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Canberra fees, charges and infrastructure changes at the start of 2017

Stephen Jeffery
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Calendars are not the only thing that changed at midnight.

Canberrans will see some changes to fees, charges and even the landscape of the city in the coming weeks and months.

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Blockbusters heading to Australia in 2017

The number of celebrities making their way to our shores next year means it will be a very big year for Australian produced film.

A number of federal fee hikes and benefit cuts will also start to be noticed early in the new year.

Most ACT government changes are implemented at the start of the new financial year, but there are still a few updates to be aware of in the first half of 2017.

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Bus fares

MyWay concession card holders will be the big winners on public transport from January 14, when they will travel free outside peak periods in a 12-month trial.

Commuters with MyWay adult cards will see single trips rise from $2.98 to $3.06 in peak periods and from $2.37 to $2.43 for off peak trips.

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Tertiary and school student MyWay holders will pay $1.53 for trips, while the latter will pay $1.16 on school days.

Weekday fares will be capped at $9.20 for adults and $4.60 for concession and student card holders.

Single cash fares will be $4.80 for adults and $2.40 for concession.

January will also be the first opportunity to ride one of ACTION's new blue buses.

Pensions

The change that will have the most immediate effect on elderly Canberrans will be amendments to the pension asset test.

The asset test free thresholds will rise for full pension recipients to $250,000 for single homeowners, $375,000 for couples, and $450,000 and $575,000 for single and couple non-homeowners respectively.

But the threshold will fall for those on part pensions from $793,750 to $542,500 for single homeowners and from $1,170,500 to $816,000 for couples.

Non-homeowning part pensioners will have a threshold of $742,500 as a single or $1,016,000 as a couple.

About 91,000 people are expected to lose their benefits through these changes but could become eligible for a low income health card.

The family home will still be exempt from the assets test, but cuts to a pension will double from $1.50 to $3 per fortnight for every $1000 of assets above the free-area threshold.

Dental care

Three million children who live in families that receive Family Tax Benefit Part A will, from January 1, have their entitlement to free dental services capped at $700 over two years, down from $1000 previously. Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley says only 30 per cent of children who are entitled to the payment actually use it, and the average claimed per patient is just $302. However, 8 per cent of children eligible for the subsidies are expected to be affected by the change – leaving about a quarter of a million kids worse off.

The new year also brings reduced funding for adult dental services, after the federal government announced just before Christmas that it would give the states just $107 million in funding each year for the next three years, down from $155 million this funding year. The Gillard government had originally pledged $391 million for the coming funding year.

Prescription drugs

The new year will herald higher co-payments for prescription drugs. The co-payment per script will rise to $6.30 for concession cardholders (up from $6.20) and to $38.80 for general patients (up from $38.30). A 2014 Coalition plan to increase the general co-payment by another $5 remains on ice however, one of several "zombie" measures in the federal budget that have yet to pass through Parliament.

But it is older Australians and frequent prescription users who will suffer the most in the new year as their free drugs safety net resets.

"There's two ways people will pay more for drugs from January 1," a spokesman for the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, Greg Turnbull, said.

"First, there will be an increase in the co-payments, which increase each year with inflation. And second, when the clock strikes midnight on December 31, people who have been enjoying free prescriptions because they reached the safety net at some point during this year will start paying co-contributions again until they hit the safety net in 2017."

Roads

Gungahlin residents will notice two major changes in early 2017: completion of the Barton Highway-William Slim Drive roundabout roadworks, and changes along Horse Park Drive.

The first stage of Horse Park Drive's duplication, between Well Station Drive and Anthony Rolfe Avenue, is due to be finished by the middle of the year, but motorists will notice changes in January when traffic will be moved onto the new carriageway.

Further south, Weston Creek and Woden drivers will face an extra set of traffic signals on Hindmarsh Drive at the intersection with Launceston Street and Eggleston Crescent when they are constructed this year.

Ginninderry land sales

The first blocks in the new residential development west of Belconnen are due to be released in early 2017, though a fixed date has not been set.

About 1800 of the 6500 homes planned for the ACT side of Ginninderry will be completed and ready by 2022.

First named in 2016, Ginninderry planners will announce further updates in the next 12 months, while discussions will continue about moving the border to encompass the NSW side of the development.

Education

Vocational education students will see VET Student Loans replace the VET FEE-HELP Scheme in January.

After the earlier scheme paid an estimated $2.2 billion to dodgy vocational training groups, the government has published an approved course list on the VET website.

Priority enrolment areas for ACT public schools will change slightly. Students living in Denman Prospect will be added for the first time and given priority enrolment at Charles Weston School, Mount Stromlo High School and Canberra College.

O'Malley residents, meanwhile, will be removed from Garran Primary School's PEA and placed into Mawson Primary School's area.

Travel

Australians planning on travelling overseas will be slugged, too: adult passports will be $20 more expensive, while children and senior passports costs will rise by $10.

If you need to leave the country in a hurry, you'll cop a $54 increase in fees for priority processing of passport applications.

Welfare crackdown

As part of the Coalition's $6 billion omnibus savings bill, passed in September, people who have received welfare overpayments will start paying interest of 8 per cent on their debts from January 1, unless they are complying with a repayment plan.

People who owe money to Centrelink will also be able to be ordered not to leave the country until they pay, similar to arrangements in place to stop parents who skip child support payments from skipping the country.

January 1 also ushers in a host of new changes to welfare eligibility criteria, including that:

  • Fringe benefits received from employers will now be included in the income test for family assistance and youth payments (unless your employer is a not-for-profit);
  • Child support payments will now be included in the income test for youth allowance;
  • Age pensioners who move into aged care and rent out their former home will now have this rental income included when determining their age pension payments;
  • New recipients of the carers allowance will lose an ability to have their payments backdated.
  • New migrants who arrive under the family reunions channel will now need to serve a two-year waiting period before they qualify for income support payments.

Backpackers' tax

The Turnbull government's controversial backpackers' tax will finally come into effect from January 1. People aged 18 to 30 who come to Australia as temporary working holidaymakers will start paying income tax of 15 cents from the first dollar they earn.

Previously, backpackers were taxed the same as Australian citizens, meaning they could earn up to $18,000 without paying tax. The Turnbull government's May budget sought to align them to the tax treatment of non-residents, which is 32.5 cents from the first dollar they earn, but the government watered down the measure after a backlash from tourism and regional businesses.

Nannies pilot

Due to an overwhelming lack of uptake, the government's pilot program to pay subsidies to families who employ private nannies will cease to accept new families from January 1. The government booked a saving of $170 million in its December mid-year budget update by winding back the number of places set aside and closing the scheme to new families from January 1.

Youth allowance

Every little bit helps. About 1 million recipients of Austudy, Youth Allowance, Carer Allowance and young recipients of the disability support pension will wake up to a few extra dollars a week thanks to the regular annual indexation of their payments.

Youth Allowance recipients will get between $2.40 and $5.70 extra a fortnight. Austudy recipients will get between $4.30 and $5.70 a fortnight. Payments increase with inflation, rather than the more generous measure of average wages growth which pensioners enjoy.

with Jessica Irvine

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