Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Member for Groom, I'm sure the Treasurer will be thrilled to hear that you read his essay. Let's be honest: that speech was full of mixed metaphors and cynical politics. I'm personally really sick of cynical politics, and I think Australians are sick of it too. Certainly people in my community can see right through it.

Let's be real here and understand what those opposite have done with the opportunity they've had to support meaningful cost-of-living relief. We've seen those opposite oppose pay rises for the lowest-paid workers in the country. We've seen those opposite say no to packages to deliver cost-of-living relief. We've seen those opposite say no to housing and say no to opportunities for young people through free TAFE and through easing pressures on young people by making changes to the way student debt is calculated. It's time for those opposite, instead of coming in here and behaving in such a base manner, to get serious and to support sensible policy that supports our communities, such as energy bill relief, which they had the opportunity to support and did not.

We know households are feeling pressure. We are focused absolutely on fighting inflation without ignoring the risks to growth. In fact we want to grow our economy and grow industry. That's why we're putting forward a plan for the Future Made in Australia after we saw the decline of manufacturing under the watch of those opposite. We know inflation was higher and rising under the Liberals and that it's lower and falling under Labor. Interest rates started rising under the watch of those opposite. Our economic plan is all about easing cost-of-living pressures for Australians. We know that, even with the quite remarkable progress that has been made in the national data, it does not always immediately translate to how people are feeling and faring in the economy. That is why it is important to come in here to the chamber and, instead of these cheap stunts we see every day with these MPIs, actually seriously talk about what we can do to improve the lives of Australians who live in all of our communities that we are really privileged here to represent.

We know that real wages have been falling substantially under those opposite, so we are working really hard to ensure people's wages increase. In fact, one of the very first things our government undertook was to increase wages for some of the lowest-paid workers in the country. We have lifted the wages of aged-care workers, lifted the wages of early childhood educators and ensured there is a tax cut for every taxpayer by reforming a pretty dreadful plan that had inequality at its heart. We are making sure we entrench free TAFE, and we are doing what we can to grow our economy and industry through our plan for a Future Made in Australia.

In my electorate, 23,000 people with student debt will be better off under our plan. People in my electorate have already saved over $7 million because of our intervention with prescriptions to offer 60-day prescriptions. We fought hard for and we won an urgent care clinic in my electorate, which means more people can go to the doctor when they need to and do not have to think about how much it will cost them.

We know there is more to do. I am out every day, as I'm sure my colleagues on this side of the House are, talking to people in our communities about the issues that matter to them. We know that people are still under substantial pressure. We know we have a lot of ground to make up. I wish we did not have the 10 years of waste and neglect that we saw when those opposite were in power. But we are doing what we can in responsible ways to help everyday Australians in our community.

We know the enormous risk that exists if those opposite, heaven forbid, ever sat on the Treasury benches again. We know there will be billions and billions of dollars in cuts. We know what happened when Peter Dutton—sorry, the Leader of the Opposition—was our health minister. He was rated Australia's worst health minister in the history of this country. We know that he proposed to increase costs to people receiving health care. We cannot risk it in our community of Chisholm and I don't think anyone in any of our communities in this country can risk the Leader of the Opposition ever becoming Prime Minister.

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