Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have to concur with my good friend and colleague the member for Blair. I was here for almost a decade in opposition, and I was involved in lots of MPIs. We turned up, we participated and we called on the then government to act. Look at what we've got. This is the opposition's MPI. None of them are here. They're not showing any effort. They're not supporting their speakers. They're the ones supposed to be providing quorum for this debate, and where are they? We used to turn up.

But it doesn't stop at their willingness to turn up; it's also this question—haven't we debated this before? Hasn't this been here over and over again? I think I'm the last person on the government side to speak on this; it's been on the agenda so long. They just don't care. I think that's what they're demonstrating. They're not really interested in this parliament and the standing orders. They've demonstrated once again they don't understand the standing orders. They're just not here. Their inability to articulate this MPI is another example of how they just don't care.

The previous speaker said, 'We represent the poorest electorates.' We know that. We spent 10 years asking, 'What are you doing for regional and rural Australia?' Your electorates are struggling. You implemented policies in government that deliberately attacked rural and regional electorates. Stage 3 tax cuts, one of their core principles, do nothing for rural and regional electorates, because people there don't earn a lot, yet they pursued it and pursued it. There are lots of examples where they failed in government to do something to help people in the regions.

Now we are putting forward policies. I do find extraordinary as well that they say we're not doing anything on energy. Did they just not notice that they voted against our energy price relief plan? We all came back here in December. Once the states, the Prime Minister and the government had worked out a deal, we all came back. Just as we were getting ready to go to all of our Christmas functions, so urgent was it for our government to do something about energy price relief, we came back—and they were here. They did turn up, but maybe they mentally didn't turn up. They were physically sitting here. Maybe they didn't realise they'd actually voted no to the energy relief plan they are now trying to say we're not doing anything about.

This government inherited a mess and is working hard to clean it up. It's not just in energy prices; we are doing our best to get inflation under control, where we can, as a government. We are also doing more to lower the cost of living in multiple different ways. We've talked about cheaper child care. That's going to help thousands and thousands of families who have little people in early childhood education. I do childcare pick up, I talk to the mums and dads at pickup and fees are hurting. Under the previous government they went up by over 40 per cent—

An honourable member: 49.

49 per cent—that's how much childcare fees went up under the previous government. That is why one of our first acts as a government was to introduce cheaper child care.

Free TAFE is making it affordable for people to go and get the skills that are going to help get our economy moving. When I talk to people in my regional electorate, they say one of the biggest barriers for them going to TAFE is the cost. Providing free TAFE in the areas where we need skills is giving an opportunity to people from backgrounds where they don't have the income to pay TAFE fees.

We supported the minimum wage increase. That's something we campaigned on. They never, ever did—which would really help so many workers in regional communities, so many workers in their own electorates. They run away from pay rises. They don't want to see pay rises that help our lowest paid workers. We support it, and we again today have said we will support another wage increase that is similar to inflation.

These are just some of the many ways our government is getting behind and helping to lower it. We know it is just the beginning. We know we're on a long journey in getting on top of inflation, helping households and relieving cost-of-living pressures. But you know what? The Australian people get that it's a tough ask, and they're with us. We are not just seeing that in the opinion polls; we are hearing that in our listening posts. We are hearing that when we go to community groups. We are hearing that when we are out in our electorates. People are saying: 'You are doing a good job. Keep going. I'm so relieved. And thank you, thank you, thank you.' That is what we are doing on this side. We are turning up.

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