Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's great that we finally get a chance to speak on this particular bill, the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2023-2024. This is a responsible budget for a secure future, and for a better future for my electors in Blair. The Albanese Labor government's responsible economic and fiscal management is delivering a stronger and more sustainable fiscal position for our budget, with a budget surplus forecast for 2022-2023 and lower deficits and debt across the forward estimates, returning 87 per cent of the tax upgrades over the past two budgets and 82 per cent in this budget. This budget identifies a further $17.8 billion in spending reprioritisations and restricts average annual real spending growth to just 0.6 per cent over the five years to 2026-2027.

These decisions mean the underlying cash balance will be improved by $125.9 billion over the five years to 2026-2027, the biggest fiscal improvement on record. The budget forecasts a small surplus in 2022-2023 of $4.2 billion, or 0.2 per cent of GDP, the first surplus in 15 years and a significant turnaround from the $77.9 billion deficit we inherited from the previous government. In 2023-2024 the underlying cash deficit is now expected to be as low as $13.9 billion. The gross debt will be lower as a share of economy this year and in each of the next four years. By returning the majority of revenue upgrades to the budget, the government is lowering debt and reducing debt interest costs. This improves gross debt by almost $300 billion to 2033-2034, saving $83 billion in interest costs over the 12 years.

This compares to the trillion dollars of Liberal and National Party debt we were left with by the former government. Why is this important? It is because the former member for North Sydney, Joe Hockey, in opposition, as the Treasury spokesperson for the coalition, said that the coalition would deliver a budget surplus in their first year and every year thereafter and didn't do so, not even once in a nine years of the coalition. I really should have brought those 'back in black' mugs, but I didn't feel I wanted to contribute to the coalition treasuries. I almost regret that now, because this is the first surplus in 15 years.

It also delivers targeted cost-of-living relief and it will reduce price pressures in the next year. It makes investments in a stronger economy and, I think, makes room for critical programs and services. The approach is delivering a better financial position for our economy and delivering critical services upon which our people rely. At a local level, I'm pleased the Albanese Labor government has a budget that's delivering for families and businesses in my electorate. Fundamentally, this is a responsible budget that provides that assistance.

We announced an energy price relief plan that will provide relief for more than a million households across my home state of Queensland. We're working with the Queensland government to deliver residents and businesses a quarterly rebate of up to $500 from 1 July to help take the sting out of power bills, and around 205,000 small businesses across the state of Queensland will automatically receive bill relief of $650. That's $3 billion of direct energy savings and relief to Australians. It was opposed by those opposite. Who can forget the infamous votes against that last year? They seem to have political amnesia about that when you listen to these spokespersons now in relation to that particular issue. I know this will make a real difference to household budgets and small and medium-sized businesses in my electorate.

We will also strengthen Medicare, with the largest one-off increase to bulk-billing incentives ever. Labor built Medicare, designed Medicare and will always protect Medicare. The bulk-billing incentive will triple for the most common consultations with children under the age of 16 years, pensioners and other Commonwealth concession cardholders. The higher bulk-billing incentive will provide immediate relief for around 105,422 eligible patients at 53 medical practices already bulk-billing in my electorate of Blair in South-East Queensland.

We're providing cheaper medicines, allowing people to buy two months worth of medications at the pharmacist for the price of a single prescription, which will deliver for 47,719 patients in my electorate savings of up to $180 per year. This change applies to more than 300 PBS medicines for chronic conditions where a GP assesses a patient's condition as stable.

From 1 July this year there will be cheaper child care for 8,900 families in Blair who use childcare services, saving many households up to $1,700 a year in childcare fees. Coupled with this, we are expanding the Paid Parental Leave scheme for around 2,500 families in Blair, making it more accessible, more flexible and fairer.

Critically, this budget provides support for those in our community who need it most. The government is increasing the base rate of income payments like JobSeeker, Austudy and youth allowance for eligible people. Around 10,505 people in my electorate will benefit by $40 a fortnight. Around 450 people in Blair age 55 to 59 on JobSeeker payments for nine months or more continuous months will benefit from the high rate of JobSeeker already applied to those over 60, meaning an extra $92.10 per fortnight. From September, about 745 eligible single parents in Blair will receive the parenting payments single until their youngest child turns 14, up from eight years old. It's a good decision to reverse a decision made previously. Under this change, eligible single parents will be $176.90 better off each fortnight, receiving a base rate of $922.10 per fortnight compared to the current JobSeeker rate of $745.20. Around 12,595 households in my electorate will also receive the maximum Commonwealth rent assistance rate and will benefit by an extra $31.36 in payments per fortnight from September this year.

We are getting wages moving—there's no doubt about that. We're the first government for a long time to support a minimum wage rise. We're also securing another $40 per week for 466,900 workers in Queensland who are employed under a modern award. The budget also funds the Fair Work Commission's interim decision of a 15 per cent increase in minimum wages for many aged-care workers, supporting around 58,700 award aged-care workers in Queensland, including in Blair. That's an $11.3 billion commitment that only a Labor government will deliver. The coalition has never done so and didn't do it in nine years. There was plenty of gratitude but not enough financial support from those opposite.

We know many people are struggling with the cost of housing and breaking into the market. That's why we are trying to assist people into homeownership. If only those opposite and the Greens would support the Housing Australia Future Fund, that would help tens of thousands of people. But we are already expanding eligibility for the Home Guarantee Scheme, which has already helped 2,142 people in Blair, among many other housing initiatives.

When it comes to helping those who are most vulnerable, the Albanese Labor government's National Disability Insurance Scheme budget initiatives include $73.4 million to better support participants managing their plans and will help about 6,000 NDIS participants in Blair. I think this reform is absolutely crucial to the NDIS.

The Albanese Labor government is also looking after veterans and families, investing $328.1 million in the budget to support more than 340,000 veterans, including 9,161 veterans in Blair accessing services through the Department of Veterans' Affairs, and the 500 extra full-time public servants processing claims on the front line are absolutely crucial. The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide revealed that the coalition had ripped hundreds of millions of dollars in the last year or so out of the veterans' affairs budget, evidence admitted by the secretary of the department and previous veterans' affairs ministers in the royal commission. So there is a lot more that we are doing in this space to help veterans.

One of the big issues that we have is a skills shortage across Ipswich and the Somerset region in my electorate. That is why we are working with the Palaszczuk Labor government to provide 70,000 fee-free TAFE places across Queensland. That is very important for TAFE south-west, particularly at the Bundamba campus in my electorate. We are boosting vocational education and training, and tackling these skills shortages. It is great to see people enrolling in TAFE courses in huge numbers in response to this, particularly in priority areas like early childhood education, nursing, aged care, disability support work, cyber security, construction. The extra 200,000 places we're providing on top of the 180,000 fee-free TAFE places are crucial. These come on top of the 20,000 university places, which are absolutely crucial, particularly in regional Australia. We are also supporting local apprentices and tradies with an additional $54.3 million in critical apprenticeship supports to improve completion rates and that assists 2,365 apprentices currently training in Blair.

There is help for small business in the budget as well. The government will support 750,000 small businesses in Queensland with a turnover of up to $10 million by temporarily increasing the instant asset write-off threshold up to $20,000. The eligible assets will need to be first-user installed and ready between 1 July this year and 30 June next year. Around 750,000 SMEs in Queensland are eligible to benefit by the smart business energy initiative, helping them to save on their power bills through smarter energy use and by making energy-saving upgrades.

The Albanese government's $2.4 billion investment in the NBN in the last budget will see 7,875 premises in Blair have access to faster and more reliable internet. That is absolutely crucial if you are living in regional Queensland, particularly on farms or in country towns in my electorate, and in urban areas around Deebing Heights, Ripley, Flinders View and Central Ipswich. The legacy of those opposite in effectively destroying the NBN as it was first conceived is absolutely appalling. They promised they would have it done by 2020 and look what they did. They just absolutely gutted it. The people in my electorate know it and they know it well because I get that feedback all the time from businesses in places like Wulkuraka, Esk, Toogoolawah and places like that.

In my electorate I am very pleased to see the Ipswich City Council getting flood warning infrastructure and a support for the creeks and rivers in our area under our urban rivers program. We are providing $3 million to Ipswich City Council, because in my electorate we have had three major floods since I have been a federal MP—in 2011, 2013 and 2022. Those flood gauges, the geoscience, the riparian repair, the getting rid of noxious weeds are absolutely crucial. As we saw, those early warning systems need to be in place, so I am very pleased to see our commitment of $236 million over 10 years for high-priority flood warning infrastructure, which will complement state and local government upgrades of flood gauges and cameras following the recent floods.

I know the Ipswich City Council and the Somerset Regional Council will welcome the government's ongoing commitment for critical local infrastructure through programs including Roads of Strategic Importance, the Black Spot Program, the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, the Roads to Recovery Program and the Bridges Renewal Program over the next four years. I have seen the benefit of those programs in opposition and in government. I commend the Somerset Regional Council for the great work they have done. I also thank Ipswich City Council, including councillors like Councillor Jacob Madsen and Councillor Sheila Ireland who have taken the initiative in rural Ipswich. It's absolutely crucial. The budget contains two new programs which will help my local area. Thriving Suburbs and the Urban Precincts and Partnership Program will support infrastructure needs from sport, community and cultural upgrades to new precincts which will transform suburbs. I'm looking forward to working with councils and other stakeholders to apply for funding under these local project programs, and I'm very, very pleased to see that they've been provided and that we're eligible.

I'm happy to see the review of infrastructure investment programs. I think those opposite, all too often, did not invest in places like Blair, under the building better regions programs and other types of programs. We did not get the kind of support we needed when we were in opposition. I saw the colour coded spreadsheet arrangements for those opposite, and we saw the egregious way they politicised funding in those areas. It's really a disgrace the way they carried on .It's surprising that now they whinge and whine and wail, but, in fact, when they were in government, they were quite happy to politicise all forms of road funding. They were like the National Party under Bjelke-Petersen of old. They were lacking in transparency and accountability with no idea whatsoever about the fact that they had to actually support all of Queensland. They wouldn't help local councils to support local communities in an efficient and effective way. They were just colour-coding spreadsheets all over the place. After 10 years of mismanagement of the infrastructure pipeline, we need this review, and I'm very pleased to support it. I look forward to supporting the budget and all the initiatives that will help my local electorate.

Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We've seen the third instalment of 'Jimbo-nomics' in the most recent budget. We saw the first instalment last October. The second instalment of 'Jimbo-nomics', of course, was the treatise that we all saw—some 6,000 words, from memory—that said that the Labor Treasurer is going to change the way that economies works and the way economics works and the way business works. It will be quite an extraordinary effort, to be frank. What we've seen in this latest implementation of the 'Jimbo-nomic' plan from the Labor Treasurer is very, very straightforward. The Reserve Bank of Australia has its foot on the brake of inflation, and the federal Labor Treasurer has his foot on the accelerator. We saw in the most recent budget an increase in expenditure of $185 billion in the forwards. What's one of the fundamental tenets of 'Jimbo-nomics'? It is to take money from those who have earned it and deliver it to those who want it.

Quite simply, the people who have got it in the neck in the most recent budget are middle Australia—the taxpayers of this country—and, in my electorate, the ones who desperately need support when we have raging inflation of some seven per cent. We've seen the price of a loaf of bread go up by as much as 70 per cent. People's money is worth substantially less now than it was a year ago. What did those opposite do? The government decided not to deliver the low-income tax offset for 51,000 people in my electorate. There are 51,000 people who will desperately need up to $1,500 when they do their tax return. These are people who are working hard and paying their taxes. Now they've seen increases in their electricity costs, their gas prices, their rates, their food and their fuel. Included in the most recent budget is an increase in the cost of transport—an attack on the cost of fuel for the people who deliver almost everything in this country. No matter whether it's food or white goods or televisions, they arrive on truck transport, and, every time the cost of the transport goes up, it is paid for by the people who purchase those products. So inflation will continue to skyrocket under this government because they simply don't know how to manage it.

The Reserve Bank is doing their best, and it is incredibly difficult for mortgage holders because interest rates keep going up because this government can't get a hold of inflation. We see that, in order for the new Treasurer to spruik his wares, they have substantially delayed funding for infrastructure that is critical for productivity and critical for road safety. The coalition's $120 billion plan has been stalled for two reasons. The first reason is that they do not want it in the budget and they've pushed it out into the outlier years. The second reason is that many, many programs are now under review, including programs like Roads to Recovery, the bridges program, black spots and the national heavy vehicle road safety program.

In the regions I come from, these programs are relied upon by local government in particular, because it's the way they actually fix this infrastructure. And guess what? If they don't have that money, that work still needs to be done, and it will be worn by the ratepayers of those local government areas. My two major councils, the Bundaberg Council and the Fraser Coast Regional Council, got it in the neck in the Queensland state Labor government review for the financial assistance grants that go to those local governments. Those decisions are made by a Queensland Labor government committee. The coalition increased funding by some $70 million, and that funding to these two major councils has now been cut by millions of dollars, to be paid for by ratepayers. It is another increase in taxes for those hardworking individuals.

The people I represent do not have readily available cash; they do not. They have one of the lowest per capita incomes in the country. They simply cannot pay these increases in electricity prices, in logistics costs, in food costs. They don't have the available money. Here are the two sides of the Labor Party. I have correspondence from Minister King, in writing, saying that the federal Labor government will honour the existing commitments in the Hinkler regional deal, and I took her at her word. I thought: 'Well, that's good. These are important projects. They're moving through the process. Many of them are contracted. Many of them are underway. Many of them are close to being done.' I thought, well, that's great; that is good for the local people.

Imagine my surprise to find that they're on the cut list. We have a number of projects named in the media that have been listed as now under review. When inquiries were made of the minister's office, guess what the response was that came back? That guarantee is a 'starting position' for the Labor government—a starting position. This is incredible. There is correspondence that says you will honour the deal, followed by a statement—I assume from the media adviser in the minister's office—saying that a guarantee is a starting position. Now, I'm pretty sure that if you look up the definition of 'guarantee', whether on Wikipedia or in the MacquarieDictionary, a guarantee is a guarantee; it is not a starting position.

The people I represent expect these commitments to be honoured, because they are important. They are incredibly important, if we look at what happens with road infrastructure right now. We have had two lots of fatalities in the region in the past 48 hours—a five-person crash on Goodwood Road and today a fatality on the Bruce Highway, north of my patch, in Gin Gin, in the electorate of the member for Flynn. This, unfortunately, is a regular occurrence. This infrastructure money needs to be spent, not delayed. It needs to be spent. You cannot expect ratepayers to wear the increasing costs for this infrastructure. It is incredible that the government would even look to review it.

And then I come to one of the major drivers of my economy, and that is Paradise Dam. We saw a commitment from the Labor government to match the $600 million, and it's guaranteed. Is it the same guarantee we got on the Hinkler regional deal—the one that's a 'starting position'? Or is it a real guarantee? I've asked the minister's office for the profile for funding for Paradise Dam. This is an enormous project. It is critical to agriculture in the region. You cannot grow tree crops, for example, without a guarantee of water, because—guess what?—they die, and they take seven to nine years to get to the point of peak production. That is why it is so important that the federal Labor government actually honours their commitments. If they do not, people will not invest.

I have 51,000 people who are missing out on the low-income tax offset. I have an enormous agricultural sector that is relying on Paradise Dam to be rebuilt. Let's place the blame where it should be. The Queensland Labor government built this dam. They built it to a price, not a standard, and it failed. It is the biggest infrastructure failure in this country's history. It is incredible that we are at this point. The dam basically has to be rebuilt. But the water that is in there is critical to investment in my region, because no-one invests without water security and water reliability. People have spent an enormous amount of time and money over the past decade putting in place avocado plantations and macadamia nut plantations. We're the biggest producers of macadamia nuts in the country. It's a major export crop. It goes to countries like China and everywhere else. They cannot have a guarantee not being met on a commitment of funding for Paradise Dam. I say again to the minister: what is your word worth? What is a guarantee worth? What is something in writing worth? It's pretty clear at the moment that it's absolutely nothing.

What is it that we delivered for my local electorate? We delivered important connecting infrastructure that builds our economy, not things that look it around, not increases in electricity prices, not increases in gas prices, not interventions in markets. If we look at something like the common user infrastructure of the Port of Bundaberg, a project that was originally scheduled to cost $10 million, we see that, through years of Labor delays in Queensland, it's now $17.7 million. I secured that money in the last budget for the coalition. It's underway, and guess who did the sod-turning. It was the local state Labor member, who was opposed. They didn't want to build this.

We see now that we have organisations and businesses that are looking to utilise this infrastructure for exports and imports into the Bundaberg port, a port which is, unfortunately, terribly underutilised. We have a sugar industry which is in decline. It was the major user. We now have an opportunity for other organisations to be able to load at the port in a way that is competitive with the international markets and that is competitive in terms of pricing, which means they will invest in the local port because it's the right thing to do. It's close to their facilities. It's a benefit for all.

We saw the Palaszczuk government declare the Port of Bundaberg a state development area, would you believe, in February 2017. That conveyor is under construction right now. It took years for the approval. The delays have been quite incredible.

For another project, the Pacific Marine Base at the Bundaberg port, we secured $6 million from the Building Better Regions Fund. It is a roll-on roll-off facility and commercial vessel wharf for the temporary berth of vessels undergoing maintenance, and it has great potential to deliver trade into the Pacific. That is important for my local region because it means they can export their products directly to the Pacific. What a great arrangement. But, once again, it was held up by the Queensland state Labor government for years in terms of signing the agreements and giving approvals. But a similar wharf in Brisbane, would you believe, I understand was approved in 12 weeks. It is 12 weeks if you're in the city and years if you're in Bundaberg and the regions.

We have the Torbanlea Pialba Road flood road immunity upgrade under the regional deal underway right now. There was $24 million from the Commonwealth on an 80-20 split. That will ensure that there is an all-weather access road between Hervey Bay and the Bruce Highway. It means that they won't be cut off by floods. They won't lose their access to what is the lifeline for Queensland: the Bruce Highway. It is that critical. If you want to transport product, if you want to get to a hospital by road or if you want to get to services which are not in your town, it is the Bruce Highway that takes you there in coastal Queensland.

We have the Boundary Road extension upgrade as part of the Hinkler regional deal, worth $7.7 million. It's a $26.5 million project. It will provide a relief to cross-Hervey Bay traffic with another option, particularly for those who might need access to emergency services. It will get them to the hospital faster. It will be safer and better for all people who live down there.

We've had a number of black spot programs over the years, and I'm still astounded that there's even any risk at all that a very longstanding policy which is relied on by nearly every council I can think of right across the country would even have a question mark against it being delivered over the forwards. There is so much traffic build-up. We have enormous increases in terms of the population. Hervey Bay alone is growing, I'm told, some seven per cent a year. That is very high.

For upgrades to the Bruce Highway between Maryborough and Torbanlea we have $103 million, once again—guess what—delivered by the coalition government and opened by Queensland Labor government so much so that they didn't even bother to invite us. But the member for Wide Bay and I weren't offended. We held our own opening ceremony. It was very well received, I'm sure! But these are important upgrades. I heard the member for Blair's contribution earlier, and the idea that these things are only applied to coalition electorates—who do they think uses the road? No-one checks to see who you vote for before you go on the Bruce Highway. It is a benefit for all Australians and all Queenslanders. The idea that this infrastructure is for some specific group is absolutely outrageous. The Bruce Highway continues to need upgrades in areas. I'm very pleased to see that the Gympie bypass is coming close to fruition. That is a very strategic upgrade, but, once again, it was one that we committed to in 2016 and took years for the Queensland Labor government to actually deliver.

In my own patch, the Royal Flying Doctors Service aviation training facility is another part of the Hinkler Regional Deal. RFDS pilots will come from across Australia to train on the new Beechcraft King Air 360 flight simulator. They all have to sleep somewhere. They all have to eat somewhere. They'll all shop. They'll all utilise the local facilities. With $15 million from the Hinkler Regional Deal, this project is underway. Tilt-up panels are up. Murchie Constructions, a local contractor, won the contract, which I'm very pleased about. It should be ready and open by the end of the year. It complements the RFDS LifeFlight facility, which is right next door. When you think about linking infrastructure to build your economy, this is what it looks like.

We have seen cuts to the Entrepreneurship Facilitator Program in the Labor Party's most recent budget. Since 2019 Regional Business HQ has supported 1,300 businesses across the region. They were one year into a three-year contract, and it has been cut by this federal Labor government. Can you imagine what confidence that gives to everyone out there that utilises funding? They engage on the basis that the contracts will be honoured. They make decisions around equipment, infrastructure and staffing based on those three-year contracts. The rug has been pulled out from under them two years early, with an existing contract. It is outrageous—absolutely outrageous.

I don't need to bang on about the $275, because it will never be delivered. That will never show up. We have seen 10 interest rate rises under this Labor government. I'll go back to where I started. The RBA has its foot on the brake for inflation and it hurts mortgage holders, but this Labor government has its foot on the inflation accelerator and that is not in the national interest or the interest of our economy.

Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This budget is indeed a Labor budget. It's a budget that is delivering real cost-of-living relief for people in my community and communities like ours all across Australia. It's a budget that gives more support to those who need it most. It's a budget that strengthens our Medicare system, making it easier to see a doctor and cheaper to get much-needed medicine. It's a budget underpinned by responsible, considered and necessary restraint to lay the foundations of a stronger, more resilient economy for the future. And it's a budget that delivers a modest but important surplus for the first time in 15 years.

This budget reflects the priorities and the posture of this government and our Prime Minister. It strikes the right balance between dealing with the immediate challenges we face here at home and setting Australia up for the challenges of the future. It is about targeted cost-of-living relief for families, fixing the mess left by the Liberals opposite in their wasted decade in government, and rebuilding a stronger and fairer economy for all Australians. From Sunbury to Ballan, and in every town and suburb in between, people across my electorate are under pressure. Inflation and interest rate rises driven by disrupted supply chains and Putin's illegal war in Ukraine are having a real impact on household budgets. Despite record job creation and wage rises, after the former Liberal government's deliberate strategy of wage suppression, we still need to ease that pressure on Australian households while keeping downward pressure on inflation.

Our budget does just that with targeted cost-of-living relief. In my electorate of Hawke more than 38,000 people will save money because this government is making hundreds of much-needed medicines cheaper and allowing people to buy two months worth of medicine for the class of a single month's prescription. By tripling the bulk billing incentive for 29 GP clinics across our community, nearly 84,000 people will have better access to bulk billed GPs, reducing the out of pocket costs of seeing a doctor in Hawke. Over 10,000 people in Hawke will benefit from our responsible increase in the base rate of JobSeeker and other payments; 8,520 households will benefit from our 15 per cent boost to the maximum rates of Commonwealth rent assistance; and, one of my favourites, our affordable childcare package is helping more than 6,800 families in Hawke save money and enable parents to return to work. Our energy rebates will reduce power bills by an additional $250. These are real and responsible measures that will keep money in the pockets of the people in my community without adding to inflation.

This is what a Labor budget looks like. While there is so much to be proud of and is, I'm particularly pleased with its focus on strengthening our Medicare system and making it easier to see a GP. There is not a week that goes by without me or my office hearing from people in our community who are struggling to see a bulk-billed doctor. I've shared examples in this place before—letters from constituents whose GPs are retiring, leaving their patients with no doctor because a clinic cannot find a new one to hire, or stories of GPs so overwhelmed that they simply cannot afford to continue bulk-billing. It is heartbreaking but it is not surprising. After a decade of attacking our healthcare system, the Liberals left Medicare in the worst shape it has ever been. It all started with then health minister and now Leader of the Opposition—who, I might add, was voted the worst health minister in Australia's history by GPs—and his plan to introduce a $7 co-payment for people simply trying to access necessary medical help. That will go down as nothing more than a liberal GP tax forevermore. But that plan didn't work, so what followed from those opposite was more discrete, more covert, more insidious. They are gutted our health system with chronic underfunding and total neglect. As a result, bulk-billing rates are declining, and only 14 per cent of medical graduates now choose to work in general practice compared to the historical benchmark of 50 per cent.

This Labor budget begins to fix that. This government—the Albanese government—is investing $3.5 billion to halt the steep decline in bulk-billing with the largest one-off increase to the bulk-billing incentive ever. The incentive will be tripled for the most common consultations, making it easier for 83,888 people—that's nearly 84,000 people—in my electorate alone to see a GP and to be bulk-billed—that is, not pay anything additional. All the while, we are reducing the pressure on local emergency rooms and GP clinics by establishing an urgent care clinic in Sunbury, which will be operational this year, and by implementing two-month prescriptions to halve the number of doctor visits required. This is beneficial for our primary healthcare system, it is beneficial to Medicare and, very importantly, it is beneficial for patients.

This budget also provides a much-needed pay rise for a group of workers who deserve it the most: aged-care workers. Aged-care workers are the best among us, and their patient, loving care for some of our most vulnerable Australians is nothing short of incredible. However, their work has been made more difficult owing to the sector's insufficient funding and inadequate pay rates across the sector. For too long, those working in aged care have been asked to work harder or longer without adequate awards, but this budget changes that. It allocates $11.3 billion dollars to fund the Fair Work Commission's interim decision for a 15 per cent increase in minimum wages for many aged-care workers. This will benefit nearly 56,700 award aged-care workers in my state of Victoria, who will earn between $129.20 and $341.24 more per week if they're working more than 38 hours. It represents fairer pay for their hard and important work and creates more opportunities for those working in our care economy.

This budget delivers real and targeted cost-of-living relief. It strengthens our Medicare system and helps some of our most deserving Australians with a pay rise. Importantly, it achieves all this while strengthening Australia's finances through restraint and responsible budgetary management. After the 10 long, wasted years of the previous Liberal government, our economy has been left with a trillion dollars of Liberal debt. Those opposite, who delusionally claim the egotistical mantle of being superior economic managers, failed to deliver a single budget surplus, despite what the former member for Kooyong's mugs might have said. They couldn't deliver a surplus because of their rorts, their wastefulness, their unproductive spending and their shameless sandbagging of their own interests. They were motivated by media stunts and press releases, and they forgot that their job was to deliver for the Australian people.

This government, the Albanese government, is about more than announcements. We are about responsible governance for every Australian, and so our budget forecasts a modest but important surplus, ahead of most major advanced economies. It also delivers lower deficits and reduced debt over each year of the forward estimates. We are returning 82 per cent of revenue upgrades to the bottom line in this budget, with a total of 87 per cent across this budget and the October budget. We're making a further $17.8 billion in savings and spending reprioritisations, totalling $40 billion across both budgets. We're limiting annual growth in real payments to an average of 0.6 per cent over the next five years. By returning most of these revenue upgrades to the budget, the government is reducing that trillion dollars of Liberal debt and reducing our interest costs. This will provide a stronger and more sustainable fiscal position for Australia. Moreover, we have achieved this while providing responsible cost-of-living relief, investing in a stronger and more secure economy, funding the critical services that Australians rely on and supporting small businesses throughout our country.

This is why I was so pleased to have the Treasurer visit John from Keemin electrical in Maddingley, in my electorate of Hawke, last week. There is much to commend about John and the work that he does. But in my opinion there are a couple of things that I think are best. John employs 25 people in Hawke, and they're training three apprentices. Their core business involves helping other small and medium-sized businesses save money by maximising their energy efficiency and reducing waste. This is excellent for local jobs, it's excellent for local business and it's good for our planet. I was proud to bring the Treasurer to meet John, his son Jesse—Jesse's got a pretty impressive haircut; the Treasurer will know what I'm talking about—and the entire team at Keemin so we could inform them about how our budget was assisting businesses like theirs by increasing the instant asset write-off, providing more relief on power bills for small businesses and supporting 3,315 apprentices in Hawke to complete their training. Most importantly for Keemin, this budget supports small and medium-sized businesses in electrifying, improving energy efficiency and reducing emissions, by introducing a small business energy incentive.

This is what Labor's budget is all about. It's supporting everyday people and businesses just like John's—businesses and communities all across Australia. It's taking the pressure off families. It's making it easier to see a bulk-billing doctor. It's providing a much-needed pay rise for those who deserve it most. And because it's measured and responsible, this budget is doing all of that while putting Australia's economy on the best possible footing to deliver a better future for everybody in our country.

Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In my role as the shadow assistant minister for regional health and the member for Mallee, I am pleased to speak about regional Australia and my home electorate of Mallee in this debate on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2023-2024. I am passionate and committed to improving healthcare services for every person living in regional, rural and remote communities, who are too often unable to access even basic health care that people in the cities take for granted.

My electorate of Mallee is home to over 155,000 people and covers an area of over 83,500 square kilometres. The electorate covers 36 per cent of Victoria, making it the largest in the state. Yet, despite its size, population and economic significance to the state and the nation, Mallee is plagued by the inadequate provision of health services. Issues faced in Mallee are, sadly, common in a range of regional and rural settings. For example, in a recent health survey I facilitated amongst Mallee residents, to which nearly 2,000 people responded, 30 per cent of respondents said they do not have a regular GP. Forty per cent of respondents put off seeing a GP because it's just too hard to get an appointment. Thirty-three per cent presented to their local hospital because they couldn't see their GP. And that says nothing about the regional communities that are entirely reliant on fly-in fly-out locum services and agency nurses because there is no doctor in their region.

A 2022 Grattan Institute report shows that for every 100,000 people there are 123 full-time equivalent GPs in inner metropolitan cities but only 83 per 100,000 people in rural towns. The situation shows no sign of abating, since there are nearly 3,000 GPs needed nationally and a shortage of 100,000 nurses. So, even if Labor had taken measures in their budget to attract healthcare workers to the regions, where they are so badly needed, where would they come from? The minister has failed dismally to address this glaring issue, which is leaving people in precarious states, literally, of life and death.

Given this dire situation, you would expect that Labor would have announced a raft of new measures in their May budget aimed at improving access to health care in regional Australia. But, no, there is not one single new measure specifically for regional health services in their budget, apart from a few much-needed measures aimed at improving the health of First Nations people, some of whom live in regional Australia. It seems the government are in denial about the healthcare crisis facing the region, and you can't fix a problem that you are not even willing to acknowledge exists.

One simple measure the government could take right now is to reverse the absurd decision to expand the distribution priority areas directing international medical graduates to specific regions. Under the new criteria, metropolitan suburbs are now eligible, and directly compete, with rural and regional areas. This completely undermines the reason for implementing this policy in the first place, because we now have evidence that IMGs, international medical graduates, are choosing to live and work in the outer suburbs rather than in the regional communities where they're so desperately needed.

A delegate at the Mildura health summit, which I hosted recently in March, told us that, as soon as the DPAs changed, three of the six international medical graduates in Swan Hill left. As I've heard repeatedly, Swan Hill spent over $40,000 to get an overseas trained doctor—who made a commitment to stay for at least two years—to work in Swan Hill. But as soon as the distribution priority area was expanded, the doctor left and went south towards Melbourne.

I have called on the Minister for Health and Aged Care, Mark Butler, to reverse this perverse decision so the DPA can do what it was meant to do—provide healthcare professionals to regional and remote communities that are crying out for them. If he continues to refuse then he needs to tell the nine million people who live and work in the regions what his solution is for our dire health workforce shortages.

We now know that the Minister for Health and Aged Care implemented this change to the 60-day medicine dispensing without once consulting the Pharmacy Guild, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia or any other pharmaceutical body. If he had done, he would have learned of the devastating impacts this decision will have on pharmacy businesses, especially in regional communities, where economies of scale will not protect small businesses from the huge losses they face. It seems that Labor are intent on destabilising regional communities and are risking further closures of primary care services. While this policy will halve some dispensing costs, it appears Labor has no ability to join the dots and understand that if regional community pharmacies are forced to shut their doors because they are not financially viable, patients will not be able to access medications at all. How does that help anyone? Consequently, I express my deep concern for the repercussions of this policy that it will have on our small regional pharmacies and the people they serve.

Dedicated pharmacists across Mallee fear for the future of their businesses. They have told me they are at risk of closure due to the implementation of this urban-centric policy that fails to appreciate the unique challenges faced by regional communities. Take pharmacist Taren Gill from Maryborough in Mallee, who expects to be insolvent due to losses in excess of half a million dollars when this policy is initiated. She also expects that more than 1,000 of her patients will face medicine shortages due to the measure.

Alexander Look, a pharmacist from Ouyen, is concerned with the precarious state of the medication supply chain. There are already shortages of common medications, including those used for infection, diabetes, blood pressure and mental health conditions. This policy will only exacerbate the problem, leading to hoarding, potentially, and an increased risk of overdoses, particularly among vulnerable groups such as children and seniors. Mr Look's pharmacy is the sole provider within a nearly a 100-kilometre radius, making access to basic medications an arduous journey for some of his customers. Where will they go if this business is forced to close down because of this reckless policy? It is not as though regional people can simply drive to the next suburb and find another chemist; it may well be a 200-kilometre round trip. Kobie McIvor from Cohuna shared her concern about the risk of medication mismanagement this policy brings. For vulnerable older Australians who heavily rely on the guidance of support of pharmacist, regular monthly check-ins will not take place, potentially leading to poorer health outcomes.

If pharmacies are forced to reduce their hours and staffing levels, the consequences will be dire for the wellbeing of constituents. Natalie Hutchison, a pharmacist from Nhill, proposes an alternative solution—go Natalie!—that prioritises patient safety by reducing the co-payment to $19, and allowing doctors to write prescriptions for 12 months would ensure that patients maintain regular support and contact with their trusted pharmacist. These professionals serve as vital links between patients and comprehensive care, safeguarding the health of regional communities.

Let us not overlook the invaluable human connection that local pharmacies provide as a source of support and interaction, particularly for vulnerable older people. The comfort of walking into a pharmacy, your local pharmacy, and asking questions and receiving guidance from a familiar professional face fosters a sense of trust and community that just cannot be replaced. Many people in my electorate wholeheartedly oppose this policy that threatens to sever these essential bonds. A pharmacist from the Riverina wrote to me warning that the changes to dispensing times will burden regional emergency departments when patients inevitably run out of medication due to shortages. The increase from 30 to 60 days for over 300 medications will place additional strain on already stretched healthcare resources. This policy fails to consider the consequences it will have on emergency departments, GPs and other vital services.

The Prime Minister and his health minister must address the pending crisis in health care and ensure that medications remain accessible and affordable for all Australians. I call on the government to ensure that the implementation of this policy does not jeopardise the viability of community pharmacies or impede patients' access to essential services. The government must explain to the Australian public how it will prevent stockpiling. How will they guarantee an adequate supply of medications to regional and rural community pharmacies? What policy solutions are they enacting to ensure the viability of those pharmacies, including mitigating the risk of job losses, reduced trading hours and closures?

Our regional communities deserve better. I implore the Labor government to reconsider this ill-advised policy and engage in meaningful dialogue with the stakeholders and the experts who understand the unique challenges faced by regional areas. I assure you that I will continue to fight tirelessly for the people of Mallee and advocate for the needs of regional communities across this great nation. It is now up to the Labor Party to step up and demonstrate their commitment to the welfare of all Australians, including regional Australians.

I now turn to the related issue of insufficient access to childcare services in regional Australia. As with all services, child care is either non-existent or in short supply in regional communities. This means that parents who could be working in the healthcare system, as we desperately need them to do—such as nurses—are prevented from doing so for the lack of access to child care. It's a perverse situation when you consider how badly these workers are needed. What is the Minister for Early Childhood Education going to do to address the pressing issue of childcare deserts in Australia? Childcare deserts are areas where families face limited or no access to quality childcare services.

The Community Child Care Fund was established by the coalition government with the purpose of addressing this very issue, ensuring that families in regional areas have access to the vital support they need so that parents who want to can get back to work. However, the Charlton & District Kindergarten in my electorate of Mallee is not eligible to apply for the fund—who knew? Charlton is a small town of approximately 1,000 residents, with only the Charlton & District Kindergarten to service it. It needs access to this fund to provide child care to the local community so that more parents can get back to work. If Charlton doesn't qualify as a childcare desert then it's hard to imagine which town does.

Exacerbating this issue is the absence of alternative childcare options nearby. The next-closest childcare facility would see a gruelling 120-km daily round trip, a journey that is simply unfeasible for parents living in Charlton. As a result, these parents find themselves in a deeply distressing situation in which they are unable to return to work because of the lack of accessible and affordable childcare services. I implore Minister Anne Aly to act on the glaring inequity faced by the parents of Charlton and other regional towns in Mallee, like Donald, Horsham and Nhill, and take swift action to rectify this situation.

It is unjust and unacceptable that families in regional communities like Charlton are excluded from accessing the support provided by the Community Child Care Fund. The dearth of accessible childcare options not only affects parents' ability to rejoin the workforce but also hinders the recruitment and retention of essential professionals in regional areas. Without reliable childcare services, healthcare workers—who are already in short supply—are unable to pursue employment opportunities in the regions, where they're desperately needed. We cannot ignore the far-reaching consequences of this injustice. Families are burdened by the inability to access child care, leading to financial strain and diminished career prospects for parents.

The time for action is now. I call on the government to urgently review the eligibility criteria of the Community Child Care Fund and ensure that it reflects the pressing needs of regional communities across Australia. We must address disparities in childcare access, with parents being unjustly denied the opportunity to participate in the workforce because they cannot access it. The minister, along with the Prime Minister, have proudly extolled the virtues of childcare subsidies— (Time expired)

Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

MITCHELL () (): I thank the member for Mallee for her speech. It's almost like the Liberals and Nationals weren't in government over the last decade. You had the chance, Member for Mallee. One of the biggest challenges which we face and which every Australian is facing at the moment is the cost of living. The message I get loud and clear in my electorate is that the cost of living is biting. There's been an increase in inflation worldwide as we come out of a global pandemic and due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These are issues we can't control, but we are impacted by them. We can't ignore them, and we're facing them head-on. We're targeting the things we can control without increasing inflation further, and that's just what this budget does: it provides cost-of-living relief to those who need it most without putting pressure on inflation.

One way that we're addressing cost-of-living pressures is to get wages moving again, helping to counteract inflation with our Secure Jobs, Better Pay bill that went through the parliament last year. And we're proud. We are loud and proud, as the Prime Minister was in question time today, holding up that dollar coin. We are proud to be the party of higher wages. It's in our DNA. From the shearers strike in Queensland all those years ago, the Labor Party was born on the issues of higher wages and better conditions for working Australians. The Albanese Labor government's Secure Jobs, Better Pay act is lifting wages, improving job security and helping close the gender pay gap. For a decade, those opposite were deliberately keeping wages low. You can't say this often enough: it was deliberate. It wasn't an accident. It was actually their policy, which they didn't want to tell Australians initially. Their policy was to keep Australians' wages suppressed. This government has a different agenda. We are supporting higher wages, and we are proud to support higher wages for Australian workers and their families.

We've brought in other measures as well. From 1 July, families are set to benefit from the Albanese Labor government's Cheaper Child Care scheme. These changes will cut costs by about $1,700 a year for the average family that earns $120,000 per year and that has a child in care three days a week. Ninety-six per cent of families in the system are better off under Labor's changes, and not one is worse off. I know local families are counting down the days as we look forward to more affordable early education and care in the new financial year. This will bring real cost-of-living relief to many local families and an opportunity for more families to work, grow and thrive in my wonderful electorate, particularly in those growing family suburbs on the margins of my electorate.

I've spoken to many of my constituents in recent weeks who are worried about receiving their next quarterly power bill. Rising power prices are indeed amongst the biggest burdens on Australian families and Australian businesses. Around 143,000 households in Tasmania will be eligible to receive rebates on their electricity bills under the Albanese government's Energy Price Relief Plan as announced in the 9 May budget. Households and businesses may be eligible for the rebate of up to $500 off power bills. These rebates will take the sting out of those power price rises in late 2023 and early 2024, when the increases are expected to be the most acute. Pensioners, veterans, seniors and other concession card holders, as well as recipients of the carer allowance, family tax benefit and anyone eligible for existing state and territory electricity concession schemes, will be eligible for the rebate. This is responsible and targeted cost-of-living relief. I know it will make a meaningful difference to the households who need it most and to the businesses in our community. It's got to be said again: in December, we were passing a bill through this parliament to get energy relief for households and businesses, and those opposite, who are the first to the dispatch box every question time to talk about power prices, voted against the energy relief plan. They should hang their heads in shame.

At the last election, Labor said that we would strengthen Medicare, and we are delivering on that promise. We created Medicare, we believe in Medicare and we want to make sure that it's here for many years to come. We are strengthening Australia's healthcare system. We are making sure that Australians can access the care they need when they need it most. We heard from previous speakers. The member for Hawke gave a most excellent speech just previously, talking about how, under the former government, Medicare was left to wither on the vine through wilful neglect by those opposite, underfunding and underresourcing. They couldn't kill it stone dead like they really wanted to, so they tried to kill it through death by a thousand cuts, as we saw over their nine years in government. We are committed to restoring Medicare to its rightful place as the universal health system for Australia.

We've already saved Australians money through our cheaper medicines policy, which came in on 1 January. Now Labor is taking the hassle out of putting in scripts and is making medicines even cheaper. Patients will no longer be required to attend a pharmacy every month and will now be able to fill a script for two months at a time. That's fewer visits to the doctor each time you need a prescription, fewer visits to pharmacies and fewer fees. In turn, that should hopefully ease the pressure on GPs and patients, who are currently facing long waiting lists for an appointment. It's all part of a holistic approach. We've cut the cost of medicines, we're helping GPs to invest in their practices, we're opening Australia's first endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics and we're opening bulk-billed urgent care clinics across the country. I know we are also looking at extending scope of practice for other health professionals. We are looking at everything we can do to strengthen access to health, particularly in regional areas like my electorate. We are absolutely determined to improve the mess that was left to us after nine long years of those opposite neglecting this issue.

I draw your attention to the contribution from the member for Mallee, who talked about the dearth of GPs across the regions. She is absolutely right: there is a dearth. Frankly, it's worldwide. It's Australia-wide, certainly, and no more acute than in the regions, where we are finding it hard to not only recruit GPs but also retain those that we have. This is an issue that hasn't popped up overnight. It hasn't just popped up over the last year. Those opposite had nine years in government to work on this, to find solutions, and they just sat on their hands. It falls to us to fix this problem that we have inherited.

Our investment in tripling the bulk-billing incentive for GPs will mean children and concession card holders will find it easier to see a bulk-billing doctor. Mary in Bridgewater recently visited my office to tell me that her doctor is no longer bulk-billing her regular appointments to get her prescriptions filled. We are confident that our increased incentive will give more doctors the option to return to bulk-billing for under-16s and concession card holders. This, in addition to Mary soon being able to collect a 60-day supply of her regular medication, will save her trips to the doctor and pharmacies, allow her to keep more of her money and cause her less inconvenience. The Albanese Labor government is strengthening our healthcare system for all Australians.

High demand and limited supply of housing have caused costs to soar. Waiting lists for social and affordable housing are out of control. We have people sofa hopping and vulnerable people unable to leave potentially violent situations and facing an awful reality: does a woman become homeless with her kids and have nowhere to live or does she stay with an abusive partner? That's a choice no-one should have to make. We have people living in tents and families relying on their older parents. Sarah is a single parent who recently contacted me. Not only has she recently moved into an affordable rental home but she will be better off with an increase in her single parent payment and rental assistance. She told me she was one of the lucky ones to get her new home and she has a friend in the area still on the waiting list who is in a vulnerable and volatile situation. Immediate action is required to help these people.

We know that the main responsibility for housing provision lies with the states and territories, and I have to say that the Tasmanian Liberal government has absolutely failed the people of Tasmania. The emergency housing list and the public housing list have blown out after nine long years of the Liberals in office in Tasmania. They're just doing nothing. They've got a plan. They've got a target. They're nowhere close to achieving it. Immediate action is required.

Of course, the Labor party went to the last federal election, last May, with a well-thought-out plan, the Housing Australia Future Fund and associated issues, and it's still being blocked in the Senate by the Liberals and the Greens. They're both blocking a plan that will deliver 30,000 homes over five years, including 4,000 homes for women and children escaping domestic violence. I understand that the Liberals and Nationals opposite are ideologically opposed to public housing, but the Greens? They once again are allowing their version of what they think is the perfect to be the enemy of the good. They'd rather seem to make no progress at all on the provision of this housing than have some progress. I know the member for Griffith will be here soon for his contribution, and I say to the member for Griffith, who is the housing spokesman for the Greens: just get out of the way. By all means stand and make your speeches. Say Labor should be doing more. You've got every right to do it. But don't stop us providing much-needed housing which will make a material difference to the lives of vulnerable people who need a roof over their heads. It can happen. Once that bill is through this parliament, there's $500 million a year every year for housing. Get out of the way and let it go through. We are not here to play with people's lives. Precious time is being wasted as the housing crisis continues. I implore those opposite and the Greens to put the politics aside for our most vulnerable people and get this bill through the Senate.

We're also making it easier for people to get onto the property ladder with our First Home Guarantee, the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee and the Family Home Guarantee for single parents. All of these measures are helping to get people into homes. Whether they are renters or buyers, it helps people get onto the ladder of homeownership or home rental. The Albanese government is also helping more Australians into homeownership sooner through a significant expansion of criteria for the Home Guarantee Scheme. Eligibility criteria have been expanded for all elements of a number of guarantees and schemes, and we are absolutely continuing to address these housing challenges. As I say, this is a matter that's traditionally rested with states and territories, but they've failed abysmally—no more so than in Tasmania—so we have to step in and we are stepping in.

From 1 July this year, friends, siblings and other family members will be eligible for joint applications under the First Home Guarantee and the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee. These had previously been restricted to people who were married or in a de facto relationship in addition to single applicants. The guarantees will also be expanded to non-first-home-buyers who haven't owned a property in Australia in the past 10 years. This will support those who have fallen out of homeownership, often due to financial crisis or relationship breakdown. Modern families come in all sorts of configurations, and the great Australian dream of homeownership should not be out of the grasp of anyone.

Our budget on 9 May has delivered $1.5 billion in new investment in agriculture, including a sustainable biosecurity funding model for the very first time in our nation's history. This new funding helps ensure that agriculture is protected from short- and long-term threats such as exotic pests, disease and climate change as well as helps to grow the industry through access to more workers and overseas trade markets. As well as the additional $1 billion for agriculture, funding continues for the rollout of key forestry initiatives, including grants to improve innovation, the National Institute for Forest Products Innovation and plantation establishment grants. Forestry in Tasmania is a sustainable practice. It's vital to supply timber to the national market, and we absolutely need to see it continue. Tasmania already has tough biosecurity measures in place to protect our flora, fauna and agriculture businesses—and it's helped by a nice, big water border—and to make such an investment shows that we are serious about protecting and growing our world-class agriculture.

I'm proud to stand here in support of the budget that the Treasurer delivered. It's a good budget. It's a good Labor budget. It delivers cost relief to where it's need most. We're proud of our record over the past year, our first year, but there's no party. We're not popping any champagne corks, and we're certainly not breaking out any cigars. We know there's a lot of work to be done for those who need it most. We stand with the Australian people to make sure that no-one gets left behind, and we'll work so hard for a better future for all Australians.

Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2023-2024. As always, I've been listening to and talking to people in businesses in my regional and rural electorate of Forrest in WA and simply asking them: 'Are you better off now than you were a year ago when Labor came into government?' These are the hardworking Australians who want to get ahead. There's no doubt that Labor's budget will see inflation stay higher for longer, impacting on every Australian, including those in my electorate. That's every household, every small business, every self-funded retiree and every mortgage holder, who has been paying and will continue to pay more for longer than they should for goods and services. It's a budget built on bracket creep. That's additional taxes paid by hardworking Australians who are just trying to get ahead.

Labour promised to lower the cost of living. Well, it has broken that promise, and that's just one of at least 12 promises that Labor has broken. This budget does not support the hardworking Australians who simply want to get ahead and those who are on the front line of the effects of the cost of living, the cost to small businesses and Labor's increased taxes. These are the ones who are clearly now Labor's working poor, and this comes from a Labor government that's presiding over the highest rate of inflation since the target band of two to three per cent was first established in 1993.

At the same time that we have this historically high inflation rate, the government is frontloading the spending. Of the $20 billion in spending measures, $12 billion will roll out over the next 12 months. This actually means that inflation will stay higher for longer for Australian families and businesses. It's a big-spending, high-taxing budget that bakes in even greater structural spending. In fact, government spending has increased by $185 billion, but those same hardworking Australians who are just trying to get ahead have been ignored. Compared to the coalition's last budget, over the next five years the tax paid by Australians will increase by more than $300 million. Labor has removed the low- and middle-income tax offset, which means that 10 million Australians who earn under $126,000 will be paying up to $1,500 more a year in tax.

This government has sent Australia backwards in its first full year. There is no plan to address inflation, it has failed to deliver on cost-of-living relief, it has failed to deliver the $275 cut to electricity and it has certainly failed to deliver cheaper mortgages. It has failed to bring Australians even closer together as a united and cohesive nation. Instead, we are seeing division created by the government.

We know we're desperately short of housing and rentals, so Labor's answer is to bring in 1.5 million people—715,000 of those over the next two years. That's around 6,000 a week. Where on earth are they going to live, and how much will this increase rents, as well as building costs, for Australians? At the same time, they have cut infrastructure in the budget. It's a really contrary approach. The 1.5 million people will add to the pressure on waiting lists in hospitals, schools and childcare centres, particularly in rural and regional Australia, where we already have those childcare deserts.

Labor promised to get wages moving, but when paired with seven per cent inflation, real wages have actually gone backwards. At the same time, Labor is actually employing at least 10,000 new public servants. That's on top of the 181,000 already there, and I recently read where they're working on at least a 10.5 per cent wage increase, which is currently under negotiation.

There is no doubt that Labor's policies are making it harder and harder for people and business. It's certainly making it harder for small business. I hear about this all the time. Labor's high inflation is increasing every business input cost for pharmacies in rural, regional and remote areas, for farmers, for the truckies and for the transport and logistics sector. Labor is makes life harder for self-funded retirees. And, if you're using electricity, Labor is making it more expensive for you, as well as putting your access to reliable, affordable and available electricity at risk. So Labor is talking not only about a big Australia, with its 1.5 million migrants; it's clearly all about big unions, big business and big government being in charge.

We do know that regional Australia is well and truly in Labor's firing line. These are the very people, the businesses and industry in the ag and resources sector, that have supported and propped up the Australian economy through both the global financial crisis and COVID. The terms of trade prove this unequivocally. But both industries are under attack from both federal and state Labor governments, which have no respect for and place no value on these critical sectors, except perhaps as cash cows for their agenda of redistribution of the economic benefits of hard work and the redistribution of wealth. The Labor government is hitting both sectors with higher taxes, market intervention and layer upon layer of regulation and control.

Added to the price caps, the minister now has exceptional powers to control the gas industry. There is reduced funding for gas exploration and projects because the government has removed gas infrastructure from the National Reconstruction Fund. But Labor has also provided additional support for activists waging endless lawfare, has introduced a mandatory code of conduct, is applying higher taxes to gas companies, is introducing radical industrial relations laws and is using the safeguard mechanism, which is effectively another carbon tax, to add even greater cost to the sector.

Around 36 per cent of the companies affected by Labor's latest carbon tax are in WA. Iluka Resources at Capel processing plant in my electorate is just one of the key producers of critical minerals that is going to suffer—the critical minerals we need in the transition to lower emissions. If Labor is so keen to reduce emissions, why is it that Simcoa in my electorate, the one that produces silicon—another critical mineral used in solar panels—cannot secure the ash it needs in the extractive process because of state Labor's ban on sustainable hardwood logging. Instead, they're going to have to buy coal from Colombia, ship it to the Netherlands to be crushed and washed, and then ship it to the Bunbury port. I don't know how on earth this is a better result for global emissions reduction. They are also affected by the safeguard mechanism—the carbon tax.

Of great concern for future generations, as well as for state and federal budgets, is that there will be less—less—long-term investment in the gas sector in WA and the rest of Australia as a result of these measures. As for our trading partners, no wonder the Japanese are worried about sovereign risk and the continuity of critical energy supplies for their country. I see the Prime Minister has been in damage control on this issue. However, time will tell whether Japan will seek alternative suppliers to manage the sovereign risk Labor has created. There is no question that Labor pretends in public to support the gas industry, but its actions, the ones we've seen, speak louder than its words.

I'm seriously questioning whether Labor wants agriculture and food production in regional Australia either. Its own budget papers identify rural and regional Australia simply as the host of renewables, instead of the producers of some of the highest quality food in the world for both the Australian people and overseas consumers. We know from recent reports that Labor will not meet its 82 per cent renewables construction targets. It's well behind on its commitments to install the 22,000 solar panels every day that are needed, the 47-megawatt wind turbines every month to 2030, and the 28,000 kilometres of new transmission corridors at $100 billion. WA alone will need 4,000 kilometres of new transmission corridors at at least a million dollars a kilometre. All of this is to be located in regional and rural Australia. So how many communities, how many farms and how much of the food-producing land, the bushland area and the coastlines will be affected, and where? With the majority of those solar panels and wind turbines coming from China, I have serious concerns. These solar panels last only 10 to 15 years. The Labor government is actually undermining our national security by increasing our energy dependence on China.

Another part of Labor's budget gift to regional Australia, the area that's producing the wealth that's propping up their budget, is two new taxes. There's a new food and fibre tax on farmers to pay for the biosecurity risk created by international importers—those who actually compete with us in our domestic markets—costing our farmers $153 million. This is, effectively, forcing our fabulous local producers to cover their foreign-owned competitors' biosecurity import costs. I think it was David Littleproud who said, 'Why on earth would any Australian government tax their own farmers to allow foreigners to bring their products into this country?' Farmers are already paying charges on exporting their goods, but the Labor government is going to tax farmers. Add to this the 5.2-cent per litre increase in the heavy vehicle road-user charge, a cost that has to be passed onto people the country. This is the industry that throughout COVID was the backbone: it kept food in our supermarkets, it kept our industries going. It was the fantastic work of not only the truck drivers but also the entire industry that helped get us through some really tough times—and here is your reward: an increase taxes!

What's worse is that increases in transport costs disproportionately affect the cost of food and goods and everyday transport for people living in rural, regional and remote Australia. It disproportionately affects those people—us. It will also put up the cost for every small regional business and our farmers, because everything comes on the back of a truck. Many of these can't afford to pass the costs on. They are often pricetakers in their supply-and-value chain. They either have to absorb the costs or go out of business—they're the options. We've also got this government in the process of stopping live sheep exports, such a critical industry in WA. I suspect that once this is done Labor will move to stop live cattle exports as well. In their move to continue to reduce emissions, I'm really concerned about what's next. I don't know why the state government isn't standing up to Canberra on behalf of WA farmers—not only them but also their communities, the local businesses that depend on the sector, the grains industry that will be affected, and the broader WA economy.

But it doesn't stop there for regional and rural Australia. The impact of the decisions around pharmacies will most impact our small rural, regional and remote Australian pharmacies. These are not the big chains. These are the local small-business people who have invested. Add to this the fact that in regional Australia the government has extended the designated priority area for foreign doctors to work in peri-urban areas in the cities, away from rural and regional areas. We are desperately short of GPs in regional, rural and remote Australia. We know that 39 have already moved. Doctors have actually left our rural and regional areas to go to the cities as a result of this change. For rural and regional Australia this is a really key issue for us.

It doesn't stop there, either. For farmers and small-business owners with farms or premises in super funds, the tax will double for those with $3-million-plus, and the tax is now being applied to unrealised capital gains. How do you go if you've got a property in there and it changes year on year? This is going to be a nightmare. And what's next? I'm just waiting for Labor to introduce a methane tax on cows, sheep, pigs and goats. I read today in the papers that the Labor Party branches are pressuring the government to halve emissions from agriculture. What that says to me is that the methane tax is next. I'm not quite sure how Labor plans to administer it—whether it's asparagopsis or the tablets—to kangaroos, wild pigs and other feral animals, given the vast populations of them. At the same time that Labor's budget surplus is dependent on exports, this is happening to regional and rural Australia.

There are a lot of issues that are being faced by rural and regional Australia out of this particular budget. We're going to see increased and permanent structural spending, but I'm really concerned about the broader impacts of Labor's decisions, which really are going to affect rural and regional Australia the most. Increased taxes, the effects on those pharmacies and small businesses, and the disproportionate impact on rural and regional Australia, are, unfortunately, what we are seeing with Labor's budget.

Debate interrupted.