What’s in the budget for farmers?

A commitment of $44.4 million will maintain the state’s crucial agricultural biosecurity in the next two years.

The funds will help Agriculture Victoria to secure overseas market access for agricultural commodities and continue to protect our state from invasive pests and diseases.

And additional $19.2 million over four years will go towards a 10-year national plan to eradicate the invasive Red Imported Fire Ant. The ant can cause significant damage and place the health of livestock, farm workers and the environment at risk. It was first detected in Brisbane in 2001.

The Labor Government will also continue its support for the implementation of electronic tagging of sheep and goats to the tune of $21.5 million, helping producers reduce risks to meat and wool trade, as announced earlier in the year.

Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford said by investing in biosecurity, to the total of $85 million, the Victorian Government was helping protect the state’s clean, green reputation and the livelihood of thousands of Victorian farmers.

“Victoria’s primary producers continue to punch well above their weight. They’re doing their part – it’s up to government to do ours,” Ms Pulford said.

The funding reflects the Labor Government’s determination to rebuild Victoria’s agricultural biosecurity system, which had been drastically undermined by ongoing cuts under the former Liberal-National Governments.

The Victorian Auditor-General found that funding for core livestock biosecurity was cut by 49 per cent between 2009-10 and 2014-15. The number of animal health and veterinary officers is reported to have shrunk by 42pc.

The Budget also provides $1.7 million to re-establish the Victorian Rural Women’s Network (RWN) to promote women’s economic participation and professional development, and support their wellbeing by linking them to information, health and education services.

The RWN was defunded in 2013 by the previous Coalition Government, and it will be back up and running from July 1.

The RWN will also bridge the distance and connect women living in isolated areas, with networking events, mentoring, an e-newsletter and social media outreach.

“Women from every walk of life and every corner of our state have told me how important this is. We listened and we’ve delivered,” Ms Pulford said of the RWN.              

$260.3 million is slated to deliver maintenance, improvements and upgrades on regional roads. The more than 850 kilometres of deteriorating roads in regional Victoria to receive a boost to maintenance, repair and resurfacing include upgrades to key freight routes on roads around the Port of Portland and the Henty Highway in the ‘Green Triangle’ to support farmers, create jobs and boost exports. The budget also includes $50 to improve and realign the South Gippsland Highway at Koonwarra.

In addition, $49 million will deliver upgrades to regional and rural roads across the state to improve productivity and safety of heavy vehicles including the Hume Freeway and Princes Highway East.

The Shepparton Bypass will receive $10.2 million to plan and do pre-construction works for the first stage of the 36km bypass.

$41 million will be spend on bridges across the state so they better cater for high productivity freight vehicles to get products to market more efficiently.

Many announcements for upgrades to Melbourne’s major roads were announced before the budget was released. They include upgrades to the M80 Ring Road and the North East Link to close the network gap between the M80 Ring Road in Greensborough and the Eastern Freeway or EastLink. The budget allocates $100 million for the North East Link to get planning and pre-construction activities started, ahead of procurement in 2018. The Victorian Farmers Federation identified the North east Link as a critical piece of new infrastructure to support producers and their access to Melbourne’s wholesale market, airport, and stock feed movement.

The budget includes $45 million for the Connecting Regional Communities Program (CRCP). It will develop region-specific strategies, with the Labor Government working alongside each Regional Partnership to establish practical solutions to their communities’ digital needs and priorities.

The CRCP will also deliver $11 million for the Mobile Black Spots program to improve mobile phone coverage in regional blackspots.

The budget provides $12 million for four projects to support the adoption of internet enabled on-farm technologies in north-west Victoria, the Macalister Irrigation District, the Murray-Darling Basin and the Serpentine region.

The $1.45 billion Regional Rail Revival package includes major upgrades acorss regional Victoria and will create 1000 jobs.

The Budget cuts payroll tax by bringing forward the timeline of last year’s tax cuts and reduces payroll tax by 25 per cent for regional businesses to create more jobs in regional Victoria, from 4.85 per cent to 3.65 per cent for all businesses operating mostly in regional Victoria. This makes it the lowest rate in the country.

The government says this will slash costs for about 4000 businesses, support companies in regional Victoria to grow, encourage job creation, and ensure every region shares in the benefits of the state’s economic growth.

The payroll tax-free threshold will increase to $625,000 as of July 1 this year, and to $650,000 from July 1, 2018, which is a fast-track of changes.

Ms Pulford said combined with changes to the stamp duty, these would make working and living in regional Victoria better than ever before.

The budget will move insurance duty on agricultural products, making it cheaper for farmers to insure against crop, livestock and equipment damage.

The budget includes $42.5 million over four years to fun the Victorian Gas Program – a comprehensive study spearheaded by the state’s lead scientist Amanda Caples.

The program will be completed during the extended moratorium on onshore conventional gas exploration and development.

A stakeholder panel made up of farmers, industry, local government and community members will be established to be consulted during the study.

In March, the Labor Government banned fracking forever. Its Fracking Ban Act permanently bans all onshore unconventional gas exploration and development including hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking) and coal seam gas; and extends the moratorium on conventional onshore gas exploration and development to 2020.

The Victorian Government will fund the development of a business case for the Networked Centre for Grains Innovation in the Wimmera Southern Mallee.

Initiatives to boost the sale of Victorian products and services in key international markets will include targeted trade missions, international trade offices and support for e-commerce. The budget provides $2 million to strengthen Victoria’s presence in growing Asian markets.

600 public sector jobs are to go to Ballarat and 150 to the Latrobe Valley.

Support for planned burns will get more than $210 million over four years includes private land and roadsides.

$27.5 million to support identifying, developing and delivering Regional Partnership priorities including local infrastructure projects and programs.

Funding to transition rural communities to a new regime under the Victorian Rural Drainage Strategy to reduce waterlogging on agricultural land.

$64.1 million more is in the budget to build and upgrade 59 schools in regional and rural Victoria.

The budget provides an additional $2 million to subsidise costs for people from regional areas when they travel to access specialist medical care.