Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a question for the Prime Minister. JobSeeker is trapping people in poverty. The Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee found it inadequate on every measure and recommended returning JobSeeker to its previous level, at 90 per cent of the age pension. This has been backed by business, community, academics and politicians from across the floor. That would be a $19-a-day increase, but the budget only found funding for $3 a day. If we care about giving people a fair go in Australia, how can this be enough?

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

I thank the member for Curtin for her question. I'm proud of the budget that we brought down last night because it does provide that strong foundation that we need going forward, taking pressure off families, targeted at the most vulnerable, whilst not adding to inflationary pressure. That's the task that we set ourselves as an expenditure review committee. That was led by the Treasurer and the finance minister. One of the things that I said during the election campaign, when I was asked about JobSeeker, was that Labor is the party that will always look after the disadvantaged. We will do more when we can, and last night we did.

We didn't just do JobSeeker. We did rental assistance. We did single parenting payment. As a result of our energy price relief plan, some five million Australians will pay less on their power bills—up to $500 less on their power bills. As a result of our childcare plan, more than one million families will pay less for child care. As a result of our Medicare plan, 11 million Australians will pay less to see a doctor. We put $3½ billion dollars into making sure that Medicare is strengthened. If you are a recipient of any social security and your kid gets sick, we want to make sure that you can get access to see a doctor and that it will be bulk billed. That's why, in addition to that, we want to expand access by having an additional eight urgent care clinics on top of the 50 that we'd announced already.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Those opposite scoff. That's about making sure you can get access to a doctor where all you need is your Medicare card, not your credit card. It's been well received by state and territory governments across the country. As a result of the measures that we put in place that came in on 1 January, already, in the first four months of the year, Australians paid $76 million less for their prescriptions—$76 million less. And because of this budget another six million Australians will pay less for their medicines. As a result of this budget, 480,000 Australians in total will get access to fee-free TAFE. That's about getting people into employment and offering them the skills so that they can get a job so they get off JobSeeker. That's our task going forward. (Time expired)