Councils on the Border did not have many specific projects to celebrate from Tuesday's budget, but money was made available for the future if they were willing to keep fighting for their share.
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It was not included in the budget, but the Infrastructure Department said it was still a chance to receive a share of the $461.2 million, out of a $1 billion commitment for priority Victorian projects, which had been left unallocated.
The funds were placed into contingency reserve for projects to be announced during the financial year after discussions with the Victorian government.
Treasurer Scott Morrison acknowledged the Productivity Commission's recent findings that some regional areas were disconnected from national growth.
"So we will establish a $472 million regional growth fund to back in the plans that regional communities are making to take control of their own economic future - this includes $200 million in funding to support a further round of the successful building better regions program," he said.
The regional growth fund would "provide grants of $10 million or more for major transformational projects which support long-term economic growth and create jobs in regions undergoing structural adjustment".
The government confirmed the freeze on the indexation of financial assistance grants, which had cost local councils millions of dollars in revenue over the past few years, would be lifted in 2017-18.
But the amount paid in the grants was still expected to decrease by 66 per cent from last year because the first two instalments of the 2017-18 grants had already been brought forward for payment.
Southern NSW and North East Victoria both missed out on being among the 10 regions chosen for the pilot of the regional jobs and investment package, which received at least $20 million each to drive plans for workforce needs in the future.
The NBN rollout was estimated to be rolled out to 9 million more homes by mid-2018, but the budget did not include any new funding for the mobile phone blackspot program.
The Infrastructrure Department did commit to increase its funding for road crash blackspots in NSW by 71 per cent to $27 million, and in Victoria by 68 per cent to $20.2 million in 2017-18.
Specific locations for the money would be dermined by a working group.
"These projects improve the safety of road sites which have been identified as high-risk areas for serious crashes. Funding is aimed at improving sites that have a record of at least three accidents involving casulties over a five-year period and can demonstrate a benefit-to-cost ratio greater than two," budget papers stated.
The Albury-Wodonga Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory - established to give people suffering from heart conditions to access quality care without the need to travel long distances - was allocated $500,000 for 2017-18 and $1 million for 2018-19, folloing last year's initial $3 million investment.
Mr Morrison also announced the Medicare levy to would rise from 2 per cent to 2.5 per cent from July 2019, which will be used pay the $55.7 billion needed for the National Disability Insurance Scheme over the next 10 years.
He defended the hike on patients, saying the government had tried to close the funding gap in other ways, but its reforms had not passed in Parliament.
"Even if we are not impacted directly, this is all our responsibility," Mr Morrison said.
The treasurer also had a stern warning for drug users who wanted to access welfare payments, saying being drunk or drug affected would no longer be an excuse for failing to meet their obligations.
"We want to support job seekers affected by drug and alcohol abuse, but to protect taxpayers, it has to be a two-way street," he said.
"We will recommence a modest drug-testing trial for 5000 new welfare recipients.
"JobSeeker recipients who test positive would be placed on the cashless debit card for their welfare payments and be subjected to further tests and possible referral for treatment."
The card will look like a normal debit card, except it cannot be used to buy alcohol, pay for gambling or withdraw cash.
Regions to take part in the trial had not been selected, but the Social Services Department said they were likely to be regional areas and it was working with interested communities.
