A $100 \u201cextraordinary\u201d fuel handout was the Budget surprise as Rita Saffioti handed down a $3.5 billion surplus and laughed off suggestions the Reserve Bank would not appreciate it amid rising inflation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I didn\u2019t like their interest rate increase,\u201d the Treasurer said.<\/p>\n
The fuel voucher will be paid to every holder of a WA drivers licence but can be spent on anything.<\/p>\n
It is not enough to fill an average diesel tank but Ms Saffioti insisted that it will keep WA moving through difficult times.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that households face challenges in balancing their budgets,\u201d she said. \u201cIn particular, since the recent global economic upheaval.\u201d<\/p>\n
A third round of student assistance payments, worth $150 in primary school and $250 in high school, has also been announced.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a significant amount when you add all of those things together,\u201d Ms Saffioti said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means a family of four with two kids in high school would be eligible to receive $700.\u201d<\/p>\n
Assistance for concession card holders will increase by 10 per cent to help cover electricity and water charges that go up 2.5 per cent \u2014 below the inflation rate.<\/p>\n
But motor vehicle charges will increase by 3.4 per cent and there will be a 5 per cent increase to the emergency services levy that is added to council rates.<\/p>\n
The Government\u2019s modelling claims the \u201crepresentative\u201d household will save $221.89 in 2026 \u2014 if students catch public transport every day and parents leave the car at home three days a week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A $100 \u201cextraordinary\u201d fuel handout was the Budget surprise as Rita Saffioti handed down a $3.5 billion surplus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40,45],"class_list":["post-655180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}