The Australian budget has been delivered on Tuesday night with few surprises.
The Treasurer Wayne Swan branded it a "jobs, jobs, jobs" plan designed to create a "bigger and better workforce".
Much of the document deals with employment participation and how to get the unemployed back into work in a patchwork economy, the ABC reports.
There are new health programmes, money for regional Australia, tax write-offs for small busines and programmes to encourage low-income families to better educate their children.
The biggest spending initiative is in mental health, with an extra $A1.5 billion over five years to bring the total spend to $A2.2 billion.
Other spending includes $A360 million for the National Workforce Development fund to deliver 130,000 training places, $A1.8 billion for regional health services and $A425 million in bonuses for excellence in teaching.
In all, the Government has flagged new spending of more than $9 billion and savings of $22 billion.
The deficit this year is $A49.4 billion - up nearly $A10 billion on the previous estimate - and will fall to $A22.6 billion next year, up from the estimated $A12 billion.
The government promised to have the budget back in the black in 2012-13, forecasting a modest surplus of $A3.5 billion.
Mr Swan blamed natural disasters in Australia and Japan for $A9 billion in lost output and a penalty of three-quarters of a percentage point from gross domestic product this year.
Tax receipts are down $A16 billion as a result of the global financial crisis, he said.
