Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I really do thank the member for Melbourne for that question, because the member for Melbourne leads a political party that is combining with the coalition over there in the other place to hold up legislation, including legislation not from the last budget but from the budget beforehand. As a direct result—take for example our Help to Buy legislation. Our Help to Buy legislation was something that we took to the last election. Just like what they did with the HAFF, they actually have motions moved in the Senate between the Greens and the coalition where they defer things off into the never-never and say we can't talk about it, in this case, until the November sittings.

We have in the November sittings as well aged-care reform. We have environmental reform there to create a national EPA for the first time. But the Greens and the coalition are holding that up in the Senate. We already have, of course, legislation that would reduce the debt for three million Australians by changing the indexation rules on HECS. I'm not sure whether the Greens political party have committed to amend that or support that. I'm not sure, because, even when things are their policy, they say that they're not voting for it. They say they're not voting for it unless you change tax policy or you change this or that. The fact is that what we are doing—and we will do this across a range of areas; it began yesterday—is a range of legislation that we have committed to for this term. We want to see it carried either this year or when parliament sits next year. And then there is legislation committing to a second-term agenda for what we will do as well. So we make no apologies, this period out from an election, for saying what a re-elected Labor government will do. A re-elected Labor government will continue to prioritise and build on what we have done already. We've already done 500,000 fee-free TAFE places. We'll make it permanent. We've already reduced the debt for Australian graduates, whether it be apprentices or university graduates. We'll do more as well. (Time expired)

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