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Budget Blueprint 2024: Protecting our future

May 13, 2024

Our 2024–25 Budget Blueprint paper focuses on three areas critical for Australia’s long term success—system-wide tax reform, picking up the pace and impact of the climate and energy transition, and boosting Australia’s innovation and productivity.

This paper outlines the necessary immediate climate and energy priorities for a net zero and nature positive future at both the systemic level and the community level. 

This is part two of our three-part 2025 Blueprint Budget series. Paper one of this series outlines present challenges facing the Australian economy and addresses our need for substantive, wholesale tax reform. Paper three of this series outlines reforms in education and investment sectors to revitalise Australia’s productivity and competitiveness on the world stage. 

‘Protecting our future’ outlines fiscal priorities for climate and energy. The energy transition is lagging behind and in desperate need of updated system planning and technology-agnostic economic analysis to boost investment. Clear environmental and biodiversity standards  must be factored into these analyses, as the push for nature positive to be recognised alongside net zero as national objectives continues to gain momentum. Subsidies for fossil fuels should be redeployed into energy efficiency, transport decarbonisation, community rewards for hosting renewables, and nature repair.

There’s a lot more work to do as Australia moves to a cleaner economy. Our suite of recommendations focuses on how we future-proof Australia’s policymaking, pushing past the politicisation and short-term thinking, to embed the clear-eyed collaborative problem solving required to manage the transition.

We need to act now. 

Summary of recommendations

  • Rethink and implement environmental standards
    • Fund the development of clear, technology-agnostic biodiversity and environmental standards
  • Align understanding and incentives 
    • Reward communities for hosting renewables
    • Fund adult education and tackle mis- and disinformation on climate
  • Fund the transition to net zero
    • Update energy grid system design modelling and approach
    • Accelerate energy efficiency programs
    • Redeploy fossil fuel subsidies
    • Speed up transport decarbonisation
    • Establish a public fund for nature repair

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