Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In my adjournment speech tonight I want to focus on some positive things that are happening: reforms from our government and the real difference that they are making to the people in my electorate and, in fact, all electorates. I felt I needed to say something positive at the end of this parliamentary day, after quite possibly the ugliest question time that I've sat through, and I've been in this place for 10 years. Just when I thought that the opposition couldn't get any worse, they did. I do want to apologise—not that I was part of it—to all of the Australians and all of the school students that may have been watching question time, because that was not our parliament at its best. Whilst I really respect the speech the Prime Minister made, in defence not just of his career but of what we are doing as a government, the behaviour of the opposition in question time, I believe, was a new low.

But there are very good things that this parliament does each and every day. One of the very good things that this parliament has done is to triple the Medicare incentive for doctors that bulk-bill their patients. This is so exciting for the people of my electorate. It came in just a few weeks ago, and, since that measure has come in, I am seeing doctors and clinics return to bulk billing. For the ones that always were, 1 November was a big payday—and thank you for what you did—but for those who've returned to bulk billing: thank you. It essentially says to those families who were doing it the hardest, those who are on a concession card or have children under 16: if your doctor chooses to bulk bill you, you will not have to pay a gap fee. I encourage all the doctors in my electorate to take up that initiative.

I also wanted to acknowledge this week that what we have also learnt is that wages are growing at their fastest in a decade. That hasn't happened by accident. That is because our government has made sure that the lowest-paid workers got a decent pay rise. The reason why wages are growing at their fastest rate is that we have increased the wages of aged-care workers. We have ensured through the Fair Work Commission that those workers who are on the minimum rates of pay, the award wage, have got a decent pay rise. It is good to know that wages are increasing at the fastest pace in a decade and that it's the lowest-paid workers who are catching up. That is what a real government does. That is what a Labor government does. That is what you do to help people tackle the cost of living: you look at the levers that we have in government that we can move, and one of them is wages. Unlike those opposite, when they were in government, who made it a deliberate design feature of their economic policy to keep wages low, we believe it is one of our pathways out of these circumstances that we have.

The other change that this government has made is to try to help people who are on fixed incomes by lifting the social security net, and those changes are starting to flow. Every week that I am out in my electorate and every day that I am talking to people, I am stopped by older women, quite often single women, who are benefiting from the changes that we made. They are saying thank you. Single parents, predominantly mums, are saying: 'Thank you for those changes to the social security safety net. I am now not panicked about trying to find work. I can continue to be a full-time mum and carer for my children because that's what they need right now.'

During the break that we just had it was show season in the Bendigo electorate, and I was at the Bendigo show. This beautiful woman who I've known for over a decade came up to share her story. I hadn't seen her in a while. The very first time I met her, her little daughter, Paige, said to me: 'I don't know where I'm going to sleep tonight. I'm homeless.' I thought, 'What can we do?' This was a decade ago. But because of the social security net that we had, and because of the support that she got from the state Labor government, she found secure housing and she was able to help her daughter to finish school. She is now doing quite well—she is working in aged care. She came up to share her story and to say thank you for the wage increase, 'Now, not only am I doing a job that I love and feel like I'm giving back to the community that took care of me I'm also earning what me and my colleagues are worth.'

This is the good that a government can do; this is what Labor governments do. This is the stuff that we should celebrate at the end of our day. Forget what happened today in question time; focus on the good that this parliament can do and what the Labor government is doing for the Australian people.