Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I am really beginning to worry about those on the opposite side of the House. Maybe they're deaf, maybe they're a bit dim—I don't know! They seem to be throwing this question at us time after time, and we tell them time after time that we understand that the cost of living is hitting a lot of Australians hard. We understand that inflation is the defining economic challenge of 2023. It was in 2022—and, as the Prime Minister mentioned today, those opposite, when they were in government, had an inflation measure the highest this century has seen.

Australians understand that we did not create these challenges, but they elected us to take responsibility for addressing them—and we are. The Albanese Labor government is delivering the positive change that Australians voted for—and, can I remind them, that is including the good people of Aston. They recently voted for a Labor government, overwhelmingly—we had a wonderful Labor candidate in Mary Doyle—but they turned their back on the opposition. I am beginning to wonder if those opposite are not reading the tea leaves. Yes, we know there is a lot of work to do, but we are staying focused on easing the pressure on families and helping Australians manage their budgets. That is why the centrepiece of tonight's budget will be a $14.6 billion cost-of-living relief package.

The first phase of this, for example, is our cheaper medicines policy. That came into effect on 1 January this year. The cheaper medicines policy is an incredibly important policy for so many Australians who are having to choose between taking their medicines or paying the rent or putting food on the table. As a former health professional, I have had, from time to time, people telling me that they just take medicines every other day because they think that is cheaper. We know that it is important they take them every single day. Or they might miss a month or a week. Now, they no longer have to do that.

Tonight's budget will go further, delivering cheaper medicines for over six million Australians. We will halve unnecessary visits to the GP and the pharmacist just to fill a repeat script. This will save Australians up to $180 a year for every eligible medicine they buy. Thanks to my wonderful colleague here the Minister for Aged Care, Ms Wells, we are delivering a massive increase for our aged-care workers by giving them a wage rise, an $11.3 billion investment. That's a wage rise to some of the lowest-paid but most-valued workers in our economy, a wage rise which will actually help with the cost of living. Self-funded retirees will access a seniors card under this government, which will give them access to the concession rate of PBS medicines and bulk-billed GP visits. That is a massive saving for many, many retirees. These are just some of the measures that have been announced in my own portfolio of health and aged care.

Outside health and aged care, we have already announced electricity bill relief, which those opposite voted against. We have increased support for single parents. The Treasurer will have much more to say about that tonight, but we know that this single measure alone will have a massive impact on single parents struggling to meet the rising cost of living. We have successfully argued for a Fair Work Commission wage rise in line with inflation. We have introduced legislation that will drive investment in cleaner and cheaper energy, putting downward pressure on power prices. We are delivering cheaper child care, with one of the biggest investments in history in the cost of child care, which means that women can go back to work if they want to and will pay less for their child care. That, of course, will ease the cost-of-living pressures. We are delivering fee-free TAFE. You can't cut a cost of living measure any more than by making it free. This means that more people will get the skills they need to get good jobs—well paid jobs in our economy.

We are expanding paid parental leave. When I had my babies, there was no paid parental leave—none at all—and we had to struggle along on one income. It was a great innovation by the Gillard government to introduce paid parental leave, and now we will be expanding that even more. This will, of course, ease the cost of living for parents. We are building more affordable homes, including through the new National Housing Accord. If those opposite could just see their way through to supporting the National Housing Future Fund, we would be able to build a lot more. We know that increasing supply will bring the cost of housing down, which will, of course, help people with the cost of living. Pensions, allowances and rent assistance have all increased in line with inflation. We are going to improve the bargaining system, which will make it easier for workers to get wage rises and create gender equality in the workplace, making sure that women get equal and better pay.

Let's go back over some of these things I have said. What is it that those opposite don't get? We are easing pressure on families. We are introducing a relief package. There will be cheaper medicines and cheaper visits to the GP. We will have wage rises for aged-care workers and other low-paid workers. There will be downward pressure on power prices, cheaper child care, fee-free TAFE, expanded paid parental leave, more affordable homes and increased cost-of-living measures that will give more money to pensioners and people who need rent assistance. We will improve the wages of every worker in this country. They are all things that will actually help with the cost of living.

Let's have a look at the Liberal legacy. They suppressed wage growth—suppressed wage growth—as a deliberate design feature of their government's economic policy. The now Leader of the Opposition, the then health minister, ripped out, or tried to rip out, $50 billion from hospitals; he tried to increase the cost of scripts by $5 and charge every Australian a tax on their visits to their GP. When Labor was able to block this attack on our health system and Australians' right to access it, he hit them with a Medicare rebate freeze. He was voted, by Australian doctors, the worst health minister in living memory, and we know that wasn't for nothing. So what a legacy! Compare what I said before with its opposite—with what the opposition did when they were in government. The opposition charged a bigger tax; they raised the price of scripts; they froze the Medicare rebate. Such a stellar record from the Leader of the Opposition and those opposite when it comes to cost-of-living relief! I can't help but sit here and think, when I listen to them go on and on and on about caring about people struggling with the cost of living, that they're pouring crocodile tears all the way down their face. They deliberately designed a decade of wage stagnation, froze the Medicare rebate and oversaw a decade of shameful neglect of our aged-care system; they refused to vote for energy bill relief; they said no to every single proposal that we have put forward to help Australian households. And yet they stand there and ask the same question over and over.

Only Labor's government will do absolutely everything in its power to support Australians and Australian workers. We have given pay rises. We have given true cost-of-living relief. And this budget tonight will go even further than I have been able to outline tonight. It will be a sensible budget. It will give cost-of-living relief. It will manage inflation. It will repair the budget. It will clean up the mess that that government left from nine years of absolute neglect of this economy, of workers, of everyday Australians, because only Labor governments deliver real, tangible relief to Australian households. Australians know this. Australians voted for this. And only very recently did we see they voted for this in Aston.

When will they listen? When will they get this through their heads?

See this speech in context