The Federal Government has allocated $4.9 million to create a Remembrance Trail on the Greek island of Lemnos in this year’s Budget.
The trail is being created in recognition of the Australian doctors, nurses and other service personnel who served there during the First World War.
“The women and men who serve this nation in uniform make incredible sacrifices for our country and we are ensuring that we repay our debt to them by providing the support they, and their families, need,” the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Personnel, Andrew Gee, said.
The creation of the Remembrance Trial was first announced back in April 2018 by Melbourne’s Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee and the Prefecture of the Northern Aegean.
Morrison, Hawke: Ethnic communities the engine for economic recovery
In a multicultural media conference held this morning about the Federal Budget, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Minister for Immigration Alex Hawke thanked multicultural communities for their leadership during challenging times, for supporting the economy and culturally enriching the country.
The Prime Minister said the government will keep supporting multicultural communities and stressed that “we are the standard that other countries seek to achieve.”
Minister Hawker agreed with Mr Morrison and said this budget has “more good news for multicultural communities” in order to resume community life.
“We’ve seen churches and temples empty and festivals cancelled and I am announcing some grants through the budget to support community activity,” Mr Hawke said.
“We want communities to get back to their normal life and we know they need support. Let’s get them up and thriving.”
Federal Budget 2022: What else was announced?
During the meeting, Mr Morrison and Mr Hawke also discussed various other announcements from last night’s Federal Budget, including the big-ticket cost of living funding and record investments in health, defence and small business.
Families and Taxpayers:
To help with the increasing cost of living, low- and middle-income earners will receive an extra $420 back on their tax returns. The government’s low and middle tax offset is also back for another year, meaning that some people may get up to $1,500 back at tax time.
Pensioners and Welfare Recipients:
Pensioners, carers, veterans, job seekers and other eligible concession cardholders, plus some self-funded retirees, will receive a one-off payment of $250.
Women:
Another $1.3 billion will be spent tackling violence against women and children in this budget. The new spending is on front-line services, emergency accommodation, access to legal advice and more.
There’s also been a big shake-up for the government’s Paid Parental Leave (PPL) scheme. Instead of offering two separate payments — two weeks of “Dad and Partner Pay” and 18 weeks of “Parental Leave Pay” — the two will now be combined, meaning parents can choose to split the leave between them in whatever way they’d like.
According to the Prime Minister, the federal budget even encourages more women from ethnic backgrounds to enter the workforce and creates more economic opportunities from them.
”It gives them choice, it gives their families choice and enables them to plan for their future with confidence,” Mr Morrison said during the conference.
Small businesses:
Small business owners will receive a $120 tax deduction for every $100 they spend on training their staff. The same deduction will also apply to investments in cloud computing, eInvoicing, cybersecurity and web design – up to a maximum of $100,000 per year.
Mr Morrison said that the support for small businesses in this budget is significant.
“Australia is one of the most successful multicultural nations on earth and one of the reasons for that I think is because of the high level of entrepreneurism that exists in the many migrant communities….we are helping small businesses be successful in the post COVID economy,” he told multicultural media this morning.
“Australia is in a strong position to capitalise in the opportunities that are ahead and the many ethic communities across Australia will be in the engine of that.”
Motorists
The fuel tax excise will be cut in half to 22.1 cents per litre for six months. The change comes into effect from midnight on Tuesday night and the competition watchdog will police it.
First-home buyers:
The number of people able to access the Home Guarantee Scheme will double to 50,000 places per year. That scheme, designed to help more people buy their first home, lets people put down a deposit of just five per cent, or two per cent for single parents.
