The budget, which was handed down on Tuesday, May 9, included no specific funding for regional Victoria but contained wide-ranging, if modest, cost-of-living improvements.
Mr Birrell said it was “disappointing as far as regional infrastructure goes” and said it failed to tackle some big issues.
Economists are divided on how much Labor’s budget will increase inflation, with Mr Birrell siding with those who say government spending will continue to push prices up.
“The economic opinion is the budget is not what we needed to do to combat inflation, and if they’re not going to do it then the Reserve Bank will, and we know what that means,” Mr Birrell said, alluding to more interest rate rises.
He said while he supported some changes, such as boosting Medicare funding to ensure more doctors would be able to bulk bill, Mr Birrell was not as supportive of raising JobSeeker payments.
“I’d make the point that we always want our most vulnerable to be looked after, but businesses are telling me they’re not able to grow because of staff shortages,” he said.
“The additional bulk billing is a position we support but it’s important that we have enough medical professionals, especially in regional areas, to deliver it.”
Guidelines were released for regional funding, with the Growing Regions Program announced but with “significantly less” money in the kitty than under previous iterations.
Mr Birrell also slammed a $250 million pledge for federal roads funding as a “fraction of what is needed”.
“Regional Australia is responsible for a lot of the revenue, including agricultural exports from this electorate, and while this Labor Government happily pockets that revenue it fails to reinvest in the regions,” Mr Birrell said.
He said federal funding for the Shepparton bypass, which was pledged by the previous Coalition government but had not been matched by the Victorian Labor leadership, was at risk of being axed.
Likewise, money for the Goulburn Valley Clinical Health School and a stadium rebuild in Shepparton was also unlikely to survive the government’s previously announced 90-day review of all infrastructure projects.
“We’re hoping for the best on the bypass funding, but don’t have any answers on that,” Mr Birrell said.
“The review is happening, so it’s going for another 90 days; we want to know if that money will stay or hopefully be increased, but there was no real funding or place for us to go with other projects.”
