Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There can be no greater misdirection by a coalition member than the premise of this motion. The member for Groom wishes to condemn the government for the current cost-of living crisis. I can tell the member for Groom that I was elected two years ago largely on three key themes—addressing neglect in aged care, taking action on climate change and the environment and cost-of-living issues—and so were my colleagues. This is why we are now in government.

Where does the member for Groom think the current cost-of-living crisis had its origin? The truth is that interest rates began to rise under the Morrison government, and this government's policies now, lauded by international agencies and commentators, have reduced inflation. We are now starting to see the effects of the solid, responsible governance and wisdom of those policies. Many of them, such as the cap on gas prices, were opposed by the coalition. The supply-side challenges also commenced prior to 2022.

The member for Groom wants someone to blame. To the extent that it's possible to find someone to blame locally for global conditions, he might want to take another look at the shambles that was the Morrison government. The member was, after all, here. He was supporting that government, and he should therefore know. Since the election almost two years ago, the Albanese government has actively supported people across Australia with a host of cost-of-living support measures in a way that has minimised inflationary effects and in some cases has acted to suppress inflation. The people of Groom, like the people of Hasluck, have much to think the government for.

I just want to reflect on a few of those different ways. We now have cheaper child care. We now have cheaper medicines. We've done record investment in bulk-billing. We've provided for electricity bill relief. We've increased support payments and rent assistance. We have introduced across a huge number of critical areas of need fee-free TAFE training. We've had a return of real wage growth. Of course, now we have the opportunity to look forward to tax cuts under an Albanese Labor government. It is almost certain that, if the member for Groom's party had somehow formed government at the last election, inflation and the cost-of-living challenges would have been a lot worse. Unlike the Morrison government, we seek to deliver programs in an even-handed way. We have seen, evidenced by the opposition to this government's policies and reforms, a true insight into the mindset of those opposite.

The people of Hasluck today are benefiting from cheaper child care. Over 16,000 families with children will have welcomed the assistance and the reduction in cost of early education and care. Would the coalition have delivered this? I think not. The people of Hasluck are benefiting from cheaper medicines. We capped the cost of PBS scripts, and we are delivering 60-day dispensing, saving thousands of people in Hasluck hundreds and in some cases thousands of dollars. The Morrison government actually received the advice to move to 60-day dispensing back in 2018, but did they do so? No! Has that meant that millions of Australians paid more than was necessary for their medicines over the last five years? It's absolutely so! Thanks for nothing, coalition.

Labor believes in Medicare, and this government has delivered the greatest investments in Medicare since the inception of the scheme. We had to because the previous coalition governments had let it run down terribly. With record investment in bulk billing, targeted relief and Medicare urgent care clinics that are bulk-billing, it's no doubt that the people of Hasluck have welcomed a Labor government. It is a strain to imagine these policies, with all their benefits to Australian household budgets, ever being announced by the coalition, when they clearly and so deliberately wrecked it.

When I and every member of this House were summoned back to legislate gas price caps in December 2022, we delivered what was widely regarded as anti-inflationary relief for millions of consumers. But what did the opposition do then? They voted against the bill. In other words, we can reasonably say that, if the coalition had prevailed, inflation would be up to three-quarters of a percentage point higher and, worse, perhaps not on the downward trajectory that we now see.

Another example is that eighteen per cent of householders in Hasluck are renting, so we've increased the rent assistance to assist them in a very difficult market—more difficult in Perth, for sure, and in other places than I know it is elsewhere. But where is the coalition's housing policy? Where is their commitment to fee-free TAFE? Where is their commitment to tax cuts? Only a Labor government has delivered— (Time expired)

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