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WINNERS, LOSERS AND SURPRISE TAX CUT

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has handed down his fourth federal budget – the last before his government heads to the polls for this year's election.

While once again the treasurer is promoting the policies as helping out all Australians, as always some groups will look at the budget with far more fondness than others.

Here are all the winners and losers.

EXPLAINED: The surprise tax cut coming for every single Aussie taxpayer

TWO-MINUTE GUIDE: Everything you need to know with the budget back in deficit

READ MORE: Multi-billion dollar pay rise for 60,000 workers

Winners and losers from the federal budget

Winners

Taxpayers

Every single person who pays tax on their income will be a winner in this year's budget.

Combined with the stage 3 tax cuts implemented last year, the federal government will deliver more tax relief in 2026-27 and 2027-28: up to a $256 cut in the first year, which will be doubled the year after.

People who buy medicine

The federal government has invested $784.6 million to reduce the cost of medicines listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) down to no more than $25 per prescription.

This could save a familiy filling four prescriptions per month around $316 per year, the budget states.

There's also $1.8 billion to list new medicines on the PBS.

READ MORE: Cheap medicine, free GP visits under $124.8b healthcare budget 

medicine

Bill-payers

Households and small businesses will receive $150 off their energy bill as the government allocates $1.8 billion to extend last budget's rebates to the end of this year.

Australians will receive the discount as two $75 rebates through to December 31, as last year's $300 rebate had been set to expire by July 1.

HOUSING CRISIS: Budget doubles bonus for tradie apprentices in one industry

Mt Piper power plant

Women's healthcare

Hundreds of thousands of people are set to benefit from a $792.9 million boost to women's healthcare, which will target endometriosis and pelvic pain, contraception and menopause.

New items were listed under both the Medicare Benefit Scheme and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, making it cheaper and easier to access medicines and healthcare services.

Women will get a $793 million boost to healthcare funding in the 2025 federal budget

Anyone with student debt

Three million Australians will have a combined $16 billion cut from their student loan debt from June 1 as the government slashes the total amount owed by 20 per cent.

READ MORE: Budget reform could send three million workers into a better job

"Sydney, Australia - August 17, 2012: Students and graduates converge on a lawn before the University of New South Wales (UNSW) library on a clear winter morning."

Stuck workers looking to change jobs

Three million workers are in jobs governed by non-compete clauses, meaning they can't go work for their employee's competitors, or set up shop in the same field themselves.

The government has announced that from 2027, these clauses will be banned for anybody earning less than $175,000 a year.

Treasury claims the measure will add $5 billion to GDP and lift wages by an average of $2500, as well as boosting economic productivity – a measure governments have struggled to address.

Aged care nurses

A total of $2.6 billion will go towards pay increases for aged care nurses.

This will roll out across the next five years, starting this month.

READ MORE: Here's what the budget predicts our lives will look like in 2028

Federal Budget 2025: Non compete clauses, pay boost for aged care workers and bonus for apprentice tradies.

Childcare workers

Similarly, there's a big provision in the budget – some $3.6 billion – for childcare worker pay increases.

Apprentices

An apprentice tradie who trains up in the housing construction industry can expect a $10,000 incentive bonus – double the current amount.

The government is trying to increase its workforce for a big housing push.

Beer drinkers

Anyone who enjoys a pint will be quick to complain about how much the cost of a beer at the pub has risen by, which is in part due to how much the alcohol excise has risen by in recent years.

However, the government has hit pause on the indexation for that excise on draught beer for the next two years, a measure that will cost the budget $165 million over five years

WHAT'S IN IT FOR WOMEN: Critical $793 million health boost

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pours a beer during a visit to the Bob Hawke Beer & Leisure Centre in Marrickville

Green metal manufacturers

With plenty of uncertainty around Australian steel and aluminium manufacturing thanks to US President Donald Trump's trade war, the government is looking to boost the sector with a combined $3 billion to support locally made "green" aluminium and iron.

Losers

Renters

While the government has thrown an extra $800 million into its Help To Buy shared equity housing scheme, there's little by way of new immediate help for renters still struggling – certainly nothing comparable to last year's Commonwealth Rent Assistance boost.

READ MORE: How tobacco is blowing a hole into the Federal Budget

A for lease sign in front of a house in Sydney.

The budget bottom line

After delivering back-to-back budget surpluses – Australia's first since the GFC – on the back of some very welcome revenue upgrades, the national accounts have fallen back into the red to the tune of a $27.6 billion deficit, and there are even larger ones forecast to come in the next few years.

That's in part due to far fewer revenue upgrades – budget papers state they are only one-sixth of what was averaged in the past five budgets – as well as the black hole that is tobacco excise; Treasury has downgraded the amount of tobacco excise it expects to collect until 2028-29 by almost $7 billion.

Budget documents in the hand of Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers during a doorstop interview ahead of handing down the 2025-26 Federal Budget, at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday 25 March 2025.

Farmers

Many of the government's grocery-related measures were generally focused on consumers, and there was little directed specifically at farmers in this year's budget papers.

That's despite Chalmers' promise following the ACCC's report last week, to pursue a "fair go" at the "farm gate", as well as promoting a similar message in tonight's budget speech.

Big supermarkets

That being said, the government is still promising to crack down on major supermarkets, by allocating $38.8 million for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to probe misleading and deceptive pricing practices and unconscionable conduct in the sector.

Tax cuts, energy relief and student debt figures from the 2025 Federal Budget.

Welfare recipients

While Australian welfare recipients had their paymints rise thanks to indexation last week, advocates had been calling for biggest boosts, particularly to JobSeeker.

"This routine indexation is not enough. If the Federal Government is serious about addressing the cost of living crisis, it must lift income support payments to at least $82 a day, in line with the age pension," Australian Council of Social Services Cassandra Goldie said before the budget.

"An additional 22 cents a day does not address the inadequacy of JobSeeker and related payments. Ensuring people have a sufficient income to cover the basics would transform lives."

The government, though, opted against a boost for the welfare payments.

People queue outside Centrelink.

Sugar tax advocates

The Australian Medical Association last week called for a tax on sugar-sweetened drinks to combat Australia's obesity crisis, while at the same time adding $3.6 billion in revenue to the budget.

The federal government has ignored the suggestion.

Russia and Belarus

The federal budget confirmed a two-year extension to 35 per cent tariffs on goods from Russia and Belarus in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

The tariffs now extend to October 24, 2027.

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Cheap medicine, free GP visits under $124.8b healthcare budget

Billions of dollars will be injected into Australia's public healthcare system under the 2025 Federal Budget delivered tonight.

Public hospitals will receive the biggest boost with an extra $1.8 billion in funding to help slash waiting lists, cut waiting time in emergency rooms and support ambulance ramping.

This will bring the federal government's total investment in state-run public hospitals to $33.9 billion in the 2025-26 financial year, according to the budget papers.

WINNERS AND LOSERS: Who benefited, and who missed out in this year's budget

TWO-MINUTE GUIDE: Everything you need to know with the budget back in deficit

EXPLAINED: The surprise tax cut coming for every single Aussie taxpayer

Federal Budget 2025 public hospital funding healthcare government investent

The budget included the already-announced commitment to establish 50 more Medicare Urgent Care Clinics across every state and territory.

This year's budget will also invest $7.9 billion in Medicare to improve bulk-billing so millions of Australians can visit their local GP for free.

The bulk-billing incentive eligbility will be expanded by November 1, 2025, which the government says will make nine out of 10 doctor visits completely free.

"These incentives mean there will be around 4800 fully bulk billing practices across the country," Treasurer Jim Chalmers said. 

READ MORE: Multi-billion dollar pay rise for 60,000 workers

"Making it easier to see a doctor and get the care you need."

According to the budget, Australians will save a combined $859 million in bulk billing fees by 2030 under this plan.

This is on top of the $784.6 million in funding to make more medicines available on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

The federal government has invested $18 million in PBS funding to help make medicine cheaper for Australians.

Women will get a $793 million boost to healthcare funding in the 2025 federal budget

It means no medicine on the PBS will cost more than $25.

READ MORE: Budget reform could send three million workers into a better job

This could save a familiy filling four prescriptions per month around $316 per year, the budget states.

Two extra medicines will also be listed on the PBS by May 1 – Spravato, which is prescribed for those with depression and Epkinly, which treats patients with refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Several contraceptive pills are already available on the PBS – Yaz, Yasmin and Slinda, which will benefit a combined 150,000 women.

A Medicare card in someone's wallet.

WHAT'S IN IT FOR WOMEN: Critical $793 million health boost

Women are one of the biggest winners in this year's budget after Labor announced a $792.9 million package including 11 new endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics and a Medicare rebate for menopause health assessments.

Three menopause treatments will also be added onto the PBS for the first time in 20 years.

And an endometriosis medicine named Ryeqo will be added to the scheme too.

"For our government, women’s health is not a boutique issue or a question of special interest – it is a national priority," Chalmers said.

Government spending for health will be $124.8 billion for the 2025-26 financial year.

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Women win critical $793 million health boost

A $792.9 million boost to women's healthcare, targeting endometriosis, contraception and pelvic pain, is the centrepiece of funding measures aimed towards women in this year's federal budget.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the federal government was proud to invest in women's health.

"Because for our government, women's health is not a boutique issue or a question of special interest – it is a national priority," he said.

But there was more in the budget for women than just health. Here are all the other ways the government is supporting women.

TWO-MINUTE GUIDE: Everything you need to know with the budget back in deficit

WINNERS AND LOSERS: Who benefited, and who missed out in this year's budget

EXPLAINED: The surprise tax cut coming for every single Aussie taxpayer

Federal budget 2025: What's in it for women. Women healthcare.

Contraception

About two-thirds of women between 18 and 44 use contraception, with the government citing the cost of medicines as a barrier to uptake.

The budget contains $134.3 million to create 150 per cent larger Medicare rebates and incentivise more bulk billing for insertion and removal of long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARC) by nurse practitioners.

About 300,000 women will be estimated to save up to $400 a year in out-of-pocket expenses for LARCs.

Under a $1.8 billion Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) package, new oral contraceptives have been listed for the first time in more than 30 years and will become available from May 1.

Another $109.1 million will be allocated to fund two national trials that are hoped to make it cheaper and easier for women to access contraceptives and treatment for urinary tract infections.

READ MORE: Cheap medicine, free GP visits under $124.8b healthcare budget 

Endometriosis and pelvic pain relief

The government is investing $20.9 million over three years for endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics to support the one in nine Australian women suffering from endometriosis.

There will be 11 new clinics created with funding in this year's budget, building upon the 22 already established, and will also be available to those experiencing perimenopause and menopause.

A new endometriosis treatment has also been listed under the PBS, which is expected to save about 8500 women thousands of dollars a year.

Women with severe endometriosis will also be able to receive a Medicare rebate for ultrasounds from November 1.

HOUSING CRISIS: Budget doubles bonus for tradie apprentices in one industry

Federal budget 2025: What's in it for women. Women healthcare.

Menopause support

Women of all ages experiencing perimenopause or menopause will be able to receive a new Medicare rebate for menopause health assessments under a $26.3 million package.

New types of menopausal hormonal therapies were listed under the PBS from March 1, which the government says will save about 150,000 women hundreds each year.

Under the budget, $4.4 million will help develop national clinical guidelines for treatment and train health professionals and $12.8 million will form a public awareness campaign.

READ MORE: How tobacco is blowing a hole into the Federal Budget

Endometriosis

Wage increases

Women are set to see their wages rise as the government pours into female-dominated industries.

The budget has funded $2.6 billion in further pay rises for aged care nurses from March 1, bringing the total investment into the sector up to $17.7 billion.

"So the workers we trust to care for our parents and grandparents get paid properly for the work they do," Chalmers said.

Early childhood education and care workers will see a "historic" $3.6 billion wage hike from December when an extra five per cent is slapped onto a 10 per cent increase handed down in December 2024.

READ MORE: Budget reform could send three million workers into a better job

Federal Budget 2025Tax cuts, energy relief and student debt figures from the 2025 Federal Budget.

Anti-domestic violence measures

Last year's federal budget included an almost $1 billion anti-domestic violence package.

While there wasn't a headline announcement tackling what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has previously dubbed a "national crisis", this year's budget included new multi-million-dollar investments to improve response measures and frameworks.

About 500 new community sector and frontline worker jobs will be created across the country under a $277.7 million boost.

The government has also allocated $70 million to existing services and trialling new measures to support women and children experiencing violence.

There will be $21.4 million invested over three years from 2025-26 to improve victim and survivor engagement within the justice system and inform a broader response to the Australian Law Reform Commission's inquiry into the Justice System's Response to Sexual Violence.

First Nations women, children and communities will receive $21.8 million for family, domestic and sexual violence services and $16.7 million will fund innovative approaches to address perpetrator behaviour.

READ MORE: Multi-billion dollar pay rise for 60,000 workers

Workforce and career support

Under efforts to support the country's health workforce, the government is using $606.3 million to deliver more doctors and nurses and $28 million to support the construction of the Nursing and Midwifery Academy in Victoria.

Another $10.5 million will expand the Primary Care Nursing and Midwifery Scholarship program and $1.3 million will extend the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Education and Training Program by 12 months.

First Nations women in business will be able to access a $3.4 million mentoring and coaching program.

And, the Australian Sports Commission will receive $3.2 million to help women and girls' participation in sports leadership through coaching, officiating and sports administration.

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