The bulk of new government spending goes to the nation's most vulnerable — children, the elderly and people with a disability — all sectors the government has faced criticism for failing to do enough to support.

The Treasurer has dubbed it a budget that showed the Australian economy was "soaring back to life" after going into a coronavirus-induced recession last year.

"The economy is coming back. Australia is coming back," he said.

But Labor's Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the budget would deliver little despite the tens of billions it was spending.

"This budget is just all about more marketing, mismanagement and missed opportunities," he said.

International border unlikely to open this year

The budget forecast that international borders would not open until the middle of next year. 

But the government insists any decision on the border would be based on health advice.

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said it would be a phased opening of the border, with some international students likely to come as early as this year.

A 2022 border opening, if achieved, would come months after when the government expects to have most Australians vaccinated.

Business groups were quick to celebrate tax breaks and incentives they will receive from the budget.

But many fear a delayed border opening would dampen the recovery from Australia's first recession in almost three decades.

"What we're hearing from business loud and clear is they need border open sooner rather than later," said Innes Willox from the AI Group.

"It's impacting them in a range of ways, they're finding difficulty getting staff into the country, they're having people get in to repair and replace equipment, they're just finding it difficult to move around.

"We're a little bit in a gilded cage at the moment here, the quicker we can get out of that and be interacting with the global community, the better."

That sentiment was echoed by Jenny Lambert from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

"The community seems to be coming to expect that we can continue to grow economically, even though we're in a closed shop at the moment. That can't continue. We are living in an artificial economic environment," she said.

Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive Margy Osmond said the international border closure would lead to more job losses and business failures.

"This is a budget that leaves the tourism industry high and dry with nowhere to go," she said.

"Leaving the borders unopen, with no timetable, condemns us virtually to being the lost kingdom of the South Pacific, when the rest of the world is opening up."

"We will see more job losses and we will see many, many business failures out of this and when the borders do finally open, in the absence of any additional ongoing support we'll be lucky to have a tourism industry to welcome international tourists back into the country."

Criticism government hasn't done enough for women  

The budget materials included a book dubbed the "Women's Budget Statement" and came after sustained criticism about the government's treatment and policies for women.

Four of the five glossy brochures that came with the budget documents featured women in health, mechanical, retail and caregiving settings.

The budget papers trumpet more than $3 billion specifically targeted for women but half of that was the $1.7 billion for the childcare sector.

One of the key issues affecting women's super balances is time spent out of the workforce caring for children, but the government decided not to pay super on Commonwealth paid parental leave — as recommended by the review into retirement incomes chaired by former Treasury official Mike Callaghan.

The Industry Super Australia chief executive Bernie Dean described it as a post-Mother's Day sting, saying if the government was serious about closing the gender super gap they would ensure super was paid on every dollar earned, including parental leave.

Aged care funding central to government budget spending

The centrepiece of the budget is $17.7 billion for the aged care sector, announced along with the government's response to the Aged Care Royal Commission, which unearthed years of neglect and abuse.

The government hopes the backlog of people wanting home care packages will be cleared with an extra 80,000 additional packages created within two years.

Aged care residents will also have to receive three hours and 20 minutes of care each day by 2023.

There is money for training aged care workers and incentives to encourage people to stay in the industry.

The sector has broadly welcomed the package, with Ian Yates from the Council on the Ageing saying he believed the additional 80,000 packages would clear the waiting list by the end of next year, or the middle of 2023 by the latest.

Despite the positive response, questions have been raised about whether the sector has the workers needed to implement the significant changes announced.

Mr Yates said the workforce would be the "major challenge" in the path to reform, saying further incentives were needed to be introduced to attract more staff.

National Seniors Australia chief advocate Ian Henschke described the funding as a good first step, but said more home care packages were needed.

"The government can't walk away saying they've restored faith in the aged care system, they've gone a long way to restoring some faith in the aged care system, but this has to be an ongoing commitment by government," he said.

Losers:

Universities:

Universities around the country which rely on international students are likely to continue to struggle given the delay on borders reopening, the slow COVID-19 vaccine rollout and no clearer picture on the future of hotel quarantine.

Making matters worse there is no specific funding for universities in the budget.

The budget now estimates the international border will open in 2022 and while the government is working on a three-step plan to achieve that, it relies on the majority of the population being vaccinated.

Renewables:

There is no new direct funding in the budget for renewables, except for $30 million over the next year for a big battery and microgrid project between Katherine and Darwin in the Northern Territory.

Most of the government's spending on energy is focused at low emissions technologies.

International Tourism:

When the last budget was handed down in October, the government assumed that international borders would begin to gradually reopen towards the end of this year.

But given the issues with the vaccine rollout and ongoing international outbreaks, the government's now saying the border won't open until at least mid-2022.

That's bad news for tourism operators who rely on international visitors.

Story By | Brett Worthington & Stephanie Dalzell