Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to talk about the recent budget and specifically what it means for my community of Canberra and what Canberrans can look forward to thanks to the leadership of the Prime Minister, the Treasurer, ACT senator and finance minister Katy Gallagher, and our whole ministerial team, who have fought for a better future for Australians. The global economy is under significant strain as a result of inflation and rising interest rates caused by the war in Ukraine. This is a budget that recognises these pressures and provides targeted and immediate economic relief, alleviates the burden on Australian households, bolsters our essential services and lays a solid foundation for future growth.

Recognising the costs of energy, our government is directly assisting five million households and one million small businesses. This relief will include constituents here in Canberra, with over 56,000 ACT households and 17,000 small businesses qualifying for energy price relief rebates starting from the first of next month. Of course, due to the leadership of the ACT Labor government in ensuring our territory is supplied by 100 per cent renewable energy, Canberrans have already been protected from some of the energy price shocks experienced elsewhere in the country.

The budget also invests in the health of Canberrans, and this is a part of the budget I am particularly excited about for my community. The budget invests in our health and reinforces Labor's commitment to affordable and accessible health care. We are the party of Medicare, and we will always stand up for it. In this budget, the Albanese government has invested $5.7 billion to strengthen Medicare, including by tripling the incentive for GPs to bulk-bill. The ACT has the lowest bulk-billing rates of any jurisdiction in the country. This change will mean that many vulnerable Canberrans will no longer have to fork out for their health or, worse, forgo seeing a GP when they really need that health care. This is the most significant investment in bulk-billing in the history of Medicare and will go a long way to fixing the crisis that the coalition have left us with.

This budget is also making important changes to the way that Australians get their medicines, building on our changes to the PBS that began on 1 January this year. Through the introduction of 60-day dispensing, nearly 100,000 Canberrans will experience reductions of up to $180 per year when buying the medicines they require.

Over the past 10 years, we saw the impact of coalition government cuts on a number of areas, none more than the aged-care sector. For years we watched as aged care fell deeper and deeper into crisis. This budget delivers much-needed relief for aged-care workers in the form of a federal government funded 15 per cent pay increase. I am so pleased for those wonderful workers who work in aged care in Canberra and provide care to our loved ones tirelessly—heroes of the pandemic who have been so overdue for a pay rise. I'm so pleased that this budget will deliver for them.

Another major cost for Canberrans is child care. Our cheaper child care will come into effect next month, ensuring that 96 per cent of families using child care are better off. I know this is something that Canberra mums and dads are particularly looking forward to.

Also, as our nation's capital, we have the particular privilege of having many of our national institutions right here on our doorstep. This budget also provides much-needed funding certainty for these treasured national collecting institutions. We're investing $535.3 million to ensure their future and start work to repair their bricks and mortar. As all Canberrans will be aware, we've had leaking roofs in the National Gallery. We've had the incredible art collection there put at risk by that. We've seen the disgraceful situation of important national documents perishing before they could afford to be digitised. I'm proud that our government is addressing this.

We're investing a further $60 million for property upgrades at the much-loved Questacon, where so many young Australians first develop a passion for science, and another $33 million to ensure the future of Trove, the National Library's digital platform, enabling Australians all over the country to look at their collection. We're also extending and increasing rebates for students from rural and disadvantaged schools to travel to this great city and experience these institutions. Importantly, for the first time, Canberra schools will receive assistance for their students to explore the national collecting institutions.

House adjour ned at 20:00

See this speech in context