Investigation of war crimes in Afghanistan
The government will provide $6.7m in 2022-23 to support the investigation and prosecution of potential war crimes in Afghanistan by the Office of the Special Investigator.
The funds follow the report by Justice Paul Brereton which recommended charges against serving and past members of the Australian Defence Force, including members of the elite SAS.
Funding includes $3.9m to the attorney general’s department to advise the Office of the Special Investigator on matters of international law, obtain legal assistance from foreign jurisdictions and to protect sensitive national security information in potential criminal proceedings. A further $2.8m will be provided to the commonwealth director of public prosecutions to provide legal advice.
The measure will be offset by redirecting funding from the Department of Defence.
Migration levels
The government will maintain the 2022-23 permanent migration planned intake at 160,000. Skilled migration places will increase from the 2021-22 planning levels to 109,900, and account for about 70% of the permanent migration program.
The government is redistributing 10,000 unused places from the partner program into the skilled program.
The humanitarian program is capped at 13,750 for 2022-23 and for the forward estimates.
Cheaper visas
The budget contains a number of tweaks to visa conditions and costs, in an effort to attract international students and backpackers to come to Australia, after pandemic border closures saw a dramatic fall in numbers.
An incentive program which involves refunding visa fees for international students who arrive by 19 March, and working holidaymakers who arrive by 19 April, will cost the budget money, but those arriving will pay tax and relieve the staff shortages in hospitality.
The government is also increasing country caps for work and holiday visas by 30% in 2022-23, to allow in 11,000 backpackers.
Tax changes have been foreshadowed for workers under the Australian agriculture visa scheme, with the government saying it will “clarify” the tax treatment soon “to respond to workforce shortages in the agriculture and primary industry sectors”. Sounds like an election announcement in a pumpkin field in far north Queensland is on the cards.
The measures will increase receipts by an estimated $115m and cost $16m over the forward estimates.
More than $20m to plant trees for Her Majesty
The government will provide $20.3m over three years from 2021-22 to plant trees for the Queen’s platinum jubilee. The funding was announced on 6 February and provides grants across Australia for community-led tree planting projects.
Parliamentary behaviour
The government will provide $4.1m in 2022-23 to implement the recommendations of the independent review into commonwealth parliamentary workplaces, which followed the allegations raised by Brittany Higgins and others.
This includes $2.6m for the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to design and establish an Office of Parliamentarian Staffing and Culture (OPSC) and undertake preparatory work to establish an Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission.
A further $800,000 has been allocated to establish a shopfront for the OPSC at Parliament House and undertake a feasibility study into establishing a parliamentary health and wellbeing service.
Canberra on camera
The government will provide $29.7m over four years and $800,000 a year ongoing to buy and maintain security assets at Parliament House, including improvements to the CCTV network, upgraded screening equipment and an expanded parliamentary security operations room.
Offshore tax avoidance
The government has extended funding for two years to the ATO’s tax avoidance task force targeting multinationals, large public and private companies, trusts and high wealth individuals. That’s mainly chasing down schemes that use offshore tax havens and income transfer schemes to avoid paying tax in Australia.
The extension of the task force will cost an additional $652.5m over two years but the budget papers reveal this measure “is estimated to increase receipts by $2.1bn”. Sounds like a no brainer.
Black economy measures deferred
Data system changes can be very slow, it seems. The government will defer for a year the start date of a measure announced in the 2019-20 budget to strengthen the Australian Business Number system, which is aimed at curbing the black economy. The cost of the deferral is said to be small: $5m.
ABC and SBS funding – in case you missed it
The government announced funding for the ABC and SBS in February. It locked in $3.3bn in funding for the ABC from July 2022 to June 2025, an increase of $87.2m over the current triennial funding period, thanks to the restoration of indexing and continuation of its enhanced newsgathering program that provides news services to the regions.
The SBS will receive $953.7m over the same period.
Tax-free booze for diplomats
The government has granted or extended access to refunds of indirect tax (that’s GST, fuel and alcohol taxes) to the embassies and consulates of Fiji, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Malaysia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, Tonga, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, the UK and Vanuatu.
The government has also extended access to the indirect tax concessions for Papua New Guinea and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office to include construction and renovation relating to their current and future diplomatic missions and consular posts.
The cost? $6.9m to the budget and a further $6.4m out of the pool of GST payable to the states and territories over the forward estimates.
Vets win at the last minute
The veterans’ affairs and defence personnel minister, Andrew Gee, declared he would quit cabinet if money to deal with the backlog of veterans’ compensation claims was not secured.
The Department of Defence release which arrived a little late in the lockup shows he has had a five minutes-to-midnight victory.
“An initial $22.8m will fund 90 extra Department of Veterans’ Affairs staff to cut the backlog of unprocessed claims, and this will be followed by a further $73.2m for additional staff and other measures to further improve the veteran claims processing system and reduce waiting times,” it said.
The budget itself only includes the initial $22.8m over two years from 2022-23. The follow-up money is more of a public pledge by the government than a budgeted line item.