IT'S the Abbott government's first Federal Budget and this is how its reverberating around regional Australia.
Changes to tertiary education fees, the return of indexation to fuel excise, infrastructure spending and, of course, whether election promises in relation to tax have been kept or broken all will be covered.
►Check out what Fairfax economics editor Ross Gittins had to say before Joe Hockey's budget was released.
►Will the Federal Budget hit you in the hip pocket? Hear what the people of regional Australia have to say on our video wall
WOLLONGONG: Despite the delivery of an $11.6 billion infrastructure growth package, the Illawarra region did not rate a mention once in the budget papers. However thousands of future University of Wollongong students will be affected by sweeping changes to the higher education sector, which will require them to pay back student loans sooner and at a higher interest rate. Read more
►Universities will have unfettered freedom to set their own fees under the most radical shake-up to higher education funding since the introduction of HECS 25 years ago. Read more
NEWCASTLE: Hunter families will feel the first Abbott government budget through the hip pocket, with Treasurer Joe Hockey telling the nation it was time ‘‘for all of us to contribute and build’’. Read more
►What's in it for the Hunter? Find out the wins. Find out the hits. Read more
► Help for Hunter roads: Amid the financial speed humps and potholes which dominated yesterday’s federal budget were a few shimmers of hope for the Hunter Region’s long-suffering motorists. Read more
► TAMWORTH: Prime minister Tony Abbott described it as a budget that inflicts "pain with a purpose", but for Tamworth families battling the spiralling cost of living, that purpose is hard to swallow. Still New England MP and deputy Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce is unrepentant about the budget, saying the government had to make tough decisions to rein in the national debt. Read more
BATEMANS BAY: The bellwether card will be played in Canberra on Thursday, when Eurobodalla officials push the shire’s Budget barrow with Eden-Monaro MP Peter Hendy. Mayor Lindsay Brown and general manager Dr Catherine Dale are scheduled to meet the Coalition MP in his Parliament House office to discuss the impact of the federal Budget on the shire. Read more
► Hydrocephalus sufferers shunted: Tonight's federal budget will reportedly create a multi-million dollar Medical Research Future Fund but there's no joy expected for the sufferers of one life-threatening condition, who have been pleading for just $200,000 in annual funding. Read more
► The NSW Government has major concerns over the Commonwealth’s Budget, with what appears to be ‘cost-shifting’ in health and education services. Read more
WARRNAMBOOL: Australians will be hit with tax hikes and welfare cuts with an aim to reduce the national deficit, following the release of the most promoted budget in a generation. Read more
BAYSIDE BULLETIN: In Queensland, Joe Hockey’s first budget was full of the buzz words Queenslanders are now familiar with - the need for everyone to “contribute”, for government to be “redefined” and made “smaller”, a time to “build” and “transform” and “repair”, an end to “the age of entitlement”. Read more
THE EXAMINER: Few Tasmanians will escape the impact of this tough federal budget with the cost of living set to rise. In good news for the state, election promises designed to promote jobs growth have been honoured, including the centrepiece of the Tasmanian economic growth plan, the Midland Highway upgrade. Read more
BUNBURY MAIL: Funding for the Perth Freight Link, a new anti-gangs squad and initiatives for remote indigenous communities are the most significant projects heading up federal government’s expenditure for Western Australia in the 2014 Federal Budget. Read more
WHYALLA NEWS: South Australian councils hoping to secure Federal Government funding for road projects may be left to foot the bill with supplementary funding getting the axe. Read more
John Hicks is a Professor of Economics, based in the School of Accounting and Finance at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst. He expects a contractionary budget to rein in the deficit, and believes that the greatest focus will be on raising taxation which he believes comes with greater disadvantages than expenditure cuts. Listen to what he has to say above.
