Australian couples with children earning mid-range or high incomes would be the biggest winners from tax changes in the latest federal budget, according to new modelling.
Five metropolitan electorates based in Sydney will also receive the greatest overall benefit when the staged reforms are complete.
By contrast, constituents in a swag of regional seats will receive much more modest tax gains.
Nationals deputy leader Bridget McKenzie denied her government’s tax package exacerbated the economic divide that exists between city and country.
“We have low—and medium—income levels right across regional Australia,” she told ABC Radio National on April 4.
“Our nurses, our tradies, our public school teachers out in regional Australia will benefit significantly from our government’s income tax cuts.”
The assessment comes from the University of Canberra’s National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM).
Under its analysis, a single person with a mid-range income would have an extra $405 in disposable income in 2019, $413 more in 2022 and $505 extra in 2024.
A couple with children, in the same income bracket, would have $513 more in disposable cash in 2019, $650 in 2022 and $1714 in 2024.
The highest-earning couples with children would have $4573 extra to spend each year by 2024.
Men are broadly set to get more benefit from the tax relief than women.
By age group, Australians aged between 26 and 35 and set to be the biggest beneficiaries.
A man in that age group will have $245 in extra disposable income per year once the 2019 changes kick in, while a woman will have $213.
For people aged 65 or older, that benefit drops down to $83 for men and $81 for women.
By 2024, the electorates set to benefit most from the changes will be Wentworth, North Sydney, Warringah, Sydney and Grayndler - all in metropolitan Sydney.
Those to benefit least would be Spence - the new name for Wakefield - in Adelaide’s outer north, Hinkler in Queensland, Page and Lyne in NSW and Lyons in Tasmania.
Ultimately, the tax and transfer measures in the budget will lead to a 0.2 per cent drop in Australia’s poverty rate, NATSEM has found.
But it says a $75 a week increase to Newstart would reduce poverty by 0.8 per cent.
In Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s first budget, released on Tuesday, the government promised to more than double a tax offset for Australians earning up to $126,000.
They say that means a single-income family will keep an extra $1000 from tax time this year.
The government also wants to lower the 32.5 per cent tax rate to 30 per cent from mid-2024.
