What's in the October 2022-23 federal budget for your organisation?
Posted on 02 Nov 2022
By Stefanie Ball, Funding Centre
Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down a “bread and butter” budget last Tuesday, his first as treasurer in the Albanese government, and our second federal budget for 2022.
For not-for-profits, community groups and local councils, here are some of the key opportunities and highlights:
- $1 billion funnelled into two new regional infrastructure grants programs. The Growing Regions program and the Precincts and Partnerships Program will support regional local councils and not-for-profit organisations in rural and regional Australia, and replace the Coalition’s Building Better Regions Fund
- $1 billion over five years from 2022–23 for a Priority Community Infrastructure Program to support community infrastructure projects across Australia, including $120 million for the Central Australia Plan
- $630.4 million in additional spending over four years for the Disaster Ready Fund, including up to $200 million to co-contribute in support of resilience projects nominated by the state and territory governments, and $30.4 million to implement disaster resilience initiatives across 30 local government areas
- $349.9 million over five years from 2022–23 for the Investing in Our Communities Program to deliver small scale community, sport and infrastructure projects across Australia. Note: this is a closed grants program
- $270.8 million over two years from 2022–23 to implement the Schools Upgrade Fund, which includes grants for capital works and ventilation improvements in classrooms
- $229.7 million over two years from 2022–23 to invest in general practices through the Strengthening Medicare General Practice (GP) Grants Program
- $105.2 million to support First Nations people to respond to climate change, including a First Nations Clean Energy Strategy and Community Microgrids Program, and $15.9 million over four years from 2022–23 to establish the Torres Strait Climate Change Centre of Excellence
- $102.2 million over four years from 2022–23 to establish a Community Solar Banks program for community-scale solar and clean energy technologies
- $62.6 million over three years from 2022–23 for Energy Efficiency Grants for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises to fund energy efficient equipment upgrades. It’s unclear yet whether not-for-profits will be eligible
- $36.8 million over four years from 2022–23 to support the arts sector, including $22 million in 2022–23 to establish a Live Performance Support Fund to support eligible live event organisers affected by covid-19, and $2.4 million over four years from 2022–23 to support the ongoing financial sustainability of national performing arts training organisations
- $18.2 million over four years from 2022–23 to establish a Community Language Schools Grants program to support more young Australians to learn a second language
- $15 million in 2022–23 for the Regional and Local Newspaper Publishers program
- $13.9 million over five years from 2022–23 for a new First Action Plan Priorities Fund to provide grants to support the First Action Plan of the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022–2032
- $12 million over three years from 2023–24 to maintain funding for the Community Broadcasting Program, which allocates funding to the Community Broadcasting Foundation (CBF) to support the community broadcasting sector
- $4.4 million in 2022–23 to provide additional urgent mental health support to flood-impacted communities, including wellbeing and resilience grants
- $300,000 in 2022–23 for grants to community organisations for a medical consulting room, play areas and gym equipment to improve the health and wellbeing of First Nations peoples
Other key insights to note:
- $3 billion is in the contingency reserve to meet disaster recovery costs from floods this year, to go towards government payments to individuals and to alleviate immediate hardship being experienced by communities
- The Creative Partnerships Australia program will be abolished, with funding transferred to the Australia Council
- The Temporary Interruption Fund will be extended to 30 June 2023 to support new local film and television productions that were unable to start production because of insurance exclusions relating to covid-19
- $560 million over four years has been committed to help the community services sector. How and where this funding will be allocated remains to be seen.
It's still unclear when or how this money will trickle down to not-for-profits and community groups, but we'll be keeping our eyes and ears peeled for grant updates relevant to Funding Centre members.
In the meantime, log in to your Funding Centre account and sign up for alerts to be the first to know where the money is flowing, and to search for and manage your grant applications using the dashboard tool.
Update your email alert settings here | Search for grants here
More information: Budget papers 2022–23 | ACOSS response | Who are the winners and losers in this budget? The Age | Federal budget 2022: winners and losers, ABC | 2022 federal budget wrap, ProBono