Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, the cost-of-living crisis is the biggest issue facing Australians today. Doug lives on the Gold Coast and his electricity bill has increased by more than 53 per cent from last year by $308. Electricity prices are continuing to spiral out of control under Labor with new increases of up to 25 per cent for households from 1 July. Why are the Prime Minister's broken promises making it harder for middle Australians?

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

I thank the member for Moncrieff for her question, and I hope that the member for Moncrieff tells Doug why she voted against energy price relief, why she voted against one of the five million families that will get relief on their power bills, the one million small businesses that will get relief on their power bills, and the 111,000 households that will pay less to make their houses more energy efficient and lower their energy bills. They're just some of the measures that we've put in place. More than 1.2 million families will pay less for child care from 1 July, and 11 million Australians will pay less to see a doctor as a result of our tripling of the bulk-billing incentive.

In the first four months of this year, Australians paid $76 million less for their prescriptions because of our cheaper medicines plan. And because of our budget, another six million Australians will pay less for their medicines, a measure that those opposite are once again saying no to. Four hundred and eighty thousand Australians will pay absolutely nothing for TAFE in dealing with the skills crisis; 3.7 million small businesses will be able to access an expanded instant asset—

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What about that $22,000 in additional mortgage repayments?

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister will pause for a moment. Order! The member for Casey will cease interjecting.

Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On relevance, Mr Speaker. It was about election broken promises. A $275 reduction in power bills was promised.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I want to hear from the Leader of the House.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To the point of order: the question went to cost of living, it went to energy prices and it went to millions of Australians. The Prime Minister's in order.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question was about a number of issues. It also went to the Prime Minister's commitments and promises and a question around making it difficult for middle Australians. The Prime Minister is giving examples about why it is and answering that part of the question. So, whilst he's talking about cost-of-living issues, he's being relevant, and I bring him back to the question.

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

Nothing says middle Australia to me more than aged-care workers, and 250,000 of them are going to get a pay increase as a direct result of this government's commitment, a commitment we took to the election, a commitment that arose from the royal commission into aged care, and just one of the many measures that those opposite didn't act on. We provided $11.3 billion in the budget to make sure that that was delivered. Last week, of course, again, we saw people on the minimum wage get a pay increase. It's something that we know those opposite are horrified by, and, during the election campaign, they said the sky would fall in if people got a dollar an hour extra. Well, we on this side of the House understand the cost-of-living pressures which are there. We on this side of the House are taking practical measures, which were there in our budget, and those on that side of the House stand in the way or try to do their best to block every single positive measure that is brought before this parliament.