Sectors dedicated to health and well-being are among the key beneficiaries of the 2021-22 Budget according to Senator for Western Sydney Marise Payne.
The Government says the heavy-spending Budget, released by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on Tuesday, May 11, aims to secure Australia's recovery.
It includes funding for the creation of a new Australian Climate Service to serve as a national information centre assisting in, responding to, and preparing for, natural disasters.
Ms Payne said she was pleased an additional $5 million had been pledged to the Rural Financial Counselling Service for farmers in hardship, which she says many Hawkesbury residents would have already accessed.
There will be $121.4 billion invested in the health and aged care space, of which Ms Payne said $17.7 billion was in response to recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Safety and Quality.
"We will deliver 80,000 new Home Care Packages to help seniors age with dignity and respect in their own homes," she said.
"For older Australians already in aged care services, $3.9 billion will be spent to increase the amount of front line care delivered to residents of aged care and respite services."
More than $270 million will be invested to expand and enhance headspace youth mental health services. Ms Payne said addressing youth mental health issues was a priority.
"Alongside relevant local stakeholders, such as the Nepean Blue Mountains Primary Health Network, I will continue to work with my ministerial colleagues to establish a headspace centre for the Hawkesbury," she said.
Macquarie MP Susan Templeman said that the Federal Government's Budget had left the Blue Mountains tourism sector behind, and failed to deliver mental health services for young people in the electorate.
"You wouldn't want to be a tourism operator in the Blue Mountains or a travel agent in the Hawkesbury holding out for some extra support from this week's budget, because it wasn't there," Ms Templeman told Federal Parliament on Wednesday, May 12.
"There was nothing to support major attractions like Scenic World, who have to keep equipment maintained and safe until overseas visitors return.
"Nor was there support for travel agents, who are now being told that it will be another year before they can expect their customers to be able to go overseas."
Ms Templeman also asked where support for a Hawkesbury headspace was, saying that young people, their parents and teachers had been waiting for it.
"All of them, doing what they can to plug gaps, support each other, patch together bits and pieces of support," she said.
"But we're missing a really key, co-ordinating, no wrong door place for young people in the Hawkesbury to walk into and say to a person who will understand, 'I need help'."
While Ms Templeman welcomed the Government's tax relief for operators of small breweries and distillers, she said the big slap in the face for households was the ongoing lack of wages growth.
"There were many deficits in this Budget, but the biggest one was a deficit of vision," Ms Templeman said.