Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

'Unprecedented times' is a phrase that we've heard over and over again recently. We have a confluence of issues: a global pandemic, catastrophic climate disasters and a war in Ukraine, coupled with an energy crisis and an increased cost of living. The national inflation rate is 6.1 per cent, but in Perth it's 7.4 per cent. Of course, under the coalition we know that we saw no real wage growth in a decade.

I know that families are doing it tough. As an engineer, you build foundations for the future so you can weather the hard times, and this is what the parliament should do. We've had a decade of neglect and negligence. This parliament should be the engine room of the country, but the coalition was asleep at the wheel. But, because Labor cares and is in touch, we have a plan. It's a multifaceted plan. We want to make child care and health care more affordable. We have a coherent energy policy. We want to see wages rise while making the economy more productive.

In growing the economy, we want to grow the pie; we want to make it bigger. We also want to diversify our economy. This means that we can have apple pie, blueberry pie, meat pies and even vegan pies. To diversify our economy, this will also include using our National Reconstruction Fund, and that will play an important role. What we want is a future made in Australia. Productivity is something that's bread and butter for professional businesses, but, again, this is something that the coalition did not have a focus on. Process engineers live productivity and efficiency. On a mine site, this means you achieve steady state, you then increase recovery and throughput, and the final step is that you use new technology to break through to the next barrier. Again, the National Reconstruction Fund and the Jobs and Skills Summit will help unlock our nation's potential.

Action on energy and climate change will save households. It will also save lives and save the nation. However, the previous government did not have a plan to manage energy and the climate. That's why they've had 30 attempts to create a coherent energy policy, and they have nothing to show for it. Inaction has a cost. This is something that the nation is dealing with right now. Under a coalition business-as-usual scenario, which the nation knows means 'do nothing', energy prices would go up even higher. Labor has a comprehensive plan to power Australia. We conducted the most sophisticated modelling that an opposition has ever done.

I'm lucky that I'm from the West and that we're not connected to the National Electricity Market. The coalition have left the NEM horrendously exposed. The war in Ukraine and the increased gas prices have exposed this. But, wait, there's an exception in the NEM! It's here in the ACT, who have chosen renewables and energy storage to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and keep energy prices lower. That sounds familiar. This is why Labor wants to increase renewables in the grid by 82 per cent by 2030. It will help insulate electricity prices against supply shocks. Like the Minister for Climate Change and Energy said, 'While the sun shines and the wind blows, it won't be sending us separate invoices.'

On child care, barriers to work mean barriers to earning an income. For families, the cost of child care can sometimes be the same as a private school education. If you want to work more than three days a week or if you have more than one child in child care, it can become really challenging. Because of this, we know that the female workforce participation rate drops off when people have kids. Meaningful action on addressing the cost of living relies on meaningful action to increase participation rates of parents in the workforce, particularly women. Labor's childcare policy does precisely this. Parents shouldn't have to choose between affordable child care and full-time work. Our childcare policy doesn't punish parents for returning to work. Instead, it expands access to the rates of childcare subsidies to more families. Often one parent, typically the mother, has to forego extra hours or forego a promotion.

On health care, we're making prescriptions more affordable. This government will cut the maximum co-payment under the PBS from the current $42.50 to $30. This is a $12.50 saving.

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