David Smith (Bean, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the 2024-25 Albanese Labor budget. The member for Cook can be forgiven because, to be fair, he wasn't here to get one of the notorious 'Back in black' mugs and he wasn't here for the 22 failed policies on energy of the previous Morrison, Turnbull and Abbott governments.

At a time when governments are doing everything they can to fight inflation, we are also walking a fine line to deliver real cost-of-living relief that doesn't add to the very inflation we are trying to tame. In the face of these challenges, the Albanese government is rising to the task, delivering consecutive surpluses and paying down debt, while also giving every Australian a tax cut. It is a budget that is unapologetically about both fairness and responsibility.

Under Labor, low-paid workers are seeing real wage growth, with record increases delivered for award wage workers in 2022, 2023 and now also 2024, with full-time workers on the national minimum wage earning $110 more a week than when the government came to office. This is important for care workers, retail workers and hospitality workers, not just across Bean but across Australia.

It's not just wages increasing; workers across the country are now keeping more of what they earn. This includes 82,000 taxpayers in Bean—every single taxpayer—who will receive a tax cut. The average tax cut for taxpayers in my electorate will be over $1,800. Under this government's plan, an additional 2.9 million Australians earning $45,000 or less, who were previously excluded under Scott Morrison's plan, are now sharing in the benefits of these tax cuts—fair and responsible. Additionally, from this week, more than 10 million households across Australia will receive a total rebate of $300 and eligible small businesses will receive $325 on their electricity bills throughout the year. As I said, just this week, the minimum wage increased to $24.10. This 3.75 per cent increase, combined with Labor's tax cuts, means that a retail worker in Bean is now bringing in at least an extra $110 per week.

Our 2024-25 budget is about easing the cost of living, a second surplus, a future made in Australia, more homes for Australia, the care economy and broadening opportunity. The government is investing an additional $477 million in the 2024-25 budget to increase our support to the more than 340,000 veterans and dependents accessing services through the Department of Veterans' Affairs. Thanks to these investments from the Albanese Labor government, funding for the Department of Veterans' Affairs remains at a record high, now better funded than it's been in three decades. For Bean, that's some 6,870 veterans who will benefit from this commitment. The 2024-25 budget delivers funding to implement and deliver the Albanese government's simplified and harmonised veterans compensation legislation. Following the successful implementation of 500 additional frontline staff at DVA to reduce the veterans compensation claims backlog, we're investing further with $186 million towards the employment of additional 141 staff to ensure backlogs don't re-emerge and to make claims processing faster.

It's not just our veterans in Bean that will be better off. This budget also delivers targeted support for pensioners and income support recipients. Pensioners and concession card holders in Bean won't pay more than $7.70 for their PBS medications for the next five years thanks to the Albanese government's commitment to delivering cheaper medicines. Targeted support will come in the form of a 10 per cent increase to maximum rates of Commonwealth rent assistance, which will directly benefit over 2,000 households in Bean and nearly one million households across the country. This builds on the 15 per cent increase from September last year and will increase maximum rates to 40 per cent higher than in May 2022.

This budget also continues to freeze social security deeming rates for a further 12 months. In Bean this will support nearly 6,000 support recipients, including pensioners, jobseekers and recipients of the parenting payment, student payments or carer payments. Building on this, more than 900 participants in Bean will benefit from increased funding for a new specialised disability employment program that prepares people living with disability to find suitable employment. By investing $2.8 billion in Services Australia, the Albanese government will also make it easier for Australians to access these government services to which they're entitled.

I think of the dedicated public servants who will benefit from the proper resourcing that only a Labor government can deliver by returning human oversight to government services. This government is committed to strengthening Services Australia's services by investing, of that $2.8 billion, $1.8 billion in staff, including funding for 4,030 staff in 2024-25 and 3,530 staff in 2025-26 along with continued investment in 850 emergency response staff. This will help the claim processing times and call wait times and will support those impacted by an emergency, crisis or vulnerability.

It is a matter of immense pride that my electorate of Bean headquarters Services Australia. Whilst all of us know our service centres and have good relationships with those service centres, for me it's a real element of pride to be able to represent those employees right across the programs and systems of Services Australia and to ensure that they get the support they deserve.

Housing remains a priority for Australians of all generations, backgrounds and stages of life. This budget outlines Labor's plan to fix the structural issues that our housing market faces, because we on this side believe that every Australian deserves to be a homeowner. The budget includes more than $6 billion in new measures to build more homes and support Australians, bringing this government's new housing initiatives over the next decade to more than $30 billion. We're building more social and affordable rental housing, with a $2.5 billion increase in the liability cap of Housing Australia and an additional $3 billion in loans to Housing Australia to support ongoing delivery of the program, as well as unlocking up to a billion dollars for more homes through the National Housing Infrastructure Facility, to be directed towards housing that supports women and children fleeing domestic and family violence and supports young Australians.

This Albanese Labor government has worked hard to improve the quality of life of and to restore dignity for older Australians. We've put nurses back into nursing homes, given residents more time with their carers, lifted wages in the sector and improved transparency and accountability. This budget continues this work. Since the October 2022-23 budget, total investment in aged care has increased by 30 per cent. This includes more than $11 billion to deliver the largest one-off increase to aged-care wages in history, with more increases in future.

This budget has also laid out the government's plan for manufacturing in Australia. The $22.7 billion plan for a future made in Australia will help make us an indispensable part of the global economy, helping us to attract investment, making our country a renewable energy superpower, value-adding to our resources and increasing economic security; backing Australian ideas, innovation and science; and investing in our people and places. These policies complement the government's broader growth agenda, including our competition reforms, our investments in infrastructure, housing, human capital and defence industries, and our support for small businesses.

In addition to our Future Made in Australia plan, the Albanese government is investing $350 million over four years to deliver fee-free uni-ready courses, to prepare students for university. We're also establishing Commonwealth prac payments for students undertaking mandatory prac placements. From 1 July 2025, the payments will provide more than 73,000 eligible students—including student teachers, nurses, midwives and social workers—with over $319 per week during their placements. This is critical in addressing the shortages in these fields.

None of this work would have been possible without taking a much more responsible, restrained and disciplined approach to the budget than those opposite took. This is a budget for all Australians. I commend my good friend the Treasurer for his work in balancing the books while responsibly delivering real support for Australian households, and not needing a series of mugs to justify it.

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