Progressing equality, supporting women

The Government is supporting landmark wage increases for aged care workers and early childhood educators, where most of the workforce are women. The Government has also legislated to make gender equality an objective of the Fair Work Act 2009 and supports Fair Work Commission processes which seek to remedy the potential undervaluation of work in female dominated industries.

Addressing the national crisis of gender‑based violence

The Government is committing $21.4 million over three years from 2025–26 for immediate, targeted measures to improve victim and survivor engagement with the justice system.

To further address family, domestic, and sexual violence in First Nations communities, the Government is providing $21.8 million over two years from 2025–26 to continue the delivery of prevention, early intervention and response services.

Initiatives in this Budget bring the Government’s investments to support women’s safety and deliver the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022–32 to over $4 billion since the October 2022–23 Budget. This includes $534.5 million already provided to support the delivery of key National Cabinet priorities to end gender‑based violence.

Investing in First Nations communities

To support stronger outcomes for First Nations Australians, the Government is investing $1.3 billion over six years from 2024–25 in this Budget.

Supporting First Nations businesses and building wealth

The Government is investing $23.9 million over five years from 2024–25 to strengthen the Indigenous Procurement Policy, and $3.4 million over three years from 2025–26 to establish a place‑based business coaching and mentoring program for First Nations businesswomen and entrepreneurs.

The Government is also boosting Indigenous Business Australia’s Home Loan Capital Fund by $70.9 million over two years from 2025–26 to increase opportunities for First Nations Australians to buy their own home and build intergenerational wealth.

Stronger First Nations outcomes

The Government is investing to support better life outcomes for First Nations Australians and close the gap.

The Government will also provide $842.6 million over six years from 1 July 2025 towards the Northern Territory Remote Aboriginal Investment, in partnership with the Northern Territory Government and the Aboriginal Peak Organisations Northern Territory.

Supporting the wellbeing of all Australians

Improving aged care support

The Government is providing $291.6 million in this Budget to continue delivering its historic aged care reforms and implementation of recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

This Government has also invested a total of $17.7 billion to support award wage increases for aged care workers, including $2.6 billion in this Budget to deliver another pay rise for aged care nurses.

Looking after veterans

This Government has provided over $1.1 billion in funding, including a further $47.6 million in this Budget, to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) to ensure it continues to be appropriately resourced. Government investments in DVA have resulted in $13 billion additional payments flowing to veterans.

Supporting people with disability

The Budget invests $423.8 million to support people with disability including $364.5 million to reform the Information Linkages and Capacity Building program. These supports will complement additional foundational supports to be co‑funded with states and territories.

The Government is also providing $42.2 million to deliver the National Autism Strategy and $17.1 million to establish the Accessible Australia program to increase inclusion through more accessible public infrastructure.

This funding builds on over $3 billion of investment by this Government to improve the lives and safety of people with disability in Australia.

The Government continues to improve the NDIS to deliver better outcomes and ensure every dollar allocated to NDIS participants reaches them and is spent in a meaningful way. These reforms will help safeguard participants and the sustainability of the NDIS.

Strengthening the social safety net

The Government has increased key social security payments and expanded access to vulnerable groups. Through the 2023–24 and 2024–25 Budgets, the Government provided an additional $11.5 billion investment in the social security system, including:

• $4.9 billion to increase working age and student payments and expand eligibility for the higher rate of JobSeeker Payment for older Australians and people with an assessed partial capacity to work of 0 to 14 hours a week
• $4.6 billion to deliver back‑to‑back increases to the maximum rate of Commonwealth Rent Assistance
• $1.9 billion to extend eligibility for Parenting Payment (Single) to support more single parents.

Investing to increase local opportunities

The Government is investing in social enterprises, including contributing $1.2 million to jointly launch the Social Enterprise Loan Fund that will create secure jobs underpinned by wraparound support for vulnerable cohorts. This builds on the first projects committed under the $100 million Commonwealth Outcomes Fund.