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

I have received a letter from the honourable member for Fowler proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The lack of government redress in relieving the pressures of the cost of living crisis for Australians.

I call upon those honourable members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'Is there going to be another interest rate rise?' 'How much will my mortgage go up by?' 'Why are grocery prices so expensive?' 'I can't afford to pay my electricity bills.' 'I'm never going to pay off my HECS debt, not with the 7.1 per cent indexation.' The cost of living is very real in Western Sydney suburbs; in particular, in my electorate of Fowler. You've just heard some of the questions and comments that I have received from my constituents, who are currently suffering from the cost-of-living crisis in different aspects of their lives.

On 13 March 2024, I had the privilege of holding Bring Your Bill Day, which gave constituents the opportunity to bring their bills and connect with government agencies and providers that could assist them with the pressure of their bills. The event was scheduled for 4 pm, and at 3 pm people were already lining up and waiting eagerly to get through the door. Over 2½ hours, more than 100 people rushed in with the hopes of getting any support for their bills. The stallholders were overwhelmed by the number of people who required help. Energy and Water Ombudsman New South Wales—or EWON for short—reportedly engaged with 50 people on the day, and the running theme was that the majority of participants had high overdue balances on their electricity bills. Specifically, they were on the verge of disconnection as they were unable to afford to pay their bills. In some cases, EWON and had arranged for payment plans for the constituents, and sought waiver of pending disconnection on the spot. Most were given the option of hardship programs as a form of relief.

These constituents walked in very distressed and frustrated by their circumstances, and walked out with smiles of relief. Why is the government not looking at policies to help the cost of living that actually targets people who are struggling? Yes, I hear the government spruik their stage 3 tax cuts as the solution to addressing the cost of living, but is this addressing the root causes? It's not just working Australians who are struggling with their bills. A local constituent who owns a cafe in Weatherill Park shared that his electricity bill with AGL was usually around $7,316 but is currently $11,000. For a business that already has numerous expenses to worry about, a $3,684 bill increase is a big slap in the face and, understandably, is causing him stress to continue operating.

The Australian Energy Regulator released a quarterly retail report for October-December 2023 which revealed that the average hardship debt for electricity is $1,690. This is despite wholesale electricity prices dropping, largely driven by more renewable energy being in the system. Why isn't the decrease being passed on to households? While there have been talks about electricity costs going down further in the next few months, my constituents have been telling me a different story. While industry is quick to pass price increases onto the consumer if costs go up, we're giving people this elusive dream that somehow electricity costs will eventually go down. I can tell you: they're not.

Back to my 'Bring Your Bill Day' event. While it was a focus on helping constituents relieve the stress of bills, we had constituents come in with their children asking if we were heading out free food. That, for me, was heartbreaking. My electorate office often had to referred people to food relief services. Our local schools have also advised that they have seen an unprecedented need to provide welfare support to families who require access to food relief services and energy relief programs. Students going to school should not have to feel stressed about the basic needs of food. While I can appreciate that this is within the hands of state governments, we as the federal government must take action to alleviate the stresses of the cost-of-living crisis. Can the government implement policies to drive down the cost of food?

As the voice for one of the most disadvantaged electorates in Western Sydney, Fowler, I can tell the government firsthand that the struggle is very real in my community. Our Bring Your Bill Day highlighted how badly our community is struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. Our average wage is one of the lowest in the country, but the cost of staying afloat is not parallel to our reality. Paying your bills may seem like an easy task for many in this House; however, I ask the government to step into the shoes of families earning minimum wage and spreading the money thin across basic needs, and see how tough they are doing. We must focus on delivering policies that go to the core of the cost-of-living crisis so that people are not working to their deaths to try to pay their bills, businesses are not shutting down because operations are not feasible, and children are not going to school hungry as their families cannot keep up with the rising grocery costs.

Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fowler for drawing our attention through this MPI to the cost-of-living pressures that Australians are feeling. It's a great opportunity for me to discuss with this House and with the crossbench every single thing that the Australian government is doing right now to relieve the cost-of-living pressures. You see, we are a government that listens, and we are hearing right across the nation that far too many people are struggling with the cost of living. There are global pressures right now that are driving up inflation and there are global pressures that are interrupting supply chains, and we know that these global pressures are affecting people here in Australia and the economy. We have a Treasurer that has outlined time and time again that our No. 1 priority for all Australians is addressing the cost of living while managing inflation. Sadly, though, as the member may well be aware, those opposite are a shambolic group of people who, in the simplest terms, don't care about the financial pressure that Australians feel. They pretend they do, but we know they don't care about, for example, increasing the real wages of Australians—in fact, they deliberately tried to keep wages down—and they certainly don't care about looking after people. They have voted against every single cost-of-living measure that this government has put forward. There are many, and I will alert the member to those in just a minute. Those opposite bang on about the cost of living and do not do anything to help this government alleviate the cost-of-living pressures with any relief.

I must thank the members of the crossbench who have supported our measures and who have stood with us, saying that they care about Australians and the pressures that they are under. Let me assure you, as I said, the Labor government are listening to Australians and we are acting on what we are hearing. As I said, our No. 1 priority remains addressing inflation and the cost-of-living challenges.

Tomorrow, the member may like to know, the government will make its submission to the Fair Work Commission's annual wage review. We will recommend that the Fair Work Commission ensures the real wages of Australia's low-paid workers do not go backwards. This is what we've done across our last two submissions to the commission, because—let me be clear—we will always stand up for workers. In particular, we will always stand up for workers who are on the minimum wage and who are struggling to keep up with the cost-of-living pressures around them.

While we've seen positive progress on inflation and a return to real wages growth earlier than was forecast, we know that many Australians will still feel under pressure. We take the view, unlike those opposite, that Australians should be able to take home more money in their pockets from working, and—as you mentioned, Member for Fowler—that's why the Prime Minister has announced that, come 1 July, we will deliver a tax cut for every single working Australian. That's 13.6 million people, from teachers to nurses, from truckies to cleaners, from hospo workers to childcare educators. Under Labor's plan, more Australians will get a tax cut and more Australians will take home more money from their pay. If you're a uni or TAFE student who has a part-time job and rents, you will benefit. If you're a working parent who feels the pinch of rising costs, you will be better off. If you're nearing retirement or working part time, you will have more money in your pocket. If your name is Jenny and you work in IT, you will benefit. If you've got red hair, just bought a bunch of Easter eggs and you work three days a week as a receptionist, you will benefit. Every working Australian will be better off under Labor. That's more cost-of-living relief for lower- and middle-income Australians.

But this is not the only thing that we are doing. This builds on an additional $23 billion in targeted relief—targeted relief that, I might add, the opposition opposed every step of the way. This includes making medicines cheaper by allowing people to buy two scripts for the cost of one. The opposition voted against this cost-of-living measure; in fact, when they were in government they tried to jack up the price of medicines. We're making it easier and cheaper to see a doctor by making the biggest investment in bulk-billing in Medicare's history, and I don't need to remind everyone in this chamber that those opposite tried to destroy Medicare and push up healthcare costs. We're providing energy bill relief through rebates and price caps. We're ensuring a fast transition to renewables, which we know is the cheapest form of energy, that will go a long way to helping household budgets. We know the answer of those opposite is to go nuclear, which is the most expensive form—not to mention all the other failings with nuclear energy. We're making child care cheaper and expanding paid parental leave, which we're now going to pay superannuation on as well. Those opposite called paid parental leave 'double dipping' for public servants. We're building more social and affordable homes and making the biggest increase in rent assistance in 30 years. We've made changes to our industrial relations laws that, along with our gender equality strategy, will actually work towards closing the gender pay gap. We've done all of this, including fee-free TAFE, where we know those opposite gutted TAFE. We are doing all this while delivering the first budget surplus in 15 years.

In my own portfolio, Labor is working to shine a spotlight on women's health, tackling gender bias in the health sector that sees women endure poorer outcomes than men do. We're making sure women are listened to and cared for when it comes to health care, because too often they are not heard, they are not believed, their symptoms are dismissed and they do not get treatment. This has consequences for women. Let's take endometriosis, for example. We know that at least one in nine women have endometriosis, which is an incredibly painful condition, with people experiencing an unacceptable wait of seven years before diagnosis. Endometriosis is a difficult condition that can make it difficult to hold down a job. It has an impact on the education and financial stability of many women. They often chase care that can be very expensive.

But our government has delivered 22 endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics right across Australia so women can get access to the care they need. The $58 million package also includes an endometriosis management plan for tailored treatment for women, for research, to develop living guidelines so that women can get better and updated care, and a series of measures to improve workplace supports for women with endometriosis. So women no longer need to suffer in silence. They can get affordable care under Labor. They can be heard, they will be believed and they will be treated. They can get on with their lives. They can get back to study. They can return to work and hold down a job. They can get on with enjoying their lives.

We know that households and individuals are under pressure, particularly with rents and mortgages, but it is clear that only Labor can be trusted to help more Australians into homes that they own. We've helped more than 100,000 people across the country into homeownership since the election. The Help to Buy program will bring homeownership back into reach for tens of thousands of Australians. We're doing everything we can to boost the supply of affordable homes. We know that people want to live close to the jobs and opportunities we're creating in communities right across the country. Through the National Housing Accord we have an ambitious target to partner with states and territories to build 1.2 million homes over five years. We need to work across all levels of government, across all parties, to reach across the corridors and engage with the private sector in order to fast-track development and get more Australians into homes.

Australian people voted for Labor in 2022 because they wanted a few things. They wanted trust restored in Australian politics after lies and deceit from a Prime Minister who secretly swore himself into multiple ministries. They voted for higher pay after wages stagnated for years. They voted for better working conditions after those opposite attacked our rights time and time again. They voted for the strengthening of Medicare and cheaper medicines after those opposite froze the Medicare rebate. They voted for action on climate change and cheaper energy bills after a decade of climate denial and inaction. They voted for a government that would listen to them and their communities, a government that would make the right decisions, not the easy ones.

I'd like to wrap up by returning to my first point. We are a government of listening and action, and we are hearing the difficulties that keep people up at night. We know Australians deserve a roof over their head and food on the table, and they need these to be affordable, and this is our priority.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is an honour to rise and speak on this matter of public importance, which the previous speaker on this side of the House, the member for Fowler, so aptly talked about. Over the course of the last 10 sitting weeks I've talked about the cost of living on no less than eight occasions in this place. Why? Because it is the most pressing issue facing my community right now. Despite the urgency, the government continues on a path that is exacerbating rather than alleviating this pain for every Australian.

No matter what metric you consider, the evidence is obvious. We've experienced double-digit annual percentage increases in basic foods such as dairy and related products, bread and cereals. From talking with my farmers, they are not receiving record prices for their crops. Electricity price rises are even greater, rising 23 per cent in South Australia in 2023. However, this does not reflect individual experiences. I've been contacted by some residents who have received increases of more than 50 per cent.

The impact on businesses is simply devastating. Earlier this month the Advertiser reported that the hospitality crisis is so widespread that 'every owner is considering throwing in the towel', blaming spiralling utility bills and the cost-of-living crisis curtailing consumer spending. This year alone, nine hospitality businesses have closed—and we're only in March: Little Banksia Tree, Enzo's Ristorante, the Edinburgh Castle Hotel, Folklore Cafe and Morris Bakery, just to name a few. Big Shed Brewing is battling to stay open. The Stag, on Rundle Street, is up for sale. These businesses are household names in South Australia. The Duke of Brunswick Hotel reported energy bill increases of 30 per cent and wage cost increases of 21.5 per cent. How can you run a business with those price rises? They installed solar panels; the owners were hoping that that would reduce their electricity bills, but they're still more than $4,000 a month. Rising costs and reduced revenue is destroying businesses and the employees that rely on those businesses to be successful, and it's creating a vicious cycle.

It's no wonder that business revenue is down. Collectively, increases in energy, food and mortgages have pushed Australians to the edge and left them with no disposable income. Successive interest rates rises have seen the average repayment on a mortgage of $750,000 rise by about $2,000 per month; that is $24,000 a year that people have to find after tax money.

The effect of this is revealed in the latest research released by Roy Morgan, which identified that 31 per cent of mortgage households, or one in three, are at risk of mortgage stress in the three months to January this year. In number terms, this equates to 1.6 million mortgage holders now in the risk category—an increase from the 1,527,000 recorded in December last year. More concerningly, the number of mortgage holders who are at extreme risk is 994,000—you could say a million, or 19.8 per cent—as of January. This is above the long-term decade average of 14.3 per cent. This is something we're not talking about in this place, and this is deeply concerning. We are approaching levels of stress not seen since the global financial crisis.

This takes me back to my comments with respect to the path and the policies that we have in here, that the government has taken in here. I think one very sobering conversation that we need to have is around where all this demand is coming from. We need to be honest; the demand is coming from record migration that we have seen, to create a big Australia, that is putting huge demand on housing and huge demand on everything we buy. The simple economics is: the more demand you create—and this is artificial demand—the more that prices go up for everything. We need to have an honest conversation in this nation about this. We've talked about the duopolies in this place. We've talked about travel. We've talked about controlling prices and industrial relations. There is much we can do in this place to alleviate the suffering that families and households are experiencing, but, until we get migration under control, until we realise there aren't homes for people to live in, we're not going to address this at all.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fowler for raising this matter of public importance on dealing with the cost-of-living crisis. I agree with the member for Fowler that there are a lot of communities around Australia doing it tough at the moment, and a lot of people with cost-of-living pressures. I would have thought that, if you initiated a matter of public importance, you would find the time to listen to the matter of public importance, but I notice that the member for Fowler is not here. I assure her, for when she looks over the Hansard, that the Australian Labor Party is working hard to put tangible relief in the hands of all Australians. I'm not sure about the member for Fowler's seat, but there are battler parts of my electorate where we have put emphasis on the cost of living—and that's all in the context of what we inherited.

When we came into government, as I'm sure those opposite will well remember, they left us $1 trillion in Liberal debt. When we approach the job of government, obviously we are guided by that Sutton's law of social capital, that we go where the need is greatest. That's what we do. Obviously, some of those opposite go where the greed is greatest when they organise their policies. That's not what we do. We don't do the colour-coded spreadsheets organising largesse, policies with more pork than a piggery. We go where the greatest need is.

In terms of the member for Fowler's constituents, one of the things that is taking dollars out of the pockets of her constituents is inflation. There are some global issues there. I am sure you have seen the other countries and how we are doing very well compared to other G7 nations. When we came to office, inflation was running at 6.1 per cent. Today, we have effectively halved it, down to 3.4. That's good news. We didn't get a lot of questions on that in question time. I'm sure that was an oversight by the tactics committee. We had the Leader of the Opposition deputising someone to ask the home affairs minister because he was too scared to ask her any questions. Obviously you need to get inflation under control. That helps people, because otherwise it's ripping off wage earners in particular.

There are other things we need to do. We need to look after people's wallets as much as we can with wages. We have tax cuts coming through on 1 July, where 13.6 million Australian taxpayers will be better off, 84 per cent better off overall compared to the Scott Morrison tax cuts, and 90 per cent of females will be better off. I'm sure that's something the member for Fowler can tell her constituents.

When it comes to wages, we have the fastest rise in a decade. Remember all that money we gave out to the minimum wage workers, who we will support tomorrow when we make our submission to the Fair Work Commission. We have more money for aged care workers. We're doing what we can in terms of making sure that people can take home as much as possible. When it comes to health, obviously cheaper medicines, easier and cheaper to see a doctor. Then something as simple as power bills. Our plan is to build wind and solar, which is the cheapest electricity. We have signed off on 45 projects, and there are 128 queued up in the system which will give power to 2.5 million homes. Wind and solar are cheaper, I'm sure the member Fowler knows that. Obviously those opposite have promised nothing now and more expensive later. That is their policy, which I can only assume is some sort of bizarre wedge with a dollop of culture wars built in. Otherwise I don't know what is going on with those opposite. It's like they're being led by Mr Burns in a bad clown suit or something. To say that nuclear is the answer in 20 years time, when we have a cost of living crisis right now, is bizarre. Being loud and brutish is not actually leadership. Saying loudly 'Follow me' as you strike off in the wrong direction, such as nuclear, is leadership, I guess, but it's bad leadership. As the Doors song says, 'If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there', which seems to be the policy of those opposite.

We're doing lots of other things to try to deal with this: education, free TAFE, cheaper child care, expanded parental leave, housing, a whole suite of measures to help people in battling suburbs have access to housing, including 4,000 new social rental homes, $2 billion in social housing accelerator, so many great policies.

Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the member for Fowler's matter of public importance. Last month I sent members of my community a survey asking for their thoughts on the cost of living crisis. I did that because it's important to me that I listen to my community, that I understand their values and their concerns and that I act on them in this place. We're still compiling the more than 3,500 responses we have received, but I would like to share some of those responses with the House.

When I asked my community about their greatest concern regarding the rising cost of living, the most common response, selected by more than a third of the respondents, was that they knew that vulnerable people are facing increasing financial pressures. The most vulnerable people in our community are feeling the cost-of-living crisis the most. While the stage 3 tax cuts are welcome, many of the one in three Australians who do not pay income tax, are still struggling to pay their bills, their rent or their mortgage.

As a matter of priority in the May budget, the government should double the Commonwealth rental assistance payment and increase jobseeker to 90 per cent of the age pension, as recommended by the EIAC in 2023. Unemployment benefits are so low that they have become a barrier to many people who would like to re-enter the workforce. You cannot get a job if you can't get to the interview.

The next most common response from my electorate was that people were concerned because costs keep rising and because they themselves are facing financial pressures. The government must do more to alleviate the pressure that middle Australia is experiencing. In an inflationary environment, this urgent priority has to be carefully balanced with the need for responsible economic management, but we can—we must—provide more relief right now. I have been urging the government to abolish the activity test on the childcare subsidy and to guarantee all Australian children access to three days of quality early childhood education and care. That would be good for the economy, good for parents and good for our kids. It would be an invaluable investment in our future.

The third-most-common answer on my community survey was that the residents of Kooyong were concerned that their children were facing unbearable financial pressures. A couple of weeks ago, an older lady came up to me at a Kooyong community forum and told me a story which reflects just how broken our HECS system is. She has four kids; all did well. They went to university. But all four of them have significant HECS debts. Her fourth child studied locally in the electorate to become a pilot and he now works in the Northern Territory. He has a great job, he flies sick kids in from remote communities to the Darwin Hospital and then takes them home. It is important work but it does not pay well. He finished his university studies with a debt in excess of $120,000. Over the years, his HECS debt has climbed, and it is now over $150,000 and is increasing faster than he can pay it off. He cannot get a home loan. His mum has gone back to work in a retail job to help her son pay off his HECS debt.

Young Australians are facing a housing crisis, a cost-of-living crisis and a climate crisis. They should not face a HECS crisis as well. Less than two weeks ago, I put up a petition asking the government to change the way that HECS debts are indexed, so that they are indexed to whichever is lower—the consumer price index or the wage price index. This is a simple and modest proposal which would help many young Australians get on top of their HECS debts. The petition has now been signed by more than 200,000 people. In fact, 217,000 people as about 10 minutes ago. This has struck a chord and I'm not surprised. Younger Australians are facing a housing crisis. They are facing a cost-of-living crisis. They are facing a climate crisis. And we are presenting them with a HECS crisis as well.

This government has not done enough to help us all get through the current cost-of-living crisis. My community has made its thoughts clear, and I am making my priorities for the upcoming budget clear to this government. I sincerely hope that it listens. I commend this motion to the House.

Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am proud to have this opportunity to talk about the real work we are doing to support local people in my electorate of Gilmore on the New South Wales South Coast to help ease the cost of living. The Liberals might like to talk about the cost of living, but the truth is they have consistently and shamefully opposed every cost-of-living relief measure that we have implemented.

We know that people are doing it tough, and that is why I am glad that Labor's tax cuts on 1 July this year will deliver a bigger tax cut for middle Australia, to help with the cost of living. Eighty-seven per cent of taxpayers in Gilmore will receive a bigger tax cut under the Albanese government. We want Australians to earn more and to keep more of what they earn. Our bigger tax cuts for more taxpayers will help make that happen. The Liberals want to take our tax cuts away. They want Australians to work longer for less. Over the past 18 months, and I'll say it again, the Liberals have consistently opposed any action to help ease the cost of living. The Leader of the Opposition and his Liberals are all negative with zero plan.

On coming to government, we capped coal and gas prices and provided targeted energy bill relief, with eligible households receiving $500 towards their energy bills and small businesses receiving $650. Just last week, the Australian Energy Regulator was clear that our energy price relief plan and pumping more renewables into the grid have been successful in bringing down wholesale prices, substantially lowering costs for households, including through the default market offer.

It's up to the Leader of the Opposition and his Liberals to explain why the Liberals voted against easing power prices for Australians and businesses. Instead, with the Liberals you get their expensive nuclear fairytale which would mean looking at 15 years, at least, with no nuclear in the grid and power stations shutting down because they are too old to operate. It's a recipe for disaster. And where will the Liberals build one of the nuclear power stations? Jervis Bay? As I said in my maiden speech, I will never accept a nuclear power station at Jervis Bay.

We have made medicines cheaper. 12,814 60-day prescriptions were dispensed to people with chronic illnesses in my electorate between 1 September and 31 December last year. That was just the first stage of medicines released under this policy, which cut the costs of those medicines in half—again opposed by the Liberals. A further 119,075 scripts in Gilmore were dispensed last year at our cheaper co-payment rate per script. This has saved local people more than $1.6 million just on the cost of medicines under the Albanese government because we reduced the co-payment.

We tripled bulk-billing incentives for the most common GP consultations for pensioners, Commonwealth concession cardholders, and children under 16. In the first two months of this change, bulk-billing rates in my electorate increased by 4.3 per cent. That's more than an estimated 6,000 additional bulk-billed trips to the GP, saving an estimated $252,000 in gap fees. These were all cost-of-living measures opposed by the Liberals. We've opened the Batemans Bay Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, helping local people access urgent critical care using just their Medicare card, easing pressure on GPs and easing pressure on local emergency departments. In its first two months of operation alone, over 1,900 patients have been treated there.

There's so much more in our plan. There are around 4,800 local families benefiting from cheaper childcare and there's our expanded paid parental leave scheme. Our fee-free TAFE has removed cost barriers; helped apprentices, trainees and students; and assisted local businesses with skill shortages. We are getting on with building more social and affordable homes and increasing rent assistance. Wages are rising at the fastest rate in a decade, including for minimum and aged-care workers. Thousands of local people have seen their income support payments boosted. We've done all this as we've delivered the first budget surplus in 15 years.

Unemployment remains at record lows, and more jobs have been created on our watch than any first-term government on record. Inflation is moderating because of our approach to the budget. We're focused on delivering strong and sustainable wages growth and delivering a tax cut to every Australian taxpayer on 1 July. Our economic plan is all about helping Australians earn more and keep more of what they earn. I'm proud to be part of the government that is delivering for our community.

Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Forty per cent of renters will struggle to pay rent over the next three months. Rents and the cost of living are so high that homeownership is becoming further and further out of reach with ballooning house prices. For those who have actually managed to make that jump and buy their first home, just paying the mortgage becomes a major millstone, with people's whole lives geared towards just paying off that debt. With rising interest rates, 1.6 million households are now at risk of mortgage stress. Right now there are 85,000 households that may not be able to pay their mortgages by the end of the year—chilling to think what would happen if this figure rose.

I really don't think many in his place understand the pain first home buyer families are actually feeling: the cost of childcare, sending kids to school, paying for school sport, paying for other extracurricular activities, the cost of several kids seeing the GP or a specialist, the cost of putting food on the table as prices spike, the cost of paying to see the dentist, the cost of servicing the mortgage with rising interest rates, the cost of paying mounting bills. It gets to a point where you're just keeping your head above water and you're one medical emergency away from breaking point. So many of my Ryan constituents in this very situation reach out to me every single week. More than 40 per cent of Aussie households have struggled to afford basics in the last three months, and over half of Australians say they will struggle to pay an essential bill over the next three months.

I'm sure people would be happier to accept tougher times if we were truly all in this together. But, while life has gotten more difficult and more stressful for millions of everyday people, a small handful of people, the big billionaires, have significantly increased their wealth. Big banks, mining companies and supermarkets have all posted record profits. Some people are buying their second or third superyacht while millions of people can't actually afford the basics.

The Prime Minister and the Treasurer front the media and say they're working to fix this. They've got departments supposedly coming up with great plans. But people aren't feeling helped, and they don't trust that these committees and reviews are going to come up with anything that will actually meaningfully help them. And they're right. Too often these supposedly neutral policy proposals from bureaucrats are designed to sound like something is happening when it's clearly not.

So what can actually be done about the cost-of-living crisis? Really, what we need are sensible policy solutions that are easy to roll out, are known to work and don't create major bureaucratic complexity. Simpler proposals are often the most effective. The more universal a scheme is, the fewer cracks emerge for people to fall through, the more everyone benefits, the more everyone feels invested in and the more universal pride there is in our society. The less inequality there is, the less bureaucracy is needed to actually police who is deserving and who isn't. The more publicly owned and run a scheme is, the less it is subject to rorting by private providers mooching off the government and taking advantage of the vulnerable for easy money.

So, if you want to talk about effective ways to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, let's start with these: universal free child care; truly free state schools where your technology and excursion costs are all covered; fixing Medicare to again be a universal scheme where everyone can get to see the doctor for free; bringing dental and mental cover into Medicare so it's free for everyone; free school sports; free breakfasts and lunches at state schools for all families; abolishing student debt; and making university free. Contrary to what mainstream economists might tell you, these are all more achievable than many of the convoluted means-tested measures that our governments over the last few decades have seemed to favour. Those are designed to fail.

So how do we fund all that? Again, it's simple. It's not wacky. It's not radical. Don't let politicians and bureaucrats fool you into thinking we need complex revenue-raising trade-offs or clever future funds and market mechanisms to fund all this, and certainly don't let them tell you that there isn't any money. Just don't let them.

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Please let the member for Ryan be heard.

Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let's just increase, in a modest but meaningful way, the taxes on big corporations and billionaires, the people who are making a killing out of this crisis.

Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is absolutely a matter of public importance. It's a matter of public importance to reiterate to the House and to every Australian the vast amount of work that this government is in fact undertaking to tackle inflation: bringing down the costs of everyday living goods, including medicines; delivering greater childcare subsidies; providing energy relief; and increasing opportunities to learn and to train with fee-free TAFE, to create a pathway and opportunities for other jobs that, in fact, may well pay better.

Importantly, because we believe in ensuring that Australians can earn more and keep more of what they earn, we are delivering tax cuts to every taxpaying Australian—that's 13.6 million people—and we are making sure that we are not holding back wage growth. In my electorate of Hasluck, there are 84,000 taxpayers who will be receiving that tax-cut through our government's fairer tax cut plan in July. It is quite extraordinary to think that from July every woman in Australia—every woman in Fowler, every woman in the seat of Ryan—will receive a tax cut, at an average of around $1,700. Under our fairer tax plan, 84 per cent of all taxpayers are going to receive an even bigger tax cut than they would have under another government. It would be helpful for those opposite to keep in mind just how sensible Australians were in making a decision to vote an Albanese Labor government in—how otherwise their conditions would be so much worse. With regard to the states and territories, I want to mention that 83 per cent of taxpayers in New South Wales are going to receive a bigger tax cut, and, as we just heard from the lovely member for Ryan, 87 per cent of Queenslanders are going to receive that bigger tax cut. It will help. It will make a real difference.

Because we're also a government that does not subscribe to the deliberate suppression of wages, real wage growth is now a feature of our economy again. The industries with the largest contribution to quarterly wage growth are health care and social assistance, and education and training. A great proportion of women in those sectors are the beneficiaries, yet again, of the Albanese Labor government.

At the pharmacy—and we know there was a bit of a battle to get this over the line, thanks to the coalition—people can now make much greater savings on their medicine bills. We've reduced the maximum cost of a PBS script from $42.40 to $30. That's genuine cost relief for the member for Fowler's constituents, who have realised more than $1½ million in savings through more than 123,000 scripts. That is genuine cost-of-living relief. In addition, in the first five months since this government introduced 60-day scripts, constituents living in the seat of Fowler have benefited from the reduced cost—and, of course, the added convenience—with more than 27,000 scripts dispensed. It is the same in my electorate of Hasluck, where $2.3 million has been saved at pharmacies across more than 185,000 medicine scripts that are now cheaper, with around 17,000 60-day scripts dispensed. These savings will continue to grow, providing genuine relief for people managing their household budgets.

We've made record investments in Medicare. We've tripled the bulk-billing incentive. This has enabled more people, particularly concession card holders, pensioners and people with children, to find a GP who is willing and happy to bulk-bill. We've also introduced urgent care clinics across the country. I'm really lucky to have one—the North Street Medical Centre in Midland—in my electorate of Hasluck. Every time our constituents take advantage of the increased availability of bulk-billed appointments, they are genuinely saving money. The government are committed to making it easier for people to see a GP who bulk-bills, and we are absolutely committed, as the party for Medicare, to protecting and strengthening Medicare as well.

The previous speaker, the member for Ryan, mentioned cheaper child care. That is great, because it gives me an opportunity to speak to both her constituents and those of the member for Fowler about the thousands of families who are now eligible for greater childcare subsidies. In Hasluck there are 5,600 families who have directly benefited from cheaper child care, and in the member for Fowler's electorate there are around 4,600 eligible families. This is real, genuine cost-of-living relief that the Albanese Labor government is delivering, and it is already benefiting more than 16,000 families across Australia.

On energy bill relief we've done the same. We have delivered direct payments and introduced major changes to transmissions to ultimately achieve greater— (Time expired)

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What does this government expect people to do? 'Work harder'? Is that Labor's answer? Is that Labor's answer to everyone living one rent increase away from eviction, everyone who can't afford to put food on the table? Labor don't want to cap rents. They don't want to stop their handouts to wealthy property investors. They don't want to stop the big supermarkets from price gouging us. Labor don't want to wipe student debt or stop unfair indexation or even touch the rate of income support. So what is it then? If you're leaving people out in the cold then tell me: what does Labor expect them to do?

Do you know what the median salary in Melbourne is, Madam Deputy Speaker? It's just over $69,000 a year. Do you know what the average rent in Melbourne is? It's $633 per week, according to SQM Research. That's just under $33,000 a year into the pocket of the landlord, almost half of the average income. And it could be a lot more if you received an out-of-control rent increase, because Labor refuses to freeze and cap rents. Then there are groceries: just under $200 a week on average is spent in Victoria, but it will be a lot more if you're shopping—or getting price gouged!—at Woolworths or Coles, shopping for a family or shopping in the inner city. Over $10,000 is spent a year just on the basics, and that's before your bills, before expenses, before your university fees or TAFE fees or student debt, before seeing a doctor, before buying medicine. Of course, that's before doing any of the things that you enjoy, which make life worth living, a luxury for most in 2024.

No wonder people are fed up. No wonder people are completely done with the status quo. So my question to Labor again is this: what do you expect people to do? If Labor won't help them, what do you expect people to do? The crisis is breaking people, and that's before they even think about the prospect of owning their own home, something the overwhelming majority of Labor MPs have the privilege of. Do you know what you would need to be earning on average to afford a home in Melbourne? Just under $190,000 a year. That is an impossible amount of money for most people. How is an average worker in the country meant to afford that? Are they meant to work harder, Labor? Is that it? Because lots of people are already getting a second job or more to try and make ends meet, let alone to buy a home. If you're a nurse or a teacher in this country, you might already be working a 64-hour week, and they're certainly not getting paid anything like the $190,000 you need to comfortably own a home in Melbourne. This is all while 75 per cent of Labor MPs own investment properties, while refusing to scrap tax handouts like negative gearing and capital gains tax. What an absolute joke!

Everyone, no matter who you are, should have a safe and secure roof over their head. Instead, this government thinks the guarantee should be that wealthy property investors get billions in tax handouts. Renters and first home buyers deserve better. Students deserve better. They're not asking for much, just the basics of the good life their parents enjoyed—a home, a job, to be part of a community on a liveable planet, a future. Under this system and under Labor it's becoming a pipedream. Under Labor the people who are struggling the most are being left further and further behind. Over three million people live in poverty in this country, but Labor refuses to raise the rate of income support above the poverty line.

Why are property investors entitled to billions in handouts to help them buy their fifth home, but someone on the disability support pension can't afford three good meals a day and to pay the rent for a safe and secure home? Why are corporations entitled to record profits when people are getting punished at the checkouts and farmers are in crisis? So much for 'no-one left behind'. This government should be ensuring that people who are disadvantaged are given what they need for a life of dignity and support, but it's throwing them to the walls, letting the corporations call the shots. As a result, people are paying the price.

We can't afford any more bandaid solutions. And we can't let Labor make the problems any worse. We can stop the price gouging, stop the handouts of billions of dollars to wealthy property investors, stop the out-of-control rent increases and stop students being saddled with a lifetime of debt. Labor says it's impossible. But, if we rein in the profiteering corporations that have been ripping us off, we can do it. Labor needs to stop making excuses and start working with the Greens to get action.

Cassandra Fernando (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a festive time of the year. We celebrated Holi earlier this week. Easter is this weekend. Ramadan is less than a fortnight away, and in mid-April many in my community will be commemorating the Vaisakhi and Hindu and Sri Lankan new years. While festive seasons are times of joy and happiness, they are also periods when cost-of-living increases are acutely felt. This is something myself and everyone on this side of the chamber knows too well. Addressing these rises in prices has been at the front and centre of the Albanese Labor government's priorities even before we were elected to govern.

In my electorate, like others around the country, families are grappling with housing, health care, groceries and utilities becoming more expensive. As a government that is focused on ensuring no Australian is held back and none are left behind, we see it as our duty to support individuals and families in making ends meet and to provide them with the financial security and prosperity they need and deserve.

This is why I am proud to be part of a government that does not take this duty lightly, a fact made obvious by numerous initiatives we have taken to tackle the cost-of-living crisis that we inherited thanks to the inaction and apathy of those opposite. Our plan is very simple. We want people to earn more and we want people to keep more of what they earn. Our support for ensuring Australians, especially those who earn the least, continue to receive the pay rises they are entitled to has been non-negotiable since the initial days of this government.

The government's philosophy in its submissions to the Fair Work Commission's annual wage review have remained straightforward since 2022. We don't want Australia's low-paid workers to be earning less than they earned in the previous year in real terms. As someone who worked on the minimum wage for a decade and a half since I was 15 years old, being part of a government that values the work of Australia's lowest paid workers, like those in retail and fast food, is delightful, especially after nearly a decade of neglect by the coalition.

I am pleased that tomorrow the government will recommend that the Fair Work Commission safeguard the real wages of Australia's low-paid workers, a position consistent with the government's last two submissions to the commission, while this government's economic sharpness has begun showing results through progress on inflation and a return to real wage growth earlier than forecast. We are not ignorant to the fact that many Australians are still under pressure. We will continue to advocate for Australians to be able to earn more, and that's why we are focused on delivering strong and sustainable wage growth.

We want people in our community, in addition to earning more, to be able to keep more of what they earn. From 1 July this year, not only will every single Australian taxpayer receive a tax cut regardless of their income but 11.5 million Australians will also receive a bigger tax cut then they would have under the Liberals. These are not just numbers but real savings for real people. Labor's tax cuts will mean that nurses at Casey Hospital on $76,000 will save $1,600 a year. It will mean retail workers, like my former colleagues at Woolies, on $45,000 a year will be able to keep $800 more. It will mean IT workers living in my electorate earning $105,000 a year will have $2,300 more to spend on their families. This government will continue to support those who need it the most—hardworking families, like those in my electorate of Holt.

Andrew Charlton (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The cost of living is something that is affecting all Australians. In many ways, Australians really face the brunt of the cost-of-living crisis, because after 10 years of neglect the cost of living has been driven up. After 10 years of doing nothing on supermarkets and nothing on supply chains, the cost of living for Australian groceries has only increased. In fact, Australians now pay among the highest grocery prices in the world. The average price of groceries in Australia is 54 per cent higher than it is in other countries around the world. That's because those opposite did nothing for 10 years—nothing to break down the monopolies and the lack of competition that exist in every single layer of Australian supply chains.

That is why we have a government now that is finally taking the cost of living seriously, a government that has finally decided to launch an ACCC investigation into price gouging in the supermarket sector, a government that has decided to appoint Craig Emerson to make sure that small Australian suppliers are not being taken advantage of and a government that has appointed CHOICE, the consumer group, to crunch the data and show us which are the supermarkets that are charging the most and which are the ones that are most reasonably priced.

This is a government that is taking this issue seriously. What we have over there is a group that did nothing, and over there a group that has stupid ideas for what to do about this issue. They're suggesting divestment. This is a competition of the most half-baked idea you could come up with for a very serious problem. If the Greens want to be a serious political party and if they want to talk about economic issues then they need to lift the quality of the ideas they are putting forward. Suggesting that we should Soviet-style split up the supermarkets—chop them in half, as if that's easy to do—is completely impractical. It's not done anywhere else in the world and it wouldn't be done here. Moreover, there is no evidence that it would actually reduce prices in the supermarkets. Two supply chains, two headquarters—that could increase the cost in our supermarket supply chains and, ultimately, mean that consumers pay higher prices.

On issue after issue, the Greens have cost-of-living ideas that do not pass the pub test. They haven't been fully thought through. We know the strategy of the Australian Greens is to shift into being a party not just of climate and the environment but also a party of economics. They want to talk about the cost of living. They want to talk about HECS. They want to talk about supermarkets. They want to talk about rents. But they have no solutions to those problems that would not make them worse. All of their solutions in housing would actually make the housing situation worse by reducing supply rather than increasing it. Their spending proposals would make the HECS indexation worse, not better, by driving up inflation. Their proposals for supermarkets would lift the cost of Australian groceries, not drop them.

It's one thing to spot an issue that matters to the Australian people, it's one thing to express empathy to those people, but it's another thing to propose solutions that actually work and make a difference for those people. For the last 10 years, the Labor Party have been the only ones proposing ideas that will actually work. We have been stuck in the middle—clowns to one side, jokers to the left. The clowns did nothing, the jokers have silly policies that simply wouldn't work.

The cost of living is an issue that is affecting so many Australians, and that is why the Labor Party is working methodically on issue after issue to ensure that we make a difference without making the underlying challenge of rising inflation worse. For the Greens to come up and present themselves as a party of economics, a party that can put forward proposals in all of these areas just doesn't pass the pub test of sensible ideas—ideas that Australians can grab onto and realise will make a difference. That's why their aspirations to be a party that appeals to the centre, a party that appeals to Australians with aspiration, and to go beyond their traditional voter base are simply not working.

We're very proud to be part of a government that is making a difference on these issues, a government that has put in place a whole range of cost-of-living measures that will help people at the checkout, help people when they're buying medicines, help people with cheaper child care and help people with lower costs on their TAFE. On issue after issue, the Albanese government is working. We've had no solutions from either of those sides opposite.