This year’s budget is looking to benefit our community in each of these areas and in particular, it’s guaranteeing strong foundations in Gosford.
We’re also helping the 15,051 local businesses across the Central Coast invest, employ and pay their workers more. Well over one thousand local business have benefited from our instant asset write off for small businesses which we have extended for a further 12 months. This means that small businesses with turnovers up to $10 million can benefit from writing off assets costing less than $20,000.
One particular small business sector that will benefit from this budget is boutique breweries with draught beer excise rates being lowered for craft brewers who use smaller kegs.
Also, the alcohol excise refund scheme cap will increase from $30,000 a year to $100,000, from 1 July 2019 for all brewers.
Chris Benson from 6 String Brewing Co recently told me that as a small business, this tax cut will make his business more flexible with increased cash flow, allowing the business to expand, employ more staff and invest in things such as larger tanks to increase the capacity of the brewery itself.
The Government is on track with its commitment to continuous mobile coverage on trains and a NSW Government business case to investigate Faster Rail – and I’ll have more to say to commuters about this exciting project soon.
On a more national level, this budget announcement is ensuring that the Government lives within its means, with a forecast return to a modest budget balance in 2019-20, and a projected surplus of $11 billion in 2020-21.
This Budget has confirmed the vital infrastructure for Gosford with the $10 million we have delivered to help deliver Gosford’s long-awaited, Regional Performing Arts and Conference Centre.
This is in conjunction with the $7 million we are delivering towards the new Regional Library, Learning and Development Centre in Gosford CBD.
Almost 60,000 taxpayers in the Robertson electorate will receive a new offset of up to $530 a year to help reduce cost pressures on household budgets.
For a business, this means that a shop assistant on $45,000 working at a local store will have an extra $440 in their pocket from the Budget year onwards, with an extra $3,380 in their pocket over the first seven years of the tax plan, as the tax relief increases.
This budget ensures that essentials like Medicare and hospital funding is available for all Australians with NSW public hospitals receiving over $39.5 billion over the five years to 2024-25, which is a funding increase of 29 per cent.
On a local level this translates to a commitment of $85 million for the Central Coast Medical School and Medical Research Institute project with the NSW Government and University of Newcastle. We have also seen recent upgrades to Gosford Hospital provided by the $348 million in NSW Government funding.
Somersby Industrial Estate, Banjo’s Skate Park and the Terrigal Trojans Clubhouse are all in the Budget, along with roads funding for Central Coast Council through the Roads to Recovery Program and our election commitments, including Oceano Street at Copacabana, where construction is underway.
There has also been funding towards 21 new CCTV Cameras across the Central Coast including sites like the Peninsula Recreation Precinct and McEvoy Oval to protect our community families and local business from vandalism and graffiti.
These are the signs of a good Budget, tax relief, a stronger economy and guaranteeing the essentials.
Lucy Wicks is Federal Member for Robertson.
