What's in the 2023/24 Federal budget for regional Australia and agriculture

The 2023/24 budget also increased the instant tax write off for small businesses, gave biosecurity a $1 billion boost and increased welfare payments.

About 400,000 regional and rural residents will benefit from cost-of-living relief, which includes raising welfare payments by $40 a fortnight, increasing rent assistance by 15pc (about $15 to $30 depending on the household) and raising the cut off age for payments for children of single parents from eight to 14.

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The instant asset write-off threshold has been temporarily increased to $20,000 for businesses with a turnover of up to $10 million and $302m will support climate-smart agriculture projects that help farmers transition to a low emissions future or strengthen sustainability.

Labor invested heavily in disaster preparedness after almost 70 per cent of Australians were impacted by storms, floods, cyclones and bushfires in 2022. More than $236 million over the next decade will address long-standing risks in Australia's flood gauge network, to give communities reliable access to flood forecasts and warnings.

The significant cuts in water infrastructure were anticipated, after Labor announced a review of all dam funding in the previous budget.

Dungowan Dam ($595m), Emu Swamp Dam ($162.5m), the Southern Forests Irrigation Scheme ($39.7m), the Fingal Irrigation Scheme ($35m) were all scrapped, while the government will save a further $40m on projects that are being re-scoped or not progressed.

The government deferred a decision on the $19m Wyangala Dam wall raising and the Hughenden Irrigation Scheme project, until after the planning work is completed.

It was suspected Labor would make significant cuts to the water infrastructure budget, after announcing a review of all dam funding announced under the Coalition.

About $200m of the funding will be reallocated to fund three water infrastructure projects; Northern Midlands Irrigation Scheme ($109m), Sassafras-Wesley Vale Irrigation Scheme ($62.1m) and the Quality Water for Wannon project ($26.1m).

Labor will deliver on another election commitment to incorporate the latest climate science into the management of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, providing nearly $150m to begin the first statutory review of the plan, with updated science

The first statutory review of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan will be supported by a nearly $150m, with updated science to "future proof" the plan against the impacts of climate change, which delivers on another election commitment.

Labor plans to make the water market more transparent with a $32.7m investment, which includes a public website that publishes live water market updates, while $18m will be used to increase the integrity of the Australian carbon credit market.

An additional $166.7m will go towards enhancing the Pacific Australian Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme.

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