Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

ELLIOT (—) (): The choice at this year's coming election is so incredibly clear: we have Labor's plan to keep building Australia's future or, indeed, the Liberals' and Nationals' plans to cut everything everywhere. That is their only plan. We know they have at least $300 billion on cuts proposed, but they will not tell us exactly where. Is it in health or social services, perhaps in the NDIS, infrastructure, in areas or agencies like the National Emergency Management Agency? We don't know where these cuts will be, but they will be catastrophic for the Australian people. It is a very, very clear choice at this election, with us building and them cutting. That is all it is: build or cut.

The Leader of the Opposition will make families worse off by cutting the very things they need. He has done it before and he will definitely do it again. Those opposite don't have any plans at all except their one plan—the $600 billion nuclear madness scheme; that is all they have. What will they cut to pay for that? The end result of all that will be much higher power prices for Australians.

Let's have a look at exactly the record, particularly that of the Leader of the Opposition and Liberals and Nationals. As a health minister, the Leader of the Opposition cut $50 billion from our public hospitals, cut funding for Medicare and tried to end bulk-billing with that GP tax. We all remember that one, particularly how unpopular it was right across the community. He also tried to make medicines a lot more expensive and charge for emergency room visits. And, of course, we all remember that the Leader of the Opposition was voted the 'worst' health minister.

Let's go back even a little bit further. As we've heard a few times today as we reflect on 2013, we had the then Leader of the Opposition running around saying to people prior to the election that there would be no cuts—no cuts to health, no cuts to education, no cuts to pensions, no cuts to the ABC and no cuts to the SBS. What did they do as soon as they got in? Cut all of them—every single one of those.

Let's come back to the present day, to the Liberals and Nationals that we have here. Let's look at what they've done. They've opposed Labor's tax cuts for every taxpayer. They've opposed Labor's Medicare urgent care clinics. They've opposed Labor's cheaper medicines plan, opposed Labor's cheaper childcare plan and opposed Labor's energy bill relief in the past as well. All of our cost-of-living measures have been opposed by the Liberals and Nationals. Australians need those cost-of-living measures, and they have opposed every single one.

The fact is that now Australians are earning more and keeping more of what they earn under Labor. But the fact is that they'll be working much longer for less under the Liberals and Nationals. That's what will happen. We are so focused on the cost of living and the tax cuts for every taxpayer, and do you know what they are focused on? The only things they're focused on are tax breaks for bosses, long lunches and golf days. That's about it. That's what they focus on. We focus on everyday Australians and the cost-of-living pressures that they have. It has been absolutely clear cut that that's our focus and, of course, that will be the focus tonight in the Treasurer's fourth budget speech. Again, we will see that focus on the cost of living, which is so important.

Of course, when we came to government, inflation was high and rising, real wages were falling and living standards were declining. Under our government, inflation is almost a third of what it was at the election and is falling. Real wages are growing again. We have recorded the lowest average unemployment rate of any government in 50 years and we've overseen the creation of more than a million jobs, because our economic plan is all about helping Australians earn more and keep more of what they earn. We do that because responsible economic management is so importantly at the core of this government and all that we deliver.

I'd like now to turn to some of those cost-of-living measures that we have in place. We understand that people have been, and are still, doing it tough. That's why our entire focus is on cost-of-living measures. First of all, we have had, of course, those tax cuts for every taxpayer. Can I tell you, in an electorate like mine on the North Coast of New South Wales, that's more than 70,000 people that have had a tax cut.

We have provided energy bill relief for every household, and we just announced an extra $150 in energy bill relief, extending our energy rebates until the end of 2025. That builds on the $300 energy rebate we already delivered to households. And, of course, there are the cheaper medicines that are so vitally important for Australians. We've said that scripts will cost Australians no more than $25 under the PBS, and the cost for pensioners and concession card holders will remain capped at $7.70. That's going to make a huge difference in the lives of so many Australians, particularly our senior Australians.

One of our other cost-of-living measures is cheaper child care, which is so important for families—particularly for getting women back into employment—and so important for our economy as well. We've also provided our HECS relief, and we have announced—if re-elected—a 20 per cent cut from HECS debts, which will really help younger people with HECS debts in particular. And, of course, there is free TAFE. What a game changer this has been in terms of training Australians. Again, in an area like mine, 5,000 people were able to access TAFE because of Labor's free TAFE.

We also have our Medicare urgent care clinics and our Medicare mental health clinics, where people can walk in for free. At those, you only need your Medicare card. We're doing that on top of increasing the bulk-billing rebate for everyone so more people can access a doctor when they need it. We are absolutely committed to strengthening Medicare; we always have been.

We also, as part of so many of the measures we've introduced, invested in social and affordable housing, including recently expanding the Help to Buy scheme as well, so that more younger people and renters can get into the housing market. We have also strengthened our social security safety nets, which are so vital in this country. Particularly, we have increased rent assistance by 40 per cent and increased pensions by almost 17 per cent since we came to government. As I said before, the Liberals and Nationals oppose all of those cost-of-living measures. They've always opposed them—all along the way and all along the line. The fact is Australians would be much worse off under the Liberals and Nationals. We know that to be an absolute fact.

I'll just add that, whilst we are absolutely committed to building on our focus for Australia and our absolute priority is that we make sure of that every step of the way—every day that we've been in government we've done that—we are also very mindful that we have natural disasters in this country. I want to touch on that briefly as well because it goes to the heart of what our government are committed to and what we do—that is, addressing cost-of-living measures whilst also being proactive in communities, like mine, that were impacted recently by Tropical Cyclone Alfred. That's because our government, the Albanese Labor government, is there for people and communities. That is a fact. From those hardship payments to repairing roads, we have absolutely been there. I would like to briefly acknowledge, firstly, all of those agencies that were so well prepared and worked together in my region. We had the SES, the RFS, the ADF—they were there on the ground, which was wonderful—Essential Energy, councils and Services Australia.

I particularly want to acknowledge and thank the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister for being there on the ground with people in our region and for talking to them, as well as the New South Wales Premier, all of the New South Wales state ministers, our Minister for Emergency Management, Senator Jenny McAllister, and also Senator Tony Sheldon, who was our flood envoy. All of them were on the ground, every single day, coordinating and working with those agencies, and our Prime Minister was coordinating that from the National Situation Room at the NEMA, National Emergency Management Authority, headquarters here in Canberra, which is an agency we set up to respond to natural disasters because we know we have to be there for Australians whether that is every single day with cost-of-living relief or planning and providing support when we do have natural disasters. We have invested a huge amount in disaster funds and also in NEMA, but the fact is we were there on the ground with all of those agencies and it means so much to people.

We also announced some of the really important payments people could access—the hardship payments of $180 and the disaster allowance—as payments for people's wages lost during natural disasters when they can't get to work or their place of work is closed. There is also the disaster payment of $1,000 for major damage, and we, for the first time, activated those payments prior to it happening, again, because we care about Australians and we address the issues that they have. We have been doing that ever since we were elected—since day one—and our main focus, every single day, is addressing the cost-of-living pressures that Australians have. That is the focus of everyone in our government, and that will absolutely be the focus of the Treasurer tonight in outlining his fourth budget and those measures that will help Australians, because we understand people are doing it tough and we are a government that continue to be committed to providing the support that Australians need, right across our nation.

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