With a federal election set to be called this weekend and the coalition lagging in the latest polls, Tuesday night's announcements featured a temporary fuel excise cut, a one-off $250 payment for welfare recipients, a $420 low and middle income tax offset and a $9.9 billion defence cyber security spend.

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La Trobe Bendigo honorary politics associate Ian Tulloch said the coalition's budget intentions were clear.

"This is a pre-election budget," he said, "it is designed to win key seats, not actually change policy."

Climate

Observers say the federal government has failed to invest in the future, arguing the budget is riddled with adaptation policies - designed to address the fallout of climate change rather than the cause.

The coalition announced a $1 billion commitment to protect the Great Barrier Reef, however there is no new direct funding in the budget for renewable energy generation projects.

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Funding for key climate change agencies responsible for renewable technology investment will decrease by 35 per cent over the next four years.

This includes the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and the Australian Renewable Energy (ARENA).

"In the government's mind, they think they've neutralised the debate over climate change, but I'm absolutely certain they haven't. So they've ignored it, much to their detriment," Mr Tulloch said.

"They're looking at the next election with this budget and nothing else, they've missed an opportunity here."

Bendigo sustainability Group (BSG) president Colin Lambie said the lack of investment in renewable energy was a "huge disappointment".

"The fossil fuel industry will be happy but the people wanting us to get on with transitioning away from burning coal, gas and petrol will not be," he said.

Mr Lambie said the government was continuing to invest in dying industries.

"There's all this talk about going into debt," he said, "but if you're going into debt trying to prop up the dying coal industry then that's a pretty bad way to borrow money."

"But if you're borrowing money to build on future industries like renewable energy and electric cars then that's clearly a good investment."

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Mr Lambie warned observers not to be fooled by the $250 million federal government investment in hydrogen, noting at the moment the hydrogen production process is not sustainable.

"At the moment they seem to be using fossil fuels to create hydrogen," he said.

"The future is renewable energy and we need to be focused on that.

"It's a big disappointment that there's such a lack of action on climate change."

Young people

For young people, apart from subsidised apprenticeship wages, federal government investment appears scarce.

One of the few expenditures for young people involves a new apprenticeship scheme, meaning new apprentices in priority jobs (of which are yet to be determined), will be eligible for two $5,000 payments over their first two years of employment.

Young people could benefit from the government's $4.27 million dollar mental health funding, although services have been stretched for some time, says Bendigo Lifeline's Lisa Renato.

"We are pleased to hear the federal government is committing to build on the success of the National Suicide Prevention Trial and support regional initiatives for suicide prevention in every Primary Health Network," she said.

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Ms Renato said the Bendigo centre had experienced almost double the demand on their short term crisis support over the last twelve months, up from 11,229 to 13,828 so far this financial year.

"It is our hope that existing services such as Lifeline Central Victoria & Mallee will benefit from this commitment," she said, "by way of additional services being funded and supported to recruit and train our accredited telephone crisis supporter volunteers."

The budget failed to make any changes to tertiary education fees or commit to any substantial increases to youth allowance - both key demands from young voters.

However, La Trobe politics associate Mr Tulloch said the lack of investment in young people is a strategic choice by the federal government.

"We know that 60 percent of first time voters between ages 18 to 24 vote either Labor or Greens," he said.

"So that young demographic is a pretty solid anti-coalition vote - and has been for a long time."

Wages and aged care

Glaringly absent from the budget were long term tax reforms in order to subsidise increased wages or cost of living, says Bendigo Labor MP Lisa Chesters.

"There's a lot of cash in there but it's so short term," she said, "it's not long term change."

"If people are struggling today they are still going to be struggling at Christmas, these one-off payments, the fuel excise and the tax offset are a bribe for voters."

Despite the Royal Commission into Aged Care recommending a wage increase in February, the federal government has not made a submission to the Fair Work Commission to implement the recommendation.

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A case brought forward by the Health Services Union and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation is currently under consideration by Fair Work.

However, the federal government have not backed the case, and instead announced a $49.5 million subsidy for 15,000 vocational education and training places for those who are already in or are looking to enter the aged care workforce.

Catholic Health Australia (CHA), Australia's largest non-government grouping of health and aged care services said Tuesday night's budget announcements were "at best, a Band-Aid solution".

"Last night's Budget should have been an opportunity to deliver real reform to ensure a sufficient and qualified workforce to care for the increasing number of older Australians needing care and support, but disappointingly it didn't do that," chief executive Pat Garcia said.

The federal opposition have committed to backing the Royal Commission's recommendations on aged care wages, however at this stage have remained tight-lipped on whether they will extend the 6-month fuel excise cut should they win the next election.

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese will deliver his budget reply on Thursday evening.

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