THE Federal Government’s newly announced 2020-21 Budget will kickstart Capricornia’s post-COVID-19 recovery, providing much needed support for the region’s households, businesses and industry.

Promising to create jobs, rebuild our economy and secure Australia’s future, Capricornia MP Michelle Landry said her government’s Economic Recovery Plan would feature a tax cut backdated to 1 July this year.

“This means more money in the pockets of local households to assist with the cost of living, but also to help generate economic activity and create jobs,” Ms Landry said.

She said the Budget’s announcements would build on the Federal Government’s unprecedented investment in the health and economic response to COVID-19.

“By bringing the Budget back to balance for the first time in 11 years and maintaining our AAA credit rating we entered the crisis from a position of economic strength, providing us with the fiscal firepower to respond when we needed it most,” she said.

Since the onset of the pandemic, the government has provided $257 billion in direct economic support to cushion the blow and strengthen the recovery.

The 2020-21 Budget commits a further $98 billion including: $25 billion in direct COVID-19 response measures and $74 billion in new measures to create jobs.

“We’re supporting Australians to get back to work and businesses to rebuild, grow, and create jobs”, Ms Landry said.

The JobMaker Hiring Credit will be payable immediately to employers who hire eligible employees.

The Budget was investing a record amount in skills and training to ensure Central and North Queensland job seekers had the skills they needed to get a job.

“We are also further assisting first home buyers and the construction sector by extending the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme to another 10,000 places and providing an additional $1 billion of low cost finance to support the construction of affordable housing,” she said.

Further, our incentives for businesses to invest in their business will create more economic activity and jobs in the Central Queensland community.

Tax relief for Capricornia businesses includes allowing 99 per cent of businesses to deduct the full cost of depreciable assets in the year they are installed, and allowing companies with a turnover of up to $5 billion to offset losses against previous profits on which tax has been paid to generate a refund.

“We will also simplify access to credit for households and small businesses, to support the economic recovery,” Ms Landry said.

The Federal Government was also delivering record infrastructure investment, expanding on their record 10 year infrastructure pipeline to $110 billion, supporting a further 40,000 jobs nationally.

The Budget also includes a $2 billion investment in road safety upgrades to save lives and an additional $1 billion to support local councils to immediately upgrade local roads, footpaths and street lighting to create jobs now.