Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm thankful to have this opportunity today to talk about the real work we're doing to support local people in my electorate of Gilmore on the New South Wales south coast to help ease the cost of living while, importantly, putting downward pressure on inflation. We know that people are doing it tough. Inflation is still higher than we'd like, but it's less than half its peak and much lower than what we inherited from the coalition.

We're providing meaningful cost-of-living relief in a responsible way that doesn't add to inflationary pressures while laying the foundations for a stronger and more resilient economy. In my electorate of Gilmore, 64,000 taxpayers are getting a tax cut, which they are starting to see in their pay packets. That's an average tax cut of $1,405 per annum for a taxpayer in Gilmore. In fact, 87 per cent of taxpayers in Gilmore are now getting a bigger tax cut than they would have got under the Liberals' plan. Our energy bill relief of $300 for every household and $325 for around one million small businesses is also starting to flow.

Our cheaper medicines policies have already saved over $2 million for people in Gilmore, and it's putting downward pressure on inflation. We've frozen the maximum PBS co-payment on medicines for one year, and pensioners and concession card holders will pay no more than $7.70 for their PBS script because we've frozen that for five years. The Batemans Bay Medicare Urgent Clinic has seen over 6,000 patients, all bulk-billed. The new Endometriosis and Pelvic Pain Clinic at Milton is also providing much needed health assistance, again bulk-billed.

We're helping build a more resilient community, one that makes more things right here in Australia and in my region, because we want a future made in Australia. Our fee-free TAFE is making a real difference in skills shortage areas, with local trades courses booming, which is essential for local businesses and jobs.

What a fantastic announcement just last week: the Albanese government will fund a 15 per cent pay increase for early childhood education and care workers. A typical ECEC educator who is paid the award rate will receive a pay rise of $103 per week from December 2024, which will increase to at least $155 per week from December 2025. On Thursday last week, I visited the ECTARC The Basin Education and Care Service at Sanctuary Point, and I talked with early learning educators. It was Early Learning Matters Week, and it's easy to see the important work of early learning educators and what a positive difference early learning makes for children.

But the availability of early learning centres and educators is also critical for working parents in my electorate, because if you can't find care for your child then how do you go back to work? Time and time again, I have had parents very concerned about the availability of care for their child and how it was impacting their ability to return to work and run their business. We all knew what a big part of the problem was: early learning educators weren't paid enough. This was historical, but it needed to be fixed, and that's what we're doing. This is a responsible wage increase, deliberately and responsibly designed, which takes pressure off childcare fees. We know that families, workers and businesses do need to make sure that early learning educators are paid appropriately so more people can participate in work and business and so that we have workers, businesses and jobs for the future.

It should come as no surprise that the Liberals have opposed all of our cost-of-living relief and want to wind it back. What do they want to wind back? Tax cuts, fee-free TAFE, a pay rise for early learning educators? If the coalition truly cared about fighting inflation and easing the cost of living, they would have actually supported our cost-of-living relief measures, but instead they voted for higher prices and higher inflation. The coalition have nothing but a negative plan. They are the 'noalition', and they simply cannot be in government. We have a positive plan, and we are absolutely supporting people right across my region and right across Australia.

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