Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the wonderful member for Robertson for his question. It is indeed great to get a question about young people and about what the Australian government, the Albanese government, is doing for young Australians. The Albanese government not only values the ideas and the experiences of young people but also listens to them. Last year, we undertook nationwide consultations with young Australians aged between 12 and 25. Those consultations provided us an opportunity to engage directly with young Australians on the issues that matter to them the most. We ran 58 consultations right across Australia, and the young people very clearly told us that the No.1 issue for young Australians right now is cost of living.

As I said, Mr Speaker, the Albanese government listens. We listen to young people and we listen to our constituents. That's why from 1 July we are delivering a tax cut for every working Australian, making a real difference to 13.6 million Australians. That includes 1.5 million taxpayers aged between 18 and 24. They are going to get an average tax cut of $1,007 under our new tax plan. Taxpayers aged between 25 and 29—that is, 1.6 million taxpayers—are going to receive an average tax cut of $1,573 under Labor's tax plan. These tax cuts are good for young people, they're good for young Australians, they're good for middle Australia and, of course, they are good for our economy. As an example, a young person juggling part-time study and working in retail who earns $30,000 will receive a tax cut of $354 under Labor's plan and, on top of that, another $172 from the changes to the Medicare levy. This is on top of the billions of dollars in cost-of-living relief that we are already delivering for young Australians in cheaper medicines, in energy price relief, in boosting rent assistance—the biggest increase in 30 years—and through increases to JobSeeker, Youth Allowance, ABSTUDY and Austudy.

The Albanese government has undertaken a course of reaching out to young people, involving them in consultations and listening to them—listening to the ways in which the policies that government makes affect them and what we can do better for them. We have heard the concerns and we are acting on them. (Time expired).

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