
$100 million for domestic violence against women and children
Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
National $2 billion Water Bank
$100.5 million for National Water Infrastructure Loan Facility
$500 million for National Water Infrastructure Development Fund
Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
There is unfortunately no new funding for climate action; however, Global Goals Australia is committed to working with companies specialising in research and development of clean energy alternatives and lobbying the government at all levels to ensure our commitment to the Paris Agreement as well as the Global Goals is met or, preferably, bettered.
Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
$750 million to boost youth employment
Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
$115 million for second Sydney airport
$593.7 million toward high-speed rail link between Melbourne and Brisbane
$100 million for northern Australia development
The government has presented changes to taxation and superannuation which it proposes will bring about a reduction in equality; however, this has been attacked by the opposition and welfare groups as not being enough.
Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
Much of Goal 11 has been covered in the recently announce Australian Infrastructure Plan. You can find more about the plan here.
Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
We cannot find any record of any policy announcements for Goal 12.
As stated above, there is unfortunately no new funding for climate action; however, Global Goals Australia is committed to working with companies specialising in research and development of clean energy alternatives and lobbying the government at all levels to ensure our commitment to the Paris Agreement as well as the Global Goals is met or, preferably, bettered.
$171 million for the Great Barrier Reef
$56.1 million for management of Commonwealth Marine Reserves
$20 million for tree-planting
$22.6 million for National Landcare Program
Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
$32.4 million on defence programs including ship-building
Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals
The government has committed to a major crackdown of companies which shift profits offshore in order to avoid paying Australian tax.
Unfortunately, the government announced a $224 million cut to overseas development assistance (ODA), going against its commitment to 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) to be put towards ODA by 2030. We are looking forward to working with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to come up with a plan to achieve this 0.7% figure over the next 15 years.
Many of the projects mentioned in the budget apply to multiple goals and the list above is by no means exhaustive. We are not passing judgement on the budget; we are merely outlining how certain projects will be working to achieve the Global Goals over the next financial year.
The Global Goals Australia Campaign is lobbying at a federal, state and local government level to embed the Global Goals in all government planning and budgeting and to then measure success or failure against the 169 targets of the 17 goals.
Have any questions about the budget? Feel free to contact us!
This article was originally published on the Global Goals Australia Campaign website.