Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Once again, at the end of the year, we're here with another fairly ludicrous matter of public importance that highlights the poor track record of those opposite in government. Again, it makes us realise how deeply unserious those opposite are. There has been an interesting choice of words, I must say, in today's discussion. I certainly wouldn't want to remind people of the chaos of the previous 10 years, but they invite us to discuss chaos and they invite us to talk about leaders who are missing in action. I don't think Australians have forgiven the former Prime Minister, the member for Cook, for taking a holiday in Hawaii while Australia burned. I really don't think Australians have forgiven that.

With every contribution that those opposite make in this place being to say no and to not offer anything of substance, we are once again subjected to an hour of discussion that is just not serious at all and is not in the interests of Australian people. But it's a great opportunity for me to contrast what we as a government are doing, and I really welcome the opportunity every day there's an MPI here in this place to talk about the achievements of the Albanese Labor government. I'm always happy to speak on the record of our government.

Over the last 18 months we've delivered on a lot of key measures. We have delivered cheaper child care and cheaper medicines. We have delivered fee-free TAFE, and we've made it easier and cheaper for people to see a doctor. We've also delivered when it comes to the maximum cost of a prescription for PBS medicine, reducing the cost from $42.50 to $30. What's so significant about this is that it was the largest reduction in the 75-year history of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

Australians have saved $200 million on almost 18 million cheaper prescriptions since January this year. That is quite remarkable.

This Prime Minister and our government argued for a Fair Work Commission minimum wage increase in line with inflation, delivering pay rises to those worst off. The Prime Minister was in Box Hill, in my electorate, when he said, 'Absolutely,' to the suggestion that the lowest-paid workers in this country should have a pay rise that keeps up with their cost of living. We've delivered a 15 per cent pay increase to aged-care workers. And we've done all of this at the same time as we've delivered the first budget surplus in 15 years. We've seen wages grow at around the fastest rate in a decade, and over 624,000 jobs have been created since we came to office. That's a record for any new government. We're making investments in the capacity of our economy, laying the foundations for future growth, and our efforts to repair the budget are taking pressure off inflation when it is most acute.

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