Sweet potatoes to faster passports: things you might have missed among 7,200 pages of budget papers

Rafqa Touma
·3-min read
<span>Cheaper sweet potatoes may be on the menu after the 2024 federal budget announced a reduction in the industry levy.</span><span>Photograph: Aniko Hobel/Getty Images</span>
Cheaper sweet potatoes may be on the menu after the 2024 federal budget announced a reduction in the industry levy.Photograph: Aniko Hobel/Getty Images

The 2024 federal budget was delivered to the nation’s journalists in the form of 7,265 pages, including four main papers, 38 media releases, 20 portfolio budget statements and 12 portfolio budget supplements.

It is a dense, arduous reading experience – and it’s easy to miss some things.

You know about the budget’s tax cut promises, energy bill relief and new housing investments. But did you know about changes to the sweet potato market? Or the good news for procrastinators in need of last-minute passport renewal? Or Australia’s soft-power diplomatic relationship with France? I didn’t think so.

Related: Federal budget 2024: $300 energy rebates, cheaper medicines and rent relief in Jim Chalmers’ cost-of-living budget

Here are 11 really specific things that snuck into this year’s budget:

1. Hyperlocal improvements to data on a train line

If you happen to catch the Hornsby to Wyong train in northern Sydney, it’s your lucky day! Because funding is going to improving your mobile and internet connectivity – weirdly specific but, I’m told by my dear colleagues, necessary as that line has been “stuffed” and “a black spot for years”.

2. FNQ insurance finder

Homeowners in far north Queensland have been hit by a series of cyclones and floods but have also caught the benevolent eye of the federal treasurer and fellow Queenslander, Jim Chalmers, because $1m is going to the maintenance of a home insurance comparison website to help with rising insurance premiums.

3. Orange is the new snack

Cheaper sweet potatoes may be on the menu as the levy rate (usually applied across an industry for marketing or development) is being decreased from 1.5% to 0.5% from 1 July this year, at the request of Australian Sweetpotato Growers Inc.

4. Museum mania

The Australian Orphanage Museum will get $1m over three years. Qtopia (the heritage-listed Darlinghurst police station that is now home to Australia’s first queer history museum) will also be supported by $1.5m this year.

5. Sheep to shore

$107m is being spent over five years to support the phasing out of live sheep exports by sea, preparing businesses and communities for the end of the trade.

6. Pitch perfect

Income tax exemptions will be provided for World Rugby, for income made from the 2027 men’s World Cup and the 2029 women’s World Cup.

7. Consultant non grata

The government is keen to further slash the number of consultants engaged by the public service and bring skills back in-house. The reduced spending on consultants, contractors and labour hire is estimated to save $1bn over four years from 2024, on top of $4bn saved from 2022.

8. Cow or not cow?

There’s $1.5m over two years for “accurate and clear” labelling of plant-based protein products. Just in case anyone was in danger of accidentally buying almond milk.

9. Bon amis! Australia and France patch up the friendship

It seems Anthony Albanese and Emmanuel Macron have made up after a soured submarine deal, because the “Australia-France Roadmap” is costing $20.7m to roll out “a new agenda for bilateral cooperation” over five years from 2023 (and $3.9m a year ongoing). This includes introducing a few specialist centres, award programs and “enhanced Australian cultural promotion in France”.

10. Drop some cash to get your passport in a dash

A new fast-track processing of passports will commence on 1 July this year, which will see applications processed in five business days for a $100 fee. So if you have booked a trip to Bali and forgotten to renew your passport, you might be in luck.

11. APS gets an AI boost

The Australian Public Service will be given $2.2m for AI projects “including AI integration” and enhancing the quality of data that informs policy analysis. But given elsewhere in the budget the government has flagged changing the law to allow the ATO to stop chasing historical tax debts, and given the robodebt disaster, it might be a good idea to put a human decision-maker in there too.

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