Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian community benefits from an Australian government that works hard to steer our country through tough situations while setting us up for the long term, setting us up to be a fairer, healthier, stronger, more sustainable and more inclusive nation. The Australian community benefits from a government that is clear about its commitments and delivers on those commitments. That's what Australians voted for two years ago, and that's what's being delivered by the Albanese government.

After a decade of coalition incompetence in which wages had fallen to the lowest proportion of national income in our history, we went to the election with a commitment to get stagnant wages moving again, to make life better for working Australians and to help those who face disadvantage. That's why we've supported significant increases in the minimum wage. That's why we've improved bargaining conditions, so that real wages are rising again for the first time in a decade. That's why we've delivered pay increases for workers in aged care and child care—because those workers are in low-paid feminised industries and because the people who provide vital care for the oldest and youngest Australians deserve a decent wage. That's why we've increased support through the Social Safety Net, especially for older unemployed Australians and for single-parent families. That's why in consecutive budgets we've increased Commonwealth rental assistance by 40 per cent, the largest increase in 30 years.

We went to the election with a commitment to make sure that Australia is not left behind as the world undergoes a transformational shift in energy generation, distribution and use, a shift which itself is absolutely necessary as an urgent response to dangerous climate change. That's why, in the first months of the government, we legislated net zero by 2050, we increased Australia's Paris climate agreement emissions reduction pledge by more than 50 per cent and we set an ambitious target of 82 per cent renewables by 2030. That's why we reformed the Safeguard Mechanism, strengthened and expanded the water trigger under the EPBC Act, provided $20 billion for the Rewiring the Nation project, opened the way for Australia to benefit from offshore wind power for the first time and created Australia's first national electrical vehicle strategy. All of those things together have delivered an increase of 25 per cent in renewable energy generation already. That's why as we respond to the impact of climate on our environment, we've delivered, as promised, the legislation to create Australia's first environmental protection agency.

We went to the election with a commitment to once again take up Labor's mantle as the party that built Australia's unique foundation of shared wellbeing—our public health and education systems; the opportunity for everyone in Australia to go to a school or a hospital for free. That's why we have delivered the largest decrease in the maximum price of medicines on the PBS in the history of the PBS. It's why we've tripled the bulk-billing incentive. It's why we've delivered 59 Medicare urgent care clinics so that people can get treatment for urgent non-life-threatening issues on an after-hours basis simply by presenting their Medicare card. It's why we are now adding another 29 clinics to that program. This is a smart, new kind of healthcare option that reduces pressure on our hospital emergency departments.

It's why we're working with the states and territories to get our public schools to 100 per cent of the schooling resource standard. Happily, Western Australia will be the first cab off the rank in that regard thanks to $770 million in federal funding, so that schools which need it most reach the 100 per cent standard in 2025, with all schools to reach the standard in 2026.

Twenty-four months ago, right around the country, Labor asked for the responsibility of forming the Albanese Labor government. We made that pitch to the Australian people with a clear sense of the hard work that would be necessary to deal with urgent problems like inflation and the costs of living, and with a clear sense of the hard work that would be necessary to tackle big picture and longer term challenges in areas such as health, education, climate change and the environment. We made that pitch on the basis of a clear program of priorities, knowing that you can't fix everything at once, yet you mustn't waste a moment in getting things done in the national interest.

In addition to the things I've already mentioned, you can add the establishment of the National Anti-Corruption Commission; you can add 10 days paid domestic and family violence leave; you can add the first consecutive budget surpluses in nearly 20 years; you can add bringing the gender pay gap to its lowest recorded level; you can add delivering the full value of the stage 3 tax cuts as promised but delivered in a form that is fairer and better, with more relief to 84 per cent of low- and middle-income earners at a time when people are doing it tough.

Two years ago, Australians voted for a government that would serve their needs and advance our national interest through hard work, focus, integrity and a responsive day-in day-out application to delivering on the commitments that we made to them. That is precisely the record of the Albanese Labor government.

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