While most MPs – government and opposition – will return to their electorates all but empty handed, Rob Oakeshott in Lyne and Tony Windsor in New England have made good use of their strategic strengths as high-profile supports for the minority Gillard Labor government.

In a similar vein, island state voters have also been showered with largesse, thanks to the similarly successful efforts of Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie.

To be fair to MPs in other regional electorates, the full picture of the budget’s spending priorities will become clearer in coming days, when detailed breakdowns of big-ticket spending announcements are made available to all parliamentarians.

But two ‘’community infrastructure’’ grants totaling more than $900,000 symbolise the clout of the independents.

The government will send $412,500 in the coming financial year to the Manning Valley, Port Macquarie and Hastings Valley, funding ‘’youth, community and cultural projects’’.

A corresponding grant of $540,000 goes to Armidale, Inverell and Werris Creek, this time for ‘’community sporting, automotive and youth associations’’.

VIDEO: Sydney Morning Herald political editor Peter Hartcher analyses Budget 2013

Similar electorate-specific announcements are few and far between in a budget that returned a cash deficit of $19.4 billion this financial year, and predicts an $18 billion deficit next year.

 In general terms, the government has attempted  to maintain high profile spending areas like the Gonski school reforms and disability services, while crimping in other, less high-profile areas, as revenue collapses with the end of the mining boom.

Unfortunately, however, a number of the programs being cut appear to weigh heavily on some areas of regional Australia.

The energy industries  in the Hunter and Illawarra will look closely at the greenhouse gas and clean energy programs that were to be funded by carbon-price earnings, but which have been axed or delayed to save money.

Although Regional Development Minister Anthony Albanese played down the changes on his walk through the budget lockup, the budget papers show clearly that $2 billion over seven years had been  cut from a Regional Infrastructure Fund designed to allocate money for major ‘’nation building’’ projects.

The $2 billion cut was a result of lower than anticipated revenues from the Minerals Resource Rent Tax, although the government says another $2.4 billion remains in the Nation Building Program, with Mr Albanese promising a new third round of funding announcements this week.

It should be noted, however, that state governments, rather than Commonwealth administrations, are responsible for most public works programs in Australia, and the real impact on regional areas from this budget will be felt in the delivery of government services such as health and education.

The government says it has demonstrated its commitment to rural and regional areas with a series of National Broadband Network rollouts across the state.

 Mr Albanese said the budget followed an ‘’honourable Labor tradition of providing opportunity for all Australians, no matter . . . where they live’’.

Especially, it seems, if they live in Lynne or New England.