Rudd Government to Allot an Additional $41.5 Billion Over the Next Four Years to Bolster the Economy. (February 3, 2009)

The Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS) has made available a tabulation of the funding that the Australian federal government will make available for infrastructure investment over the next four years in order to help alleviate the financial downturn.

FASTS' executive Director, Bradley Smith writes: "There was no additional funding for universities or for R&D announced, although you may recall there was some university infrastructure funding brought forward from the EIF/HEEF [Education Investment Fund / Higher Education Endowment Fund] late last year."

Infrastructure Investment
The five major areas of infrastructure investment are:

Education
   ●     Build or upgrade large scale infrastructure, such as libraries and halls in every primary school, special school, and K-12s school in Australia.
   ●     Build 500 new science laboratories and language learning centres in schools that can demonstrate need.
   ●     Up to $200,000 to every Australian school for maintenance and renewal of school buildings.
  
Energy Efficient Homes
   ●     Installing ceiling insulation in 2.7 million Australian homes which will cut around $200 per year off the energy bills of these households
   ●     Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by around 49.4 million tonnes by 2020, the equivalent of taking more than 1 million cars off the road
  
20,000 Social and Defence Homes
   ●     Build 20,000 new social housing dwellings and 802 new houses for the Australian Defence Force.
   ●     Urgent maintenance to upgrade around 2,500 vacant social houses

Small Businesses and General Business Tax Break
   ●     A 30 cent in every dollar investment tax break for small and general businesses buying eligible assets.
 
Black Spots, Boom Gates, Regional Roads and Community Infrastructure
   ●     350 additional projects in the Black Spot Program and the installation of around 200 new boom gates at high risk rail crossings
   ●     $650 million funding boost for local community infrastructure and maintenance on Australia’s national highways

Cash Payments
Five one off cash payments to low and middle income households .

   ●     Tax Bonus for Working Australians of up to $950 paid to every eligible Australian worker earning $100,000 or less. This will support up to 8.7 million individuals.
   ●     $950 Single Income Family Bonus to support 1.5 million families with one main income earner.
   ●     $950 Farmers' Hardship Bonus paid to around 21,500 drought affected farmers and farm dependent small business owners receiving exceptional circumstances related income support.
   ●     $950 per child Back to School Bonus to support 2.8 million children from low- and middle-income families.
   ●     $950 Training and Learning Bonus paid to students and people outside of the workforce returning to study to help with the costs of education and training.