Pork pork pork pork

The Australian has a list of budget items that are known before the official announcement tonight. The list is staggering. There is not a single area of society where government doesn't meddle.

Just remember, the problem isn't spending on health, education, aged care.. the problem is when you hand over most of your money to politicians to do it for you. The good bits are in green (hard to find !) and the bad news is in red.

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AGED CARE/DISABILITIES

* $1 b to fund disability services and increase support for carers, including $100 m for supported accommodation for the disabled.
* Retention of the The Conditional Adjustment Payment worth more than $100 m a year to aged care homes.
* $420 m over three years to fund almost 130,000 places a year for respite for the elderly and disabled.


CLIMATE CHANGE/ENVIRONMENT

* Climate change announcements to exceed $2 b. (!!)

* $500 m for a National Clean Coal Fund including: $50 m in a Queensland pilot coal gasification plant, $50 m to demonstrate carbon capture in NSW and $ 5 m for mapping and testing carbon storage in Western Australia.
* Low-interest green loans of up to $10,000 for water and energy efficiency will be offered to 200,000 existing homes.
* Rebates of up to $1000 will be offered to up to 225,000 homes to install solar and heat-pump hot-water systems.
* Rebates of up to $500 will be on the table for up to 500,000 homes to install new piping for greywater or rainwater tanks.
* Rebates of up to $8000 for the installation of rooftop solar power panels
* Landlords of up to 300,000 homes will receive a rebate of up to $500 to install insulation.
* Subsidies for businesses that retrofit existing buildings to help reduce their carbon footprint.
* Grants of $10,000 to $500,000 for small and medium manufacturers to become more environmentally friendly.
* A $100 m national manufacturing network will provide small to medium businesses with expert advice on how to improve their energy and water efficiency.
* $150m will be spent on an energy innovation fund to keep scientists and researchers in Australia.
* $15m for a Clean Energy Export Strategy to help Austrade promote and compete for clean-energy exports.
* $20m for a Clean Energy Enterprise Connect Centre to research and improve products.
* Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Tweed Heads targeted under a $100 m Community Coast Program.
* Local councils will be able to apply for grants of up to $50,000 to help communities plan for coastal inundation, storm surges, health risks from tropical mosquito-borne diseases and more severe tropical cyclones.
* $200 m pledge to sustain the Great Barrier Reef. (!!)
*Schools will to apply for up to $20,000 to install 2 kilowatt solar panels and rainwater tanks.
* Deception Bay PCYC to receive $250,000 for solar heating panels for its pool.
* Surf Lifesaving Clubs to share in up $3 m for rainwater tanks under the Government's National Water Security Plans for Towns and Cities.


EDUCATION

* The first instalment of the $1 b to give all students from Year 9 to senior access to a computer at school.
* First instalment of the $2.5 b plan to build new trade centres in secondary schools
* An expected portion of the surplus to be used to top up the $6 b Higher Education Endowment Fund.
* $700 tuition vouchers for struggling students and summer school for teachers will be axed.


FAMILIES/WELFARE

* Means-testing for Family Tax Benefit Part B, probably at the level of $150,000 for the main breadwinner, deceased from $250,000.
* A 50 per cent childcare tax rebate – an extra $71 for an average family, with two young children and a mother working two days a week.
* Government will raise the threshold for the Medicare Levy Surcharge for families from $100,000 to $150,000 and from $50,000 to $100,000 for singles.
* A new means test for the Baby Bonus will be introduced so high-income earners will miss out on the $4258 payment.
* A debit card that quarantines half a person's welfare for essentials such as food and clothing. Indigenous people in Western Australia and the Northern Territory targeted first.


IMMIGRATION

* $40 m for extra English lessons.
* $9.2 m for migrant traineeships under the English and Work Readiness plan.


INDIGENOUS

* $90 m over five years to employ up to 300 indigenous rangers.
* About $19 m to protect children from abuse in South Australia's Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands.
* Up to $1 m over two years for extra playgroups in the Northern Territory.
* More than $6 m to tackle violence and child abuse in indigenous communities.
* Almost $40 m for the Indigenous Boarding Hostels Partnership, which provides accommodation for students to go to secondary schools in regional centres.
* $10 m to build an eco-tourism transit hub outside the entrance to the iconic Mossman Gorge north of Cairns.


INFRASTRUCTURE

* A new multibillion-dollar fund to pump money into national road projects with a particular emphasis on Queensland.
* Hundreds of grant schemes to be be axed.

HEALTH

* The threshold for the $600 Medicare surcharge will increase from $50,000 to $100,000 for singles and from $100,000 to $150,000 for couples.
* Boosting the former government's $1.8 billion mental health program to services outside the capital cities.
* An $87 to extend bowel cancer screening programs to 50-year-olds.
* 18 organisations to share in $3 m to work with families affected by substance abuse.

TAX

* Almost $8 b in tax breaks to be slashed over four years.
* Spending cuts worth more than $3 billion for the 2008-9 financial year
* Budget surplus of at least 1.5 per cent of GDP or $18 billion for the next financial year.
* Tax on expensive cars -- proposed increase from 25 per cent to 33 per cent on the GST-exclusive value of cars exceeding $57,123.
* Likely axing of annual $40 m program to subsidy ethanol production.
* Closing a $80m tax loophole used by the wealthy to reduce tax on share options.

TRANSPORT
* $17 m over five years to give more than 200,000 free driving lessons to learner drivers and their parents.
* $20 m over four years to improve the safety of aerodromes in remote and isolated areas of Australia