Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This government is committed to easing cost-of-living pressures on everyday people. We know it is tough for people, and that's why we're providing sensible cost-of-living relief while not adding to inflation. In May we delivered a responsible budget, a budget which will ease the cost-of-living pressures without unnecessarily fuelling inflation. Yes, that's right, Deputy Speaker: this budget will address the immediate challenges this country faces, create more opportunities for more Australians and lay the foundations for a stronger, more resilient and more secure economy.

A key tenet of this budget is to put downward pressure on inflation, but don't take my word for it. The RBA governor, Philip Lowe, said, and I quote:

I don't think that the budget is adding to inflation; it's actually reducing inflation …

The independent Governor of the Reserve Bank, whose job it is to look at inflation and determine what is inflationary, believes that our budget is actually reducing inflation. And this budget delivered a surplus, might I add?

But how are we delivering this relief? With some wonderful measures: investing in Medicare by tripling the bulk-billing incentive, reducing the cost of medicines, providing energy bill relief, lowering projected energy prices by intervening in the energy market, making child care cheaper, providing fee-free TAFE, and targeting relief to those most in need, like single parents and jobseekers.

I know that these measures are already resonating in my community. Just last week I received an open letter from nine medical peak bodies with a collective membership of over 50,000 healthcare practitioners. The long and short of the letter is that these peak bodies are thrilled about our cheaper medicines policies, and I'll tell you why. Our cheaper medicines policy will save people money and time. It will also free up more local GP appointments, and it'll do this without being inflationary. From 1 September, eligible people will be able to receive two months worth of medicine on a single script. That's double the medicine for the same money. That's a big win. Cheaper medicines will halve visits to local GPs, freeing up appointments for those who need them most. We're also delivering Medicare urgent care clinics, including one at Batemans Bay. We're also funding a Head to Health clinic in Moruya, providing free mental health care for adults. But it's not just adults. We're well on the way to opening a headspace up at Kiama, so that's free mental health care for adults and adolescents. Better health care—that's something to be proud of.

But that isn't all of it. In the May budget you will have seen we're providing targeted relief on power bills, another measure that provides targeted relief where it is needed most. All Commonwealth seniors healthcare card holders, as well as many other concession card holders, will be eligible for energy bill relief and will receive up to $500 per household. But this isn't throwing money around for the sake of it. It is targeted spending, because this budget is responsible. We know people are doing it tough, and we want to provide relief. That's the Albanese Labor government, though. We're working to provide real relief where people need it, right when they need it. You can see this in our cheaper medicines policy, our tripling of the bulk billing incentive, our energy price relief, our intervention in the energy market and our cheaper childcare measures. The Albanese Labor government is getting on with what we were elected to do. We're delivering the change that Australians voted for. Our job is to look at what we can do with fiscal policy with our budget, how we can address the issue of rising inflation and, at the same time, how we can help with cost-of-living pressures. We've done just that. We assisted with sensible cost-of-living relief whilst reining in inflation.

But I've got a bit of advice for some of the others opposite. If you want to help Australian people, get your colleagues in the Senate to vote for the Housing Australia Future Fund. Not a day goes by where I don't hear a sad story about people needing to find somewhere to live but they can't. If the government really wanted to do something about inflation and cost of living, it would pass the Housing Australia Future Fund, which will increase the supply of affordable and social housing and help people survive.

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