The Budget & What It Means To You

Are you married? Yes I'm married
Have kids at school? High school
Where do you live? Country

Apparently this is what it will mean for me?

Parents of high school kids can really clean up this year. One of the major Budget sweeteners will see a change to Family Tax Benefit A which gives you up to $4208 extra per year for 16- and 17-year-olds and up to $3741 more for 18- and 19-year-olds.

And if you are running a little short on cash, you will be able to take some of your FTB(A) payment in advance to help make ends meet. That is capped at 7.5% of your entitlement, up to $1000, and comes in from July 1.


But there's some bad news - the freeze on FTB indexation is being extended for two more years, so it will stay fixed even as other living costs rise.

Meanwhile there's also the expanded Education Tax Refund to claim at tax time. Parenting Payment Partnered eligibility is being cut from 16 to 12.

This is a country Budget - Wayne Swan says there is $4.3 billion being splashed around for regional hospitals, GPs, universities and roads. In totally unrelated news, the Gillard government relies on the support of regional MPs to stay in power...

And your government is coming to you - with 55 regional councils out there in communities rustling up ideas for the future.

But there's a catch. These councils have a $1 billion fund to play with, but half of that depends on the mining tax. And the opponents of that tax have said it would be a regional job-killer.