Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

and it shows a dividend of very sound economic management. This means the government is averaging 31 new and amended listings per month—approximately one a day. If you're an Australian person out with your family, living in my rural and regional area or wherever you are in Australia, this is fantastic news, because it saves lives and gives access. That strong economy allowed the government to subsidise life-changing breast-cancer medication Kisqali. That treatment would have cost $71,820 per year. Now it will be covered by the PBS, so those who need it most will be able to access it. This is a life-saving budget. That's what I call it.

From 1 November this year the Australian government will include two new time limited items on the Medicare Benefits Schedule for three-dimensional breast tomosynthesis, often called 3D mammography. The proposed MBS fees for the interim items are $202 for both breasts and $114 for one breast. Approximately 240,000 patients each year are expected to benefit from the new items. The existing mammography items on the MBS will still be available; the 3D mammography items will be used for diagnostic testing of women where malignancy is suspected, and that's often identified through a screening mammogram.

This is the sort of decision we can make through our sound economic dividend. This is a critical part of the budget itself. We can do this only through our strong policies and sound economic decisions—not always easy. In this budget we've also invested even further in regional education. For families in regional areas—as you would know, Mr Deputy Speaker Gee—there's an additional significant cost when a student has to leave to study in the city. We saw some dreadful decisions by the previous government, where students from what was deemed to be inner and outer regional areas often missed out on any government support. We've done an extensive amount of work and made some significant changes. There are even more improvements in this budget: $152 million for the Regional Student Access to Education Package announced in the 2016 election. Part of this is the Rural and Regional Enterprise Scholarships. We're increasing opportunities for students to enjoy education in the city where they need to and have to travel.

We're going to increase the parental income cut-off for youth allowance. I've worked on youth allowance since coming into this place. To me it's an equity-of-access issue for young people in rural and regional Australia. I was devastated, as were families, when Labor made the changes it did during its time in government. So many of our young people could not follow and pursue their higher education dreams. We're going to increase the cut-off in the independence criteria from $150,000 to $160,000, plus a $10,000 increase for each additional child in the family. It's expected that 75 per cent more regional students will qualify for independent youth allowance under this criteria. That's a great result if you're a young person whose family lives in a rural or regional area. I know these measures will be welcomed by families and young people in my electorate. It will go a long way towards enabling students to attend university. Sometimes they're the first in family to do so.

Many of these young people in my part of the world have no choice but to leave home to study. The courses are not available in regional areas. We are focused on this issue. We even reduced the amount of time that a young person can use to qualify for independent youth allowance from 18 months to 14. That means in a single year they can qualify for youth allowance and head off to university in the subsequent year. That is the best news for young people in rural and regional Australia. I know they have to work when they get away to university. They have a range of other needs. It's not just the accommodation costs; there are all sorts of additional costs for young people who have no choice but to leave home to study.

These are very sound decisions by the government. All of the measures here are not possible unless you have sound economic management and sound policies. As I said, the extra one million jobs that we've seen—achieved ahead of time—are the dividend from sound economic decisions. So, our record on managing the nation's finances is outstanding. We've probably overdelivered, in a sense. When I look back, I was sitting in the parliament that night when the member for Lilley rose on budget night and uttered those—what will I call them?—infamous words.

An honourable member: We all laughed.

We did laugh then; we didn't realise the joke was on the Australian people, though. The member for Lilley said, 'The four budget surpluses I announce tonight …'. As we all know, the last time Labor delivered a surplus budget was in 1989, when the Berlin Wall still divided Germany. That was the last time a Labor government actually delivered a surplus. As the Treasurer and the Prime Minister have said, the promises of the opposition cannot be trusted. We saw that with the member for Lilley. That was a promise that was never, ever delivered and was never likely to be delivered. It was an amazing hoax, and I can remember how supportive the members of the other side were for it.

But we, as a government, are living within our means. We are continuing to back business to invest and create jobs. We're guaranteeing the essential services that Australians rely on. And the government is keeping Australians safe. We should never, ever underestimate the importance on this role. These are the hallmarks of a coalition government: sober and prudent economic management which leads to an overall strengthening of the economy. I commend the budget bills to the House.

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