Last night saw Australia's government reveal the hard hitting 2014-2015 budget, and with it a number of cuts and changes to the Australian economy including health, education and business. Of the rather extensive changes, the Australian budget will also be doing away with its game developer assistance program introduced last year.

Known as the Australian Interactive Games Fund, the $20 million fund was set up last year to assist developers within the rather shrinking Australian games industry. As of last September, the funding had backed 21 independent projects in the tune of $2.6 million. By ending the program on July 1st, the government expects to to achieve savings of $10 million according to the budget.

Games developed under the program included 3 Sprockets' Steam Early Access title Fight the Dragon, Uppercut Games' iOS effort Epoch 2, and Flat Earth Games' Towncraft.

A full review of the 2014-2015 Australian budget can be found at the official website, which outlines some rather large plans including raising the age of retirement to 70 by 2035, scaling back foreign aid, changes to university HELP-FEES and laying off 16,500 government workers over three years. Treasurer Joe Hockey has said cutbacks in the budget are expected to reduce the budget deficit from $49.9 billion this year to $29.8 billion next year, and $2.8 billion in 2017-2018.