Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How is the government's budget assisting to build resilience in the Australian economy by implementing the policies which the now Prime Minister announced in his budget replies?

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

I thank the member for Macquarie for her question. I was given the great honour of having three budget replies during the last term of parliament, and in every one of them I set out an alternative vision for the nation, an agenda which now we have implemented. Every single commitment that we made was in the budget last night.

The first one, of course, was for cheaper child care—one that was opposed by those opposite, one that they said was reckless, including the cap on childcare rebates. They were opposed to it. They then made a little bit of a dance down towards it but then ended up opposing it again. Now it's before the parliament, it appears they're still opposing it.

In that same plan we put forward the Rewiring the Nation plan. This wasn't a plan made up—to give credit where credit's due—by the Labor Party. It's a plan developed by the Australian Energy Market Operator based upon their Integrated System Plan. It's been on the website for years. People have known how to fix the energy grid and how to bring it into the 21st century. But, as for those opposite, it was too hard for them. We put it in our first budget reply. It was in the budget last night.

The second budget reply had in it the Building Australia Future Fund, which we've built on. We not only had the provision for 30,000 places for social and affordable housing that we'll create over five years through the Building Australia Future Fund; we've built on that and worked with the private sector to have our housing accord, which was in the budget last night, as one of the key components. As part of that, we had the National Reconstruction Fund, not just assisting business to transform and to become more efficient but creating new businesses that make things here in Australia. Of course, we had at the centre of the last budget reply aged-care reform, something we are now delivering on in government with legislation that's already been passed through to this parliament.

So the test for the opposition leader tomorrow night is to move out of the mindless negativity which he's focused on. A mob who never knew how to do anything but oppose have returned to their spiritual home on the opposition benches. They're more comfortable there. They didn't know what their last leader was up to, so how could they know what Australians are up to? How could they know what the needs of Australians are? But the test tomorrow night is twofold. What is their alternative? The second part of that test is: if they think it's a good idea, why didn't they do it during their almost one decade in office? That's the big test for the opposition leader tomorrow night—an appropriate title for someone who opposes everything.

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.