The Federal Budget: Losers and winners, and how it affects us as students

Yesterday night, Treasurer of Australia Jim Chalmers something called the “budget”. Here’s to see what it is:

What is the federal budget?

The federal budget is essentially an important government plan which outlines the plans for the Australian Government’s way of generating and spending money; money being accrued generally comes from taxpayers, which is then outsourced to pay for important responsibilities and services like the Defence Force, Medicare and welfare.

Within this plan there are several government documents which assess the state of the Australian economy and the government’s priorities for the upcoming year (the Budget is provided for each financial year).

Jim Chalmers has revealed the spending and generating of money in the Australian Government. (Credit: ABC News)

The Winner, The Loser and The Unchanged in the 2025 Budget:

Taxpayers were benefitted, with those who have an income of between $18,201 and $45,000 will have tax rates cut from 16 per cent to 15 from July 1 of 2026, this number set to drop to 14% the year later. Estimates (sourced from ABC) say that this will put $268 back into taxpayer pockets in year 1, and a further $536 from year 2 onwards.

This seems to leverage Labor’s federal election campaign, with the Coalition’s public opposition to provide income tax cuts of any sort setting this election up to be an intriguing one.

In the midst of a suspected trade war, the Treasury has published its outlook on economic growth for this federal budget. Our nation’s economic growth has remained stagnant since last year, with the occurrence of natural disasters (like Cyclone Alfred early this year) also influential to the decrease or increase in monetary growth.

Ahead of the budget, Jim Chalmers outlined his thoughts on the impact of US tariffs, describing that Australia’s economic growth could be affected by roughly 0.1%. However, with unemployment remaining low over the last financial year and wage growth being fairly stable, forecasts predict that Australia’s economic growth will remain relatively unchanged.

Temporary overseas migration is set to be affected by the budget. The Treasury forecasts that net overseas migration will go from 335,000 this year to 260,000 in 2026, and then decrease to 235,000 in 2027. The theme of overseas migration has been a fascinating one, with the Coalition bidding to “bring migration back to pre-pandemic levels”.

Much of overseas migration is comprised of international students, to which Labor has proposed several measures to limit the number of enrolments, which Labor has been unallowed to provide a fixed cap to.

How are students impacted from the 2025 Budget?

Through the 2025 federal budget, the Treasury have involved cheaper student loans for university students and tradespeople. Student loans will be reduced to 80% of their original value, meaning that monthly repayment values will shrink and leniency repayments will increase. TAFE will become permanently free, with $1.6 billion allotted for, until 2035, the 100,000 places which are covered for every year until 2027. The government will begin to establish more university study hubs as education becomes a prominent theme in Labor’s federal election campaign.