Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

ARLAND () (): The issue of the rising cost of living is a really serious one. It's an issue that I'm absolutely committed to addressing in my community, and it is, in fact, one of the very reasons I decided to run for the incredible privilege of being the member for Chisholm.

The fact of the matter is that this problem has been in our community for some time—certainly predating the six months since the Albanese Labor government was elected. I'm not a naturally cynical person, but I do find it really curious that, after a decade in government, those opposite have suddenly realised that communities around Australia are struggling with rising costs and low wages—problems that were, in fact, created by previous government. We saw the increase of childcare costs under their watch. We saw out-of-pocket fees to GPs—and this is just in my electorate—increase by 38 per cent. That is outrageous. We had a government that had wage suppression at the heart of its economic policy.

Again, it was the disgrace of those opposite, the very existence of the terrible policies they had in place for a decade, that made me want to run in the first place. We on this side of the House understand that the cost of living is hitting a lot of Australians hard. We always have understood—and those opposite never have—that that's what happens if you don't support working people.

Not only is the situation we find ourselves in the consequence of the wasted decade of the previous government—including 22 failed energy policies—but we are also finding ourselves in a situation where we have an illegal war in Ukraine. Australians understand that we didn't create these challenges, but we have been elected to take responsibility for addressing them—and we are.

Our economic plan is a direct and deliberate response to the challenges facing our economy, including the cost of living. That is why one of the very first acts of the Albanese government was to successfully argue for the minimum wage to keep pace with inflation, an outcome which helped around 2.8 million Australians. I remember very, very clearly standing beside the now prime minister—in my electorate of Chisholm—when he was asked the question, 'Do you support a wage increase for the lowest paid workers in the country?' And he said, 'Absolutely.' And I remember the way those now sitting opposite treated that comment. They were outraged. They scoffed. They laughed at a man running for prime minister who dared to aspire to have policies so that those doing it hardest in our communities should get some kind of cost-of-living relief. And now they stand here and they dare to put this matter to this House. They dare to be authorities on what it takes to improve the lives of working people, when they have spent a decade destroying our communities. It is shocking.

Our budget is focused on responsible cost-of-living measures. We've made child care cheaper. We are expanding paid parental leave, which means we are increasing workforce participation for parents, who most often are mothers who have to stay out of the workforce because there's just not enough support for child care or for leave. We are making medicines cheaper. We are making sure there is more affordable housing.

I had the great privilege to take the Treasurer into my community to meet with the Ashburton, Ashwood and Chadstone Public Tenants Group and the Ashwood Chadstone community partnership to talk about real ways we can help people on the ground, listening to the expertise of people who've been advocating for change for decades

I hope that in the next few days we'll be able to get wages moving again as our secure jobs, better pay bill passes both houses of this place. We will always stand by working people and will do whatever we can to make sure that cost-of-living pressures don't hurt our communities.

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