Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The cost of living certainly is a very serious issue. We, as a Labor government, hit the ground running, and we're committed to the promises that we made, to ensure that we lift that burden of the cost of living. You would have seen actions in this last Albanese Labor government budget by the Treasurer.

The government understands that the rising cost of living is having a serious impact on Australian lives. Australians elected us, as a government, to take responsibility, to listen to their voices and to deliver. And that's exactly what we're doing. That's why we delivered, in the budget that was announced a couple of weeks ago, $14.6 billion towards the cost of living—$14.6 billion to help people and to ease the burden of the cost of living. This package was in the 2023-24 budget two-and-a-bit weeks ago.

The largest area of government spending in the budget is social security and welfare, and the reason for that is to assist those people who are doing it toughest. More than one-third—that's 36.6 per cent—of the government's spending is support for the aged, families with children, people with disabilities, veterans, carers and the unemployed.

And, I'm pleased to say, it does not stop there. We're delivering cheaper child care. We're delivering cheaper medicines. We're expanding paid parental leave. And we're building more affordable homes—including through the National Housing Accord, which people in this place should support. We're increasing the minimum rate of Commonwealth rent assistance by 15 per cent; it's the biggest increase in over three decades—the biggest increase in 30 years. And we're increasing the base rate for eligible recipients of JobSeeker, Austudy, youth allowance and other working-age payments. These are all levers that have been put into the budget to assist people. We're also providing electricity bill rebates to more than five million households and one million small businesses, in partnership with state and territory governments. We're tripling the bulk-billing incentives to support 11.6 million eligible Australians, including children, pensioners and other concession card holders, to access a GP with no out-of-pocket cost.

We saw a government for 10 years neglect all these areas. We're acting. We're acting fast and we're doing it methodically, in a way that will assist people and, at the same time, not hurt the economy. We're not wasting any more opportunities with confused priorities, as we've seen in the last decade through the former coalition government.

Addressing the cost of living is more than just putting money in people's pockets. It's about sustainability and responsibility. It's also about responsibly enforcing policies and mechanisms to strengthen and ease the pressure, not just for today but also for tomorrow. It's not just momentarily but well into the future. This budget was the foundation for exactly that. This is what we promised and this is what we have delivered. That is why this Albanese government will continue to work towards a better Australia for every Australian, to ensure that no-one is left behind, delivering on the promises that we made in the pre-election commitments and to ensure that we ease that burden of cost of living.

The energy price release plan, up to $3 billion of electricity bill relief through the Energy Bill Relief Fund, is to take pressure off households and small businesses. In partnership with the state and territory governments, this will benefit more than five million people across eligible households and one million eligible small businesses. Retail electricity price increases in 2023-24, because of the direct impact of the policies of the Albanese government, are expected to be around 25 percentage points lower, and retail gas price increases around 16 percentage points smaller than expected prior to the government's energy interventions. This government is also making it easier for households and small businesses to access energy saving and upgrades through financing options for households and new tax breaks for small and medium-sized businesses.

JobSeeker has been an issue for a long time. We know that people on JobStart find it hard to live on it. That's why there is $4.9 billion to increase the base rate of several working aged student incomes—

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