Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak to this motion because no government has done more to help with cost-of-living pressures than the Albanese Labor government. When the Albanese Labor government came to office two years ago, inflation, energy costs and interest rates—which are really the precursor to the cost-of-living pressures that we all face today—were all on the way up, so much so that the member for Hume, who put this motion forward, was the person who tried to cover or mask the energy price increases at that election. But the reality is that this government is conscious that cost-of-living pressures are hurting families and has implemented a whole suite of measures which, hopefully, time will allow me to go through.

With respect to the member for Hume, after 10 minutes of ranting, he did not propose one solution to the problem that claims he is so concerned about. All we heard was criticism of what we are doing on this side of the House. Let me tell anyone listening what we are doing. From 1 July, every taxpayer—that is, 13.6 million Australians—will get a tax cut. That means a tax cut, on average, of $1,500 a year. People earning under $45,000—who, under the coalition would have received nothing—will actually get a tax cut. These are people who need the tax cut the most. From 1 July every Australian household will receive $300 off their energy bills, and about a million small businesses will receive $325 off. We capped coal and gas prices to keep energy prices down, but those opposite opposed that legislation. We're getting wages moving. After a decade of Liberals and Nationals in government deliberately keeping wages low, this Labor government is getting wages moving again. We have supported three consecutive pay increases for the minimum wage, and we have delivered a historic 15 per cent pay rise for aged-care workers. We've taken the gender pay gap to a record low, we've banned pay secrecy clauses, we've made deliberate wage theft a crime and we've legislated on the 'same job, same pay' protections for casual workers.

Then we've got cheaper medicines, which were mentioned earlier on in this debate. In this budget we're providing $3 billion to support pharmacies and to keep the cost of medicines down. We're freezing the maximum cost of PBS prescriptions for a year, and that means that no-one will pay more than $31.60 for a PBS script. For Australians with pension or concession cards—again, some of the people that are struggling the most—we're freezing the price for five years so that those Australians won't have to pay more than $7.70 for the medicines they need. Then we've tripled the bulk-billing incentive. Today, more GP visits are being bulk-billed. That means that people that are struggling don't have to put their hand in their pocket whenever they go to see their GP.

We're also providing relief for students by wiping $3 billion in student debt and changing the way that HELP loans are indexed to make it fairer and cheaper over the life of a loan. By backdating this change to mid-2023, we are able to provide debt relief in the form of HELP loan credits to over three million Australians. We're also reducing financial barriers for the next generation of nurses, midwives, teachers and social workers by providing prac payments to support them whilst they are undertaking their compulsory placements. As we heard again in question time today, we've provided some 400,000 fee-free TAFE places. We also go into the issue of consumers at the checkouts, which, again, has been talked about today. We're making sure that Australians get a fair deal at the checkout by holding supermarkets to account with a strong competition watchdog and making the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct mandatory. We're moving towards six months of paid parental leave with the flexibility to choose how to split it between parents, and we're introducing paid super on government paid parental leave.

Lastly, we're providing the first back-to-back increases to Commonwealth Rent Assistance in more than 30 years. On top of the 15 per cent increase in our last budget, this year we are delivering a further 10 per cent increase as well as the $32 billion housing plan, which will ensure there are more houses in Australia. That is the best way we can reduce the cost of housing and renting. What do we hear from those opposite? We hear about divestiture powers, expensive nuclear energy and things that they talk about but they never did anything about in the almost 10 years that they were in office.

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