Welfare advocates have slammed the federal government's latest budget, labelling it a band-aid solution to many critical issues.

The 2022/23 federal budget includes a $250 cash payment for cost of living for six million people, including welfare recipients and pensioners.

The budget also halves the fuel excise to 22.1 cents for the next six months, which is tipped to save a two-car family $30 per week.

However, the chief executive of the Australian Council of Social Service chief executive Cassandra Goldie said the measure was just short-term relief and did not adequately address many issues.

"This budget is full of temporary fixes, when we need permanent solutions. Much of the assistance goes to people who don't need it, and too little goes to people who do," she said.

"Whilst we welcome the inclusion of people on JobSeeker and Youth Allowance who will receive the $250 bonus payment, when you live on $46 a day, this payment will help for a week, but how do you pay the next week's rent?"

While the budget doubled the government's home guarantee scheme to 50,000 places per year, Dr Goldie said there was very little in the federal budget that actively addressed the country's housing crisis.

"There is no social housing investment in this budget, when we absolutely need it," she said.

"Despite the ongoing natural disasters we are witnessing, the government has not given security to communities that if they're hit by a disaster, they get sufficient income support to deal with it."

It comes as social security and welfare payments in the upcoming financial year are set to drop by almost six per cent.

The drop is largely due to COVID-19 disaster payments ending and the jobless rate improving.

It's estimated $221.69 billion will be spent on support payments next financial year, compared to $227.8 billion in 2021/22.

National spokeswoman for housing advocacy group Everybody's Home, Kate Colvin, said the budget was a disappointment for the sector.

"For the last two years workers in industries such as aged care, child care and retail have been lauded as heroes of the pandemic," she said.

"But the budget has done nothing to help them out of the rental pincer. People on low and modest incomes need real housing solutions, instead they are getting rhetoric and band-aids."

© AAP 2022

One of the wettest summers on record continues with more heavy rain forcing a new evacuation order for Lismore in northern NSW.

Residents of the town along with those in surrounding Lismore Basin, East Lismore and Girards Hill have been urged to leave immediately.

It is the second such order for the town in 24 hours after an all clear was issued to return with caution on Tuesday afternoon.

Although still within levee height, the local Wilsons River has exceeded its major flood level of 9.7 metres.

The SES is directing people to evacuate via New Ballina Road, Bruxner Highway and Dalley Street before closures come into play.

Flash flooding in the CBD as a result of heavy rainfall has inundated roads and an evacuation centre has again been set up at Southern Cross University.

The Bureau of Meteorology says the potential remains high for wider heavy rain along the NSW coast and landslides are also possible with roads inundated.

Forecaster Jonathan How says a low pressure system is expected to bring strong and gusty winds in the second half of the week to areas including Sydney, the Hunter and Illawarra.

Fresh flooding will impact the mental wellbeing of northern NSW residents already devastated by the February floods, says University of Sydney mental health professor James Bennett-Levy.

Another bout of flooding could seriously affect those in the middle of a long clean-up from the previous catastrophe, he told AAP on Tuesday.

"There is extreme distress because what it (the floods) does is re-trigger and re-traumatise people who have already been severely traumatised."

Dr Bennett-Levy, who directs the Centre for Rural Health in Lismore, said "very high levels" of post-traumatic stress disorder are expected.

"It is not just people directly affected, there is collective trauma because just about everyone in the community knows ... multiple people ... whose houses have been inundated," he said.

In a study conducted after the 2017 floods, Dr Bennett-Levy along with other researchers found 50 per cent of people displaced for more than six months in the same region had PTSD.

© AAP 2022

Shane Warne, one of Melbourne's biggest personalities, will be given one of the grandest farewells the city has ever seen.

Almost four weeks since the cricket legend's death in Thailand, a memorial service at the MCG on Wednesday will be attended by up to 65,000 people.

It will be a celebration like no other as celebrities and the Victorian public pay tribute to a larger-than-life character who transcended sport.

With 50,000 seats already taken, another 10,000-15,000 tickets have been released to ensure it becomes one of the biggest memorial services in Australian history.

An estimated 300,000 mourners turned out for General Sir John Monash's farewell in 1931, while more than 100,000 people lined the streets of Melbourne for long-serving Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies' funeral in 1978.

But this service will be as unique as Warne himself.

A number of international stars, including Elton John, Chris Martin, Robbie Williams and Ed Sheeran will perform remotely, while Australian rocker Jon Stevens will front a band playing some of Warne's favourite INXS and Noiseworks songs.

Iconic Australians Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Kylie and Dannii Minogue, James Packer, Eric Bana, Greg Norman, as well as American surfing legend Kelly Slater, will also pay tribute to arguably the country's greatest-ever cricketer after Don Bradman.

Great mate Aaron Hamill, who played 98 AFL games for Warne's beloved St Kilda, is confident the send-off will capture the larrikin's spirit.

"He'd be bloody shattered he's missed it," Hamill said.

"I know that - this sort of shindig would be right up his alley, particularly in Melbourne.

"I know he'd be really humbled, he'd be really proud to get the recognition, he never seeked it but he'd certainly be sitting up there, with probably a dart (cigarette) in hand, and very grateful.

"He often used to talk about seizing the moment and the opportunity and there is no fear within. And that's really how he attacked life."

Four out of Australia's five free-to-air TV networks will broadcast the service, while Fox Sports have dedicated four of their channels to broadcast Warne content in the lead-up to the event.

Warne's three children - Brooke, Summer and Jackson - his father Keith and brother Jason will also speak while the Shane Warne Stand, formerly known as the Great Southern Stand, will be formally unveiled.

The two-hour event will get underway at 7pm AEDT.

© AAP 2022

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has unveiled a pre-election budget spliced with billions of dollars worth of tax offsets, cash payments and fuel excise relief.

A one-off tax break of $420 will go to more than 10 million Australians earning up to $126,000 a year.

Their total tax relief at the end of this financial year will be bumped up to $1500 for individuals - and up to $3000 for couples - already benefiting from the low to middle income tax offset.

Six million welfare recipients, veterans, pensioners, eligible self-funded retirees and concession card holders will get a $250 cost of living payment in April.

The federal government will also cut the fuel excise in half to 22.1 cents for the next six months, projecting savings of around $30 a week - or $700 in total - for a family with two cars filling up once a week.

The competition watchdog will ensure the saving is passed on by retailers, and the government has guaranteed no cuts to roads spending, which is funded by the excise.

Mr Frydenberg said an unemployment rate heading below four per cent, lower taxes and programs helping 100,000 Australians into their own home were evidence of the government's economic plan working, urging voters to stick with the coalition.

He said the measures announced in the 2022/23 budget were "temporary, targeted and responsible" and address cost of living pressures.

"Practical measures that will make a difference."

Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michelle O'Neil says one-off payments do not make up for wage stagnation.

Australian Council of Social Service chief Cassandra Goldie says much of the assistance goes to people who don't need it.

"We've got people who are facing homelessness and hunger and we didn't get a budget that will tackle it in a permanent way," she said.

Treasury has forecast a budget black hole of $78 billion for 2022/23, before the deficit contracts to $43.1 billion in three years time, as the economy continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tax breaks will also flow through to small businesses that invest in technology and employers who upskill their employees.

A small business will get a $120 tax deduction for every $100 they spend on training employees or on digital technologies like cyber security and web design.

There will also be up to $5000 for new apprentices and $15,000 wage subsidies for employers who take them on.

Defence and cyber security are among the big winners with a multi-billion-dollar spend on new military personnel, equipment and cyber intelligence agency, the Australian Signals Directorate.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry commended the budget's investment but raised concerns about the lack of a long-term agenda.

"Regrettably, this year's budget doesn't address some of the more pressing challenges facing the Australian economy, including a far-reaching agenda for tax reform, stronger focus on innovation, and building business investment, supply chain capability and productivity," chief executive Andrew McKellar said.

Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers said if the budget wasn't "ruined by rorts and weighed down by waste and mismanagement" there would be more room in it to support families and pensioners and invest in the future.

"Scott Morrison is only pretending to care about the cost of living because he has to call an election in the next fortnight, and he's running out of time," Dr Chalmers said.

Almost $18 billion has been put aside for regional infrastructure, agriculture and energy mainly in regions being targeted by the coalition at the election including the NSW Hunter, north and central Queensland, the Northern Territory and the Pilbara.

The government has also committed to faster rail projects linking Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast and Sydney to Newcastle.

The budget contains a further $1.3 billion for a package to end violence against women and children, as well as new spending on breast and cervical cancer screening.

© AAP 2022