Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In a month's time, 13½ million Australians will be paying less tax in every pay packet because of this Albanese government. In Macquarie that means 67,000 people will see more money in their pocket when they get their pay packet. For a worker on the average wage of $73,000, that's a tax cut of $1,500 per year. For a family on the average household income of $130,000, it's a tax cut of $2,600. This is money that will be directly in people's pockets.

Eighty-four per cent of taxpayers and 90 per cent of women will be getting a bigger tax cut because of the changes that are in the legislation in this budget, including, of course, nearly three million Australians who were going to miss out completely on getting any sort of cut under the previous tax regime—those who were on less than $45,000. They weren't going to get a single cent under the Liberals. But now they will, like everybody else, be better off because they will have a cut to the tax that they pay.

The tax cuts are better for women, they're better for part-time workers, they're better for young people and they're better, also, for businesses and for workforce participation. In a month, along with that tax cut for every single taxpayer, there's going to be energy price relief for every single household, with $300 off the power bill for every home in Australia, and money to support small businesses as well with their power costs so that their bill is reduced. The way we're doing this means that inflation will also be cut at the same time as we're helping people. We know that this has very wide economic benefits as a consequence.

When it comes to homes, there's also $32 billion that we're investing in more social housing, more public housing, more affordable housing and more construction. There are incentives for people to build more homes so that they can be rented. There's funding for the urgent works that are required by state governments so that you can do residential construction. These are things that are encapsulated in this budget, which is a commitment to tackling the issues of the cost of living, housing and many others.

I'm going to break down some of the initiatives in our budget. I'm going to start by talking about women and how our budget helps women. Let's talk about women's safety. This budget includes key financial commitments that go alongside the package of work that we're doing to ensure that women and their children are able to be safer. There's nearly $1 billion over five years for the permanent Leaving Violence Program to help women who need financial support to escape. There's around $44 million to provide an immediate funding boost to the legal assistance sector. That includes the community legal centres in my electorate who provide extraordinary support for women. I know how stretched they are, and we know that this is just the start of getting the support that's needed into that sector. This budget provides a boost until the national partnership is renegotiated and comes into effect from 1 July 2025.

There's also nearly $40 million to eradicate gender based violence from universities. That sits alongside a whole range of women's safety initiatives. For instance, in the meantime, as a whole lot of work is being done, Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety is being funded to further build the evidence base on pathways into and out of the perpetration of family, domestic and sexual violence. That is taking place at the same time as our rapid review of targeted prevention approaches to violence against women. All of these are being funded in this budget. These investments build on the $2.3 billion already in place to support women's safety and deliver the national plan. It's a huge important step for women's and children's safety.

The budget also directs $1 billion towards social housing for women and children fleeing violence, and to young people, which goes to the next tranche of measures that are important for women's security—that is, investment in women's economic equality and financial independence. This budget includes initiatives in that area. For a start, more than $1 billion over four years has been set aside to pay superannuation on government funded paid parental leave for parents of babies born or adopted from 1 July next year. That means women won't go backwards with their superannuation. It's a huge long-wanted step, and of course only a Labor government will deliver it. There's also nearly $2 billion over five years for social housing, because we recognise that many women are in social housing or are supported in their housing. I include this one here, in terms of security, because housing security is at the core of being safe.

There's been around a 40 per cent increase in the maximum rates of government rent assistance since we came to government. About half the people who benefit from that are single parents, and the vast majority of those are women. So that's tangible support for women.

We're also providing financial support to the women who are students who do mandatory nursing, midwifery, social work or teaching placements. They'll be supported. This budget allocates the funds to ensure that they can be supported while they're doing their mandatory prac teaching. They will be able to survive and finish their course thanks to this support.

We've set aside funding in anticipation of the final decision of the Fair Work Commission on wages for aged-care workers—again, a highly feminised industry. That builds on the $11 billion increase that has already been provided for the wage increases that have been granted. We have also set aside funding for the wage increase for early childhood education and care workers once the details are finalised by the Fair Work Commission. Again, it is a highly feminised industry, and these things give women greater financial security.

We're also creating more training and job opportunities for women, including, for instance, $55 million over the next four years for a Building Women's Careers Program, to drive industry change and boost the number of women in high-paying careers in the construction, clean energy, tech and advanced manufacturing workforce. We want to see women's participation increase, and everything we've done in government, including in this budget, speaks to that.

Women's health is absolutely crucial to their engagement in the workforce and their ability to be there for their families and to participate in our society. There is a dedicated $56.1 million women's health package in this budget. Let's look at some of the things that are there. A huge amount of it—nearly $50 million—is to introduce longer consultation items for patients with complex gynaecological conditions such as suspected endometriosis and PCOS but also many other conditions. That means that GPs will be funded to spend more time with women.

There's $3½ million over four years to expand indemnity insurance for privately practising midwives. I know in my community, particularly in the Blue Mountains, this will be a much welcomed investment. There's funding to support women and their families who've suffered miscarriage and pregnancy loss. There's funding for participating maternity services and First Nations communities to help prevent pre-term and early-term birth. There's funding to collect better data on miscarriages and on sexual and reproductive health—all things that were largely ignored by the previous government.

There's also around $5 million to support the placement costs for health professionals to undertake training to support access to long-acting reversible contraceptives—another really significant women's health initiative. And there's $1 million to develop an interactive contraception decision tree to help women and their health professionals work through their best options. There will be $12 million for the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation to provide free period products. And $6 million for four years of outreach health care in crisis accommodation to support women and children who are experiencing family, domestic and sexual violence.

And I have to put this one in: $1.2 million to support placements for health professionals to enrol in the professional development accredited course 'Managing menopause'. All these are things that have been previously ignored but make a profound difference to women. They come on top of initiatives we've introduced already, things like the endometriosis clinic that is available and close to my community in Rouse Hill. Women are winners in this budget. It's a budget for everybody and, for the first time in many years, I can see that, more than anybody, women are the winners here.

Young people have also been placed at the centre of our decision-making. When I say 'decision-making', when we make decisions about what the priorities are and where the funding goes, it is so crucial to think about those who are coming up behind us, not just those in my position and of my generation. Every young person will get a tax cut. Every household that a young person is living in, whether they're renting on their own or whether they're in the very early stages of owning their own home, they will receive support and relief from their energy bill.

I just want to talk about those numbers. Around 1½ million taxpayers are aged 18 to 24. They're going to receive, on average, $1,000 from their tax bill. Around 1.6 million are in the 25 to 29 age bracket. They'll receive, on average, around $1,573 from their tax bill. We also know that for young people carrying a HECS debt or a HELP debt, it is another financial thing that weighs them down—I certainly see it with my own children who, quite frankly, are just outside that youth category now that they've hit their 30s. However, the relief in the HELP system to make it fairer for people carrying a student debt is immeasurable. We know that the wiping of around $3 billion off that HELP debt will help more than three million Australians. In Macquarie, around 16,225 people will benefit from the lightening of that HELP debt load. It is also young people who will benefit from the prac payments. It supports their teaching, nursing, social work, university placements. Around 73,000 eligible students are going to benefit across the board. For the young people I speak to, it's a huge relief to know that someone is listening to the challenges that they face.

For other young people, the key to getting into university is going to be the $350 million that is being delivered for the fee-free uni-ready courses, to prepare them for university and open up that pathway. Others will benefit from the New Energy Apprenticeships Program so that more apprentices can receive up to $10,000 to be in those apprenticeships of the future, which we need to be working on now. In parts of the Hawkesbury, where there's a very high desire to go to TAFE, lots of families will look at that and say: 'Great. Here's a licence to go into that part of the TAFE system.' The expansion of that program, which comes into effect in just a couple of days time, means more clean energy apprentices can be in training to support that transition to net zero. Right now, there are around 2,085 apprentices in Macquarie. I look forward to that number rising. Training more tradies and construction workers to build more homes is going to benefit not just the workers who are working there but also the generation that really needs to see us boosting the housing supply. Our $32 billion of investment in housing is going to see them be the winners. There's funding for live music and for the arts—all of those things. Our investment in mental health will make things better for our young people.

Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2024-2025 and related bills, and on what Labor has delivered in this budget. The reality is that for the people of Petrie there's very little in this budget that the government can be proud of. In the last two years, this government has seen people's cost of living rise and their finances fall through the floor, with rents up, mortgages up and homelessness up.

The government crow about tax cuts, but what they've done with tax cuts is basically legislate bracket creep for literally a million Australians around the country. The government would not be doing anything on income tax cuts if it weren't for the former coalition government delivering stage 1 and 2 tax cuts and legislating stage 3 tax cuts. Prime Minister Albanese promised not to change the legislation then broke his word and changed it. He has inserted the 37 per cent tax rate back into legislation. The coalition had killed bracket creep by making and legislating 30c in the dollar for incomes between $45,000 and $200,000. The Prime Minister said he wouldn't change that, saying, 'My word is my bond.' He has changed it. He's now put in the 37 per cent tax rate for incomes above $135,000. That's clearly a broken promise, and that's just one; he's done the same on superannuation.

He's done the same on electricity bills by throwing $300 around. A one-off payment of $300 is an absolute joke when most bills around Australia have gone up by $1,000 in the last two years. As the member next to me would know, the state Labor government has promised $1,000. It makes this government look absolutely lousy, with a lousy $300. Queenslanders woke up saying: 'Hang on. The state Labor government's giving $1,000, and the federal government wants to give $300. How lousy can you get?' In the next three years after that you get a one-off payment, but in years 2, 3 and 4 you're hit with higher electricity bills. That's since this government's come in.

Let's be clear that people in my electorate will receive tax cuts from 1 July. The coalition voted twice for that—previously, when we were in government, and now. Let it be known that if it weren't for the coalition there would be no tax cuts.

There's little for housing. We're in the middle of a housing and homelessness crisis. Rents have been up for the last two years. Mortgages have gone up 12 times in the last two years. Homelessness levels are through the roof—and this is after, according to the last census, the coalition government reduced rough sleeping around the country. There isn't a place in this country that you can go to now where you won't see more tents, more people sleeping in cars and more people sleeping in swags since the Albanese Labor government was elected. If they don't get their act together by 2026, if they're still in government, homelessness will be through the roof, and it rests squarely with Labor and the Greens party in the Senate. There's no-one else to blame. Labor is in federally. Labor is in in every state on the mainland. There's no-one else to blame.

I welcome the Commonwealth rent assistance increase by the government, but I would say that rents in the last two years have increased by more than the Commonwealth rent assistance payment to people on welfare. I'd also say that there is pretty much nothing for infrastructure in my electorate that wasn't promised under the previous coalition government. Queensland senators from the Labor Party are quick to open the projects that we announced, but there's no new money. There's nothing to improve communities for all those volunteers, those sporting community groups and those jobs that go along with the infrastructure needed. At the last election, I secured $25 million in election commitments from the former Prime Minister. Do you know how much the Labor Party promised? Nothing—absolutely zero for Petrie. The electorate is completely missing out.

I've engaged with the Prime Minister. I've always treated the Prime Minister respectfully. I've walked up to him and said: 'Prime Minister, here's a list of Petrie projects that need funding that will help my community. Could you please consider it?' I did it for last year's budget. There was nothing last year and nothing this year. These are projects like a high performance centre for the NRL Dolphins that would benefit Redcliffe high and other programs in the area. There's nothing for Redcliffe Tigers Australian Rules Club for women's change rooms. There's nothing for the Aspley Bowls Club to help people get out of the sun with a safe outdoor exercise area. There's nothing for the Redcliffe Leagues Softball from the Albanese Labor government. There's nothing for new lighting for the Peninsula Power Football Club, one of the best soccer clubs in Australia outside the A League. There's nothing for women's change rooms for the Aspley Hornets AFL Club in the southern end of my electorate.

The government says they're doing a lot for women, but in the last two years we've seen more women and more partners—men as well, but a lot more women—having to go back to work. Why? Their cost of living's through the roof. This is the problem. They won't even fund women's change rooms at the Aspley Hornets AFL Club. I've got the sports minister in the seat next door in the seat of Lilley. There's nothing. They're missing in action.

I'll continue to raise these issues to make sure that Petrie gets their fair share, but under this government they're not getting anything. There's also the Bald Hills Memorial Hall, where we need a toilet upgrade. That's a very important hall. It was an ANZAC hall, built after World War 1. There were masses of people down there for ANZAC Day, which I was at again this year. We needed $350k from the Albanese government to upgrade there. We got nothing. We got nothing for the lighting renewal for Langdon Park, which is used by Redcliffe Little Athletics. We needed $80,000 for Burpengary and District Men's Shed to install a new shed for a rapidly growing area where there are retired and other men. It helps with their mental health to get together and use their hands. We got nothing for them. We needed $5 million for the Singh Sabha Brisbane community centre. This is an area down in Taigum, on the border of my electorate, where people meet seven days a week, from dusk to dawn. The community needs some new facilities there. There was nothing for them either. The list goes on.

I spoke about roads yesterday. Six years ago the former coalition government put in 80 per cent of the funding to upgrade much needed roads in Griffin and Murrumba Downs. The people of Griffin in my electorate will know that when we get heavy floods or heavy rain in Queensland—and we've had a lot since Christmas 2023—Dohles Rocks Road completely floods. The former coalition government, the Liberal-National government, was able to invest with the Moreton Bay Regional Council to upgrade Henry Road, but a lot more needs to be done on Dohles Rocks Road. The Albanese Labor government has delivered nothing there. Six years ago, I got 80 per cent of the funding to do the on-and-off ramps at Griffin and Murrumba Downs as well. This was in the Premier's, Steven Miles's, electorate. What's happened in the last six years? Nothing. They couldn't get that done either. Four months out from a state election in Queensland, all of a sudden they're like, 'Let's get Linkfield Road going, or maybe we can get the on-and-off ramps happening.'

It's too little, too late. It should have been done 10 years ago. It should have been done eight years ago. It should have been done six years ago, when the former coalition government funded 80 per cent of these projects. They did absolutely nothing. That's because the Premier is a partisan premier when it comes to politics. If there's a good idea from the coalition: 'No, we can't support that.' I've never met another state member like him. I got $2 million to build a new pool at the Mango Hill State Secondary College, and this bloke got Grace Grace to cancel that project. I had to give the money to the Lakes College at North Lakes, who were welcome to receive the funding. They've got a new pool there—it's got eight lanes and is 25 metres long—at the North Lakes and Mango Hill swimming club. But this is what it means when you have Labor members that are partisan: nothing gets built.

I want to say to the people of Griffin that I won't be letting this go. Dohles Rocks Road will be upgraded. Murrumba Downs and Griffin on-and-off ramps will be done, and whilst I'm your federal member I'll keep raising it in parliament. If we have to elect an LNP state government in October, under the leadership of David Crisafulli, to get it built, that's what we need to do. I also got 80 per cent of the funding for the Gateway Motorway between Bracken Ridge and the Pine River. That was six years ago; I got $800 million ready to go. Do you think the Palaszczuk and Miles governments could deliver that? No—absolutely nothing.

You're right, Member for Bradfield. It's no good. The current transport minister, Minister King, also put a review on all these projects, which delayed the projects further in the last two years. Now they have capped that funding. What's happened in the last six years and after COVID? Everything has gone up. Projects that were funded previously like the upgrade on the Gateway Motorway, which was worth about a billion dollars and we committed $800 million to, will now probably cost $1½ billion to build. This is really important because the people of Griffin, the people of North Lakes, the people of Mango Hill, the people of Deception Bay and the people of Burpengary East who are coming down to work in the morning on the highway, along the Bruce, get stuck there in that intersection. Once again, it looks like we'll need to elect an LNP state government to get this flowing. The federal government can provide a lot of the money, but, if the state government—through their transport and main roads—won't get it started, we need a change in government. That's been a real issue.

In this budget, too, there is no new funding for psychologists to make sure that the Medicare subsidised mental health treatment plan got restored from 10 visits back up to 20. It was 20 under the coalition government. The Albanese government, under Minister Butler, has cut that down to 10 Medicare subsidised services. Just last week, I was contacted by Katherine in North Lakes, who has been seeking mental health treatment through the Medicare subsidised program. She has almost reached her 10 sessions, she's happy with how her psychology sessions are going and she wants the Albanese government to re-establish those 20 sessions. So I wrote to Minister Butler to assist this constituent as a mental health priority, and she should be able to get those 20 treatments. She has actually found a psychologist that is bulk-billing her, which is rare as well. So we need to be looking after people like Katherine to make sure that she can get the 20 sessions that she needs, under the Medicare subsidised mental health treatment plan.

Under a Dutton Liberal-National government, if we're given the opportunity to govern next year, that will be restored. We will make sure that there are 20 subsidised visits to see psychologists, which was cut under the Albanese Labor government, with the support of the Greens Party in the Senate.

Those in the government talk a lot about Medicare, as though Medicare belongs to them. Well, guess what? These are the facts. Bulk billing has dropped under the Albanese Labor government, in Petrie, in Longman—in seats right around the country. The bulk billing rate in 2022 was 85 per cent. Guess what it is now in Petrie? It's down to 75.5 per cent. That's a 10 per cent reduction in bulk billing since the Albanese Labor government was elected. It's not good enough, and we will keep fighting for better health services.

The Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, also outlined in his budget in-reply speech that we will support the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Australian Medical Association, saying:

… a Coalition Government will invest $400 million to provide junior doctors who train in general practice with incentive payments, assistance with leave entitlements, and support for pre-vocational training.

The coalition has welcomed the government's investment in longer consultations for women suffering from endometriosis and pelvic pain. This, they have acknowledged, builds on the significant work that the former coalition government did in this critical area, under the leadership of Greg Hunt. But more needs to be done to support women's health. As the opposition leader has committed to, we will continue to support measures and develop policy in this area, particularly in primary care for menopause and perimenopause.

As the federal member for Petrie, I'll continue to put the people of Petrie first and fight for their needs.

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

It gives me great pleasure to stand here today, in this debate on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2024-2025, to talk about the federal budget, which delivers for both Australia and Tasmania. Good economic management and addressing the cost of living with commonsense, practical measures are at the heart of the Labor government's third budget, delivered on 14 May by Treasurer Jim Chalmers. We know that Australians continue to do it tough from the enduring impacts of inflation and the household pressures that arose from two years of the global COVID pandemic. That's why our Labor government continues to offer cost-of-living relief. As the Prime Minister said to the Press Club in January this year, we, as politicians, cannot say, 'We are aware of the cost of living, and we are just sorry but we are not in a position to do anything about it.' He went on to say:

I'm the Prime Minister. I am in a position to do something about it. We are doing something about it. And it's the right thing to do.

They're good words to heed.

Our Labor budget delivers tax cuts for every taxpayer, power-bill relief for every household, more bulk-billed Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, more cheaper medicines, and student debt relief—all while keeping downward pressure on inflation. In two years of Labor government, we have already delivered more jobs, higher wages and bigger tax cuts than any first-term Australian government since Federation. And our Future Made in Australia plan shows that we've also got a plan to keep growing our economy and ensure that young Australians can look forward to better, higher-paying jobs.

When the Liberals lost office, inflation had a six in front of it. Now it's a three, and we're working to get it even lower. Real wages have gone up for three consecutive quarters, and our closing of loopholes means fewer Aussies are getting ripped off at work. Labor has delivered two budget surpluses in two years, when the Liberals delivered zero in 10—and they call themselves the party of better economic management! Give me a break!

On 1 July, the Albanese Labor government will proudly deliver tax cuts for every single Australian taxpayer and bigger tax cuts for most. In fact, 11.5 million Australian taxpayers—that's 84 per cent—will get a bigger tax cut under Labor than they would have under the Liberals' discarded stage 3, and 2.9 million Australian workers earning under $45,000 will get a tax cut under Labor, when, under the Liberals' stage 3, they would have received absolutely zero. In Lyons, the average tax cut will be $1,279 a year, with nine in 10 taxpayers in my electorate getting bigger tax cuts than under the Liberals. In fact, most taxpayers in Lyons will see their tax cuts doubled under Labor. A two-income household on average wages is looking at a tax cut of $2,600. That's real money going back into household budgets.

In our budget, we also deliver power bill relief. Every household gets $300 off their power bill, and eligible small businesses will get $325. That builds on the $250 energy bill relief that we delivered last year, which the Liberals voted against. Compare our plan to deliver power bill relief and to deliver cheaper, cleaner renewable energy with the nonsense from the opposition leader. Opposition Leader Dutton says he's committed to rolling out nuclear power but won't say when, where, how much it will cost or who will pay. The CSIRO has reported this week that nuclear power in Australia will be at least twice as expensive as renewables, and that means higher power bills under the Liberals. Under Peter Dutton, your power bills go nuclear.

In this budget, we build on Labor's commitments to strengthen Medicare with the addition of 29 more Medicare urgent-care clinics to the 58 that we opened over the last year, and we are finding more free mental health services and providing higher Medicare rebates for more common tests. Last Monday, health minister Mark Butler joined me to announce a new urgent-care clinic for Bridgewater in my electorate. I strongly made the case for the people of Bridgewater to have an option that would be an alternative to driving into Hobart for non-emergency medical situations and that would also help people in surrounding areas. With no appointments and fully bulk-billed, a Bridgewater MUCC will help people in Brighton, Derwent Valley, Bagdad, Mangalore and Glenorchy, to name a few. We're also expanding our cheaper medicines initiative to add more medicines onto the PBS, and we're freezing the PBS co-payment. We know that around 80 per cent of people who visit Medicare urgent-care clinics would otherwise have visited a hospital emergency room, and only around one in 30 can end up having to be referred for hospital treatment. Medicare urgent-care clinics are treating hundreds of thousands of people around the country, and they are taking pressure off our overstretched public hospitals. So far, Lyons residents have saved more than $800,000 thanks to Labor's cheaper medicines policy, and now pensioners and concession cardholders won't pay more than $7.70 for PBS medications for the next five years. Thanks to the Albanese government's tripling of bulk-billing incentives, residents in Lyons have made an additional 9,337 bulk billed visits to their GPs since November. Tasmania's health system will receive a $660 million federal injection next financial year, delivering $30 million more into the state's public hospitals than in last year's federal budget.

Our Labor government knows that our economic sovereignty requires more domestic capability. COVID taught us not to be overreliant on a global supply chains. Our Future Made in Australia plan will deliver economic security and better, higher-paying jobs for Australians. The opposition leader might be happy to see 'made overseas' on the things that Australians buy, but Labor wants to see more made in Australia. A future made in Australia is about creating new jobs and opportunities by maximising the economic and industrial benefits of the move to net zero and securing Australia's place in a fast-changing global landscape. Our Labor government's $22.7 billion Future Made in Australia package will encourage private sector investment in manufacturing, industry and tech—good for jobs and great for national economic security.

Tasmania's ambitions to become a key player in green hydrogen production received a boost, with $8 billion over 10 years to support the production of renewable hydrogen nationally and $1.3 billion allocated over the next four years for an additional round of the Hydrogen Headstart program.

Twenty-three million dollars of federal funding went to continued improvements to the Tarraleah hydropower scheme in the central highlands in my electorate. Built in the late 1930s, it is one of Hydro Tasmania's oldest hydropower schemes, regulating flows to the Derwent system of dams and hydropower stations as well as the water supply to Hobart. This funding supports the Tarraleah scheme to deliver more renewable power with more flexibility in the future.

Labor's Powering the Regions Fund is delivering $330 million to nine projects to keep Australian industry not just surviving but thriving as demand for low-emissions products grows around the world. This is something that the opposition leader, in his budget reply speech, said he will axe. He doesn't want government investment in this area. I note that the Tasmanian federal Liberal team have been silent on their leader's plan to gut investment in Tasmania and in renewables, which will put thousands of Tasmanian jobs at risk.

In my electorate, Cement Australia, based in Railton, will receive more than $52 million to upgrade its kiln and alternative fuel facilities to enable greater use of waste. That will help to reduce coal consumption while also reducing waste going to landfill. Only Labor can support regional Australian jobs and manufacturing, all the while working towards net zero.

It's a sorry state of affairs to see on the front of the Mercury this morning that Tasmania's education system, after 10 years of state Liberal government, is running dead last in the nation. Tasmania under the Liberals has the highest rate of absenteeism and the lowest year 12 completion of any state. The Albanese Labor government will not stand by—and is not standing by—watching the Tasmanian Liberals continuing to fail young Tasmanians. Last week, I announced funding for schools in my electorate for much-needed upgrades and improvements. That's federal money being pumped into state public schools that have been badly let down by the Tasmanian Liberal government.

Our budget delivers the skills we need for a future made in Australia, where no-one is held back and no-one is left behind. Labor's budget includes cost-of-living relief for students, support for people from the outer suburbs and regions to go to university, and structural reforms to our tertiary education system. Labor is offering states and territories the largest investment in Australia's public education ever delivered. Three billion dollars in student debt will be wiped to make the HECS-HELP system fairer. In my electorate, 8,809 people—students and graduates—will see a reduction in their HELP debt. The Albanese government will also invest $350 million over four years to get students ready for university at no cost to them.

According to one survey, 38 per cent of Tasmanian head teachers report a shortage of teachers in their schools. Labor is committed to funding wage increases for educators to fill the gaps. Students working hard to become teachers, nurses or social workers will receive $319.50 every week when they do mandatory practice. The same goes for those involved in vocational education placements. That includes more than 1,400 individuals in Tasmania. Tasmanian students will benefit from a $680 million budget allocation to education made through the Quality Schools funding scheme. Tasmanians received another $56.6 million under the National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development, with a further $1.2 million to support fee-free TAFE.

When we came to office, we said we'd open 180,000 fee-free TAFE places. We're well past 300,000 already and we're on the way to 500,000. That's half a million Aussies changing their lives and learning the skills that our country needs. We are so focused on closing the gap that was left to us in the key areas of skill shortages in agriculture, child care, aged-care services and construction.

Ten years of state and federal Liberal government smashed affordable housing in Tasmania. Tasmania used to have some of the most affordable property around, and now it's amongst the most expensive. Hobart is the least affordable city to live in relative to income, a title it shares with Sydney. Five years ago the average rent in Tasmania was $311 a week. Now it's $445—and that's if you can find a place. That's the largest increase of any other state. Under the Liberals, the number of applicants for social housing in Lyons doubled and the waiting time blew out from 16 weeks to 80. That's a year and a half on a housing waiting list.

The Labor government knows that the best way to solve this crisis is to build more houses and increase supply. We also know that one of the best ways is to allow more young people access to shared equity schemes which a lot of the states run, including former Liberal government states. But, for some reason, those opposite and the Greens in the Senate are blocking Labor's plan which would allow more affordable housing for young Tasmanians. The Minister for Housing, Julie Collins, is a proud Tasmanian who is striving to fix the Liberal mess. Labor already committed $30 billion to housing in our first two years in office, and this budget commits another $6 billion. We've committed to more social housing, and that means less pressure on private markets. We've increased the Commonwealth Rent Assistance Program by 10 per cent, the second consecutive increase in two years, and we're supporting veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

This budget is good for Australia. It's certainly good for Tasmania. More jobs, higher wages, bigger tax cuts, a future made in Australia—that's the plan. That's what Labor is delivering. Labor has delivered more jobs, higher wages and bigger tax cuts, and we are delivering a future made in Australia. That stands in stark contrast to the negativity and sheer incompetence of those opposite.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2024-2025 to make some observations about the impact of the Albanese Labor government's third budget, which was brought down recently. This budget was a missed opportunity that failed to address the multiplicity of challenges facing Australian households, families and businesses. Whether it's the poor design and strategy underpinning this budget which is a missed opportunity to address the inflationary pressures that continue to surge in the Australian economy, whether it's not providing sufficient support to address the cost of living, or whether it's risking billions of dollars of taxpayers money on subsidising businesses chosen by politicians and bureaucrats, on every front, this budget raises very serious questions.

An aspect of the budget that I want to focus on in my remarks today is its impact in the government services portfolio and in the science portfolio. Both government services and science are very important areas of endeavour. The government services portfolio is all about supporting Australians who need the assistance of government in a range of ways. The science portfolio in many ways is not about this year, next year or the next five or 10 years; it's about the next 50 or 100 years. Activity occurring as a result of scientific research can deliver and repeatedly does deliver fundamental benefits to humanity. That's why every government funds and supports scientific research, and the Australian government is no different. However, I'm sorry to say that in the areas of both government services and science this budget has been a considerable disappointment, and I want to delve into some of the ways in which it has been a disappointment.

Let's start with government services. I want to draw a sharp contrast between the philosophy underpinning the management of government services, if it can be dignified with the term 'management', under the present Minister for Government Services, the member for Maribyrnong—the tension between the approach he's chosen—and the demonstrated historical behaviour of Australians to adopt technology enthusiastically and early in the growth of particular technologies. Consider the way that consumers in Australia have embraced the digital offerings of banks, telcos, supermarkets and airlines. As customers, Australians have demonstrated with their behaviour that they consider the digital option to be a fast and convenient one and one that can sometimes save you money.

Australians bring similar preferences into their dealings with government. Around 90 per cent of Services Australia's customers choose to interact with the agency via digital means. Yet, curiously, in this budget we've seen an approach that, rather than bolstering the digital capability of Services Australia, instead takes away digital capability and re-weights capability towards person-to-person interactions. In many ways the Albanese government is taking Services Australia back in time by adding more Canberra based bureaucrats while allowing the digital capabilities of Services Australia to languish. Over three years, Labor will spend more than $1.8 billion on more than 7,500 additional Public Service positions.

The justification for this is that there is a need to address a backlog in claims. Of course, that backlog in claims, which has exploded over the last two years, reflects the grossly incompetent management by the Minister for Government services. Let's look at the facts. Based on the most recent published numbers, at December last year, Services Australia takes 82½ days to process a claim for a low-income card. Under the coalition, by contrast, it was 16 days. If you call Services Australia while it's under the care of the member for Maribyrnong, you need to be patient. For example, if you call the Disability, Sickness and Carers line, whereas under the coalition you needed to wait for 21 minutes—too long, it must be admitted, but that was the time under the coalition—now you will wait more than 48 minutes when you call this Services Australia telephone line.

The premise of the changes made in this budget is that, after Mr Shorten created this catastrophic decline in service levels, the way to fix it is to put on more staff. But actually, if you look at the numbers, it's very clear that there is no correlation between staff numbers and service levels. The evidence of that is that under the coalition in 2021-22 the average staffing level at Services Australia was 26,838. In February 2024 that level was 28,570. So, staffing levels have gone up from 26,838 under the coalition to 28,570 under Labor while service levels have gone down. Far from a positive correlation between extra staff and better service levels under the member for Maribyrnong, as Minister for Government Services, we've seen the extraordinarily perverse outcome that staff levels have gone up and service levels have gone down. Yet Mr Shorten's only solution to this catastrophic cratering in service levels is to put in more people.

Who has said that they are pleased with this decision? You won't be surprised to hear that it's the Community and Public Sector Union. They are a big winner out of this. More public servants means more union members. It's all too typical of the Albanese Labor government to put the interests of the union mates ahead of the interests of the Australians that Services Australia is there to serve.

A major contributor to the dismal and worsening performance of Services Australia has been the antipathy of the Albanese Labor government towards the use of technology. The minister, the member for Maribyrnong, has the wrong priorities and has made a series of bad decisions. The digital capability of Services Australia has been left to stagnate, and the recent budget continues that stagnation. Over the forward estimates, funding for Services Australia's technology and transformation program will decline. They're cutting money from technology and transformation. Automation processes for key Centrelink payments have been turned off. The guts have been ripped out of the agency's digital program suite. More than a thousand specialist ICT—information and communications technology—workers have been let go, and an axed contract with specialist outsourcing firm Serco has reduced the telephony capacity of Services Australia. These are the decisions that underpin the catastrophic reduction in service levels that I've spoken about.

Labor has announced some spending for myGov, but that spending is doing nothing more than keeping this vital platform on life support. The myGov user audit—commissioned, as it happens, by the incoming government—recommended that there be a road map for the future of myGov. There has been no road map released, and it's unclear when new features of myGov will come online. This is, sadly, very consistent with the record and the form of the member for Maribyrnong. He's got form in promising big and delivering little when it comes to myGov. In February 2023, he promised that the Commonwealth's digital Medicare card would be available within the Service NSW app by mid-2023. Here we are in May 2024, and New South Wales residents are still waiting for this feature to show up. The efficient, simple, safe delivery of government payments and services depends critically on the effectiveness of the underlying technology platforms. The failure to transform and uplift Services Australia's core ICT systems by this current Labor government risks turning the current myGov platform into an empty shell.

This budget was, equally, a missed opportunity for Australia's very impressive—indeed, world-renowned—scientific and research sectors. Technology and innovation are absolutely key to our economic performance and to our future, and scientific research underpins technology and innovation. We have seen in this budget a boost in funding for bureaucrats in Canberra and for American technology firms at the expense of basic scientific research activity. The Albanese Labor government proudly trumpeted the decision to invest almost a billion dollars of taxpayers' money to an American quantum computing company, with no similar funding in the budget for the many promising Australian based quantum computing companies. Labor's science funding priorities are bizarre. The government is cutting resources from Australian science while spraying around hundreds of millions to enrich American venture capital businesses which are investors in the American company, PsiQuantum.

The deal between the Australian and Queensland governments and PsiQuantum has been cloaked in secrecy, but we do know that there's a further $27.7 million allocated for bureaucrats in Canberra to oversee it. There's no question that quantum computing has enormous potential, but it also presents daunting scientific and technical challenges in getting to the point where there's a robust, proven, commercially viable quantum computer in existence that is able to do a better and more cost-effective job than existing supercomputer technology of deploying large amounts of computing power to very quickly solve very big problems. Yet, despite this uncertainty which is acknowledged by all in the field, the Albanese Labor government has chosen to bet a very large amount of money on one particular company pursuing one particular technology path, and it must be said that there are many potential parts in quantum computing being investigated by a whole range of companies and researchers in Australia and around the world.

The Albanese Labor government has made this investment at a stage when, on any view, it will be at least several years and very possibly longer before the technology being developed by PsiQuantum is proven to work, and the decision to make this investment follows a highly questionable process which has failed to meet normal standards of transparency and contestability. Australians deserve to know why this deal was cloaked in secrecy, why there was no public, transparent expression of interest process to call for applications, why only a small number of companies were invited to participate and were all required to sign non-disclosure agreements, and why the terms of the process made it look, according to many who participated, as if it had been written so that PsiQuantum was going to be the winner. It would be particularly concerning if this decision by the Albanese Labor government to invest so much money in a foreign quantum computing company ends up making it more difficult for Australian based quantum companies to compete for global investment because of a perception which will arise on the part of investors that their own government does not believe in these Australian based quantum computing companies.

All this is happening while, at the same time, we've seen funding cut in a range of other areas of the science budget. Labor has axed funding in the space sector by terminating the $1.2 billion National Space Mission for Earth Observation, which had been scheduled to launch four satellites between 2028 and 2033. CSIRO is having its staffing cut, and CSIRO is having its funding cut in 2024-25 by $14 million. The fact is that there's little good news for science in this budget and, where there has been significant funding allocated, it has been allocated in a highly questionable decision to make a single big bet on one untested and unproven technology. There has also been extensive criticism of a lack of attention to the importance of artificial intelligence in this budget.

This budget has been a disappointment on many fronts. It is certainly a disappointment when it comes to both government services and science.

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

'I will deliver a surplus in the first year of a Tony Abbott government and every year thereafter'—so said Joe Hockey, the then shadow Treasurer, in 2013. Not once did the coalition deliver a surplus. The Liberal and National parties left us a trillion dollars of debt. We have turned a $78 billion deficit into a $22 billion surplus in our first year in office, and we've turned a projected $57 billion deficit into a $9 billion surplus in the budget, reducing government debt by $150 billion initially and then by $180 billion. So, in nine budgets, debt and deficit were worse under the coalition—the second-highest taxing government in the history of the Commonwealth of Australia, surpassed only by the Howard and Costello government.

At a macro level, through the budgetary process, we're getting debt and deficit under control. At a micro level, I know that people in my electorate find it hard with the cost-of-living pressures. The budget is designed to help people who are under pressure now, while setting Australians up for the future. I know that what's important to them is to make sure that, when they go to the shops and when they pay their energy bills, they can get a better deal for themselves. That's why every taxpayer in my electorate will find relief in the budget, due to the revised stage 3 tax cuts that we have brought in. Some 2.9 million Australians who would not have got a cent of tax relief under the coalition are now getting tax relief under the Labor government. Some 13.6 million Australians are getting tax relief. In addition, we're providing every household with $300 of their energy bills. We're investing in a Future Made in Australia. We're certainly seeing the expression of that in Ipswich in my electorate. We're investing in much-needed local road infrastructure project in my electorate.

It's a Labor budget for average Australians—working-class Australians and middle-class Australians. It's designed to take pressure off working families. We're talking about good news in my electorate. For example, from 1 July this year, there will be tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer in Blair. Eighty thousand people in Blair—every single taxpayer—will get a tax cut. The average tax cut for taxpayers in my electorate is $1,380, and 90 per cent of taxpayers will be better off. Critically, the tax cuts delivered by Labor will be bigger for low- and middle-income earners than those of the previous coalition government, and that'll help with cost-of-living relief.

We're also delivering a better deal for working families by paying superannuation on government funded paid parental leave. This will make the super scheme fairer for families, particularly families with children. It will benefit 180,000 families a year. The government's also providing $3.5 billion in energy price relief. Of course, those opposite voted against the energy price relief when we put forward bills in relation to that previously, so let's get rid of the sanctimonious and untrue statements from those opposite saying they're concerned with energy price relief when they had a chance to vote for it and didn't do so. From 1 July 2024, more than 10 million households will each receive a total rebate of $300 and eligible small businesses will receive a rebate of $325 on their electricity bills through the year. This comes on top of the $1,000 Queensland government energy rebate, which means families in Blair will get $1,300 in total off their energy bills next year.

On that note, by the way, it was terrific to have the Treasurer at the Ipswich Show on the Sunday following the budget to have a chat with locals about the cost-of-living relief measures provided in the budget. He had many chats with local businesses and individuals at my stall there. It was also an opportunity for local businesses who were exhibiting at the show to show their wares, and I congratulate the show society and encourage those local businesses who are having challenging times to make sure that they get the help they need and deserve and that they get access to people like the Treasurer to have a chat with them.

This budget also provides some very important and big investments in key projects like the Mount Crosby interchange and the Bremer River Bridge, as well as funding local roads. The budget provides $42.5 million for the Bremer River Bridge strengthening, and that's really critical. The bridge has been affected over time, including by the many floods we've had in Ipswich, such as the 1974 flood, the 2011 flood, the 2013 flood and, of course, the 2022 flood. There have been changes to the industrial precincts and housing in the area, and the hydrology and topography of the river have changed, so this is critical to make sure that the Warrego Highway and the conditions for the traffic that goes over that bridge and towards Brisbane and Ipswich and on to Toowoomba are upgraded. It's very important to make sure that bridge is stable.

There's $134.5 million for the Mount Crosby interchange upgrade, so that's a total of $177 million for these two vital projects on the Warrego Highway. That's really important. About 58,000 vehicles a day go through the Mount Crosby interchange. It's critical for the suburbs in Brisbane and Ipswich like Karana Downs, Mount Crosby, Karalee, Tivoli, Chuwar, North Ipswich and Brassall and even for people in suburbs like Booval, East Ipswich, Raceview and Flinders View. Big suburbs on the south side also benefit, because this is an important entrance into Ipswich. The Cunningham Highway, the Warrego Highway and the Ipswich motorway are the three main entrances into Ipswich from Brisbane. So this is absolutely vital. We're doing another bridge over the Warrego Highway. It will connect to a secured road corridor towards Moggill and the Brisbane River. That's a very important safety upgrade. It's important for the lives, livelihoods and lifestyles of the people in my community. It's absolutely critical for freight that goes towards Brisbane and Toowoomba and to the Lockyer Valley and the Somerset region as well.

Blair is one of the fastest-growing regions in the country. It's No. 2 in electoral enrolment in Queensland. So it's a very fast-growing community around Ipswich, with the satellite cities of Springfield and Ripley as well. So the budget is investing in infrastructure in our community. There's a record amount of Roads to Recovery funding as well. There is an additional $1.5 million for the Cunningham Highway Safety Package. We have $132.2 million, one of the largest funding commitments under Roads to Recovery in the country. My electorate includes parts of Brisbane and, of course, Ipswich as well as the Somerset Region.

I'm very pleased, as chair of the Queensland Black Spot Consultative Panel, to see that the budget provides $10.8 million for one year for the national road safety education and awareness campaign, which is critical in Queensland. We have large roads and a large volume of traffic, including trucks. It's a really important education and awareness campaign. There's $21.1 million over four years to improve the reporting of national road safety data via the National Road Safety Data Hub. That's absolutely critical. This is so important for my community in our big regional and rural electorate.

The government's providing assistance to make the HECS-HELP system fairer by cutting $3 billion in student debt for more than three million Australians. I've got two university campuses in my electorate: USQ Ipswich and USQ Springfield. That change will help 23,000 people with HELP debt locally. We're capping the HELP indexation rate to the lower of either the CPI or the wage price index—that's really critical—and we're backdating it to 1 June 2023. Those with a HELP debt will receive a credit, and HELP debts will never grow faster than wages—absolutely vital for people living in my electorate.

We're investing $2.8 billion to strengthen Medicare by providing additional Medicare urgent care clinics, more free mental health services, higher Medicare rebates for many common medical tests and over $160 million in a women's health package. Patients in my electorate had the benefit of nearly 6,000 visits to the Ipswich Medicare urgent care clinic, and I can see what a benefit these types of clinics will be elsewhere. This is ensuring local families can get bulk-billed care when they need it, reduce out-of-pocket costs and take pressure off the Ipswich Hospital emergency department.

We're expanding Medicare coverage to four MRI machines in Blair, from the Mater in Springfield to Ipswich central. It's really important for my electorate to have that. The figures are quite clear: 73,376 residents in Blair will benefit as, in the past year, they have accessed 223,201 pathology services. It's very important making sure these tests stay bulk-billed by extending the Medicare rebate for common medical tests, including waiting times, and catching health problems sooner. That's very important.

Just last week I open the new Ipswich Medicare Mental Health Centre, formerly known as Head to Health, in Nicholas Street Precinct in Ipswich, in the mall—delivering on another commitment I made at the last election. This vital service provides free walk-in mental health care in a safe and welcoming space without the need to make an appointment. And I'm very pleased with the engagement with local First Nations people in the naming of the various rooms. It's a large precinct and it's very important for local people in my electorate. It complements and adds onto the headspace that we've provided in East Street for younger people.

We're investing $4 billion to deliver cheaper medicines to ease pressure on household budgets by freezing PBS co-payments and adding more medicines to the PBS. Residents in Blair have already saved more than $2 million thanks to the Albanese government's commitment to deliver cheaper medicines. Everyone in Blair who accesses PBS medicines are set to save even more as a result of the freeze in the maximum cost of the PBS medicine. What's more, pensioners and concession cardholders won't pay more than $7.70 for their PBS medications for the next five years.

We're investing $1.9 billion to help nearly one million Australian households with the cost of rent by increasing the maximum rate of the Commonwealth Rent Assistance by 10 per cent. That builds on the 15 per cent increase we announced in September 2023. Combined with indexation, we'll take maximum rates more than 40 per cent higher than when we won office in May 2022. This will benefit 12,630 households in Blair. This is the first back-to-back increase in rent assistance in more than 30 years.

When it comes to housing affordability, particularly in my electorate with young families and fast-growing satellite cities inside of the City of Ipswich, the Albanese government is delivering billions more in the budget to build homes across the country. I was pleased to have the Minister for Housing, Minister Julie Collins, out to my electorate recently. She was inspecting some of the housing boom that is taking place in the Ripley Valley. We need to boost supply. There is a $6.2 billion boost in the budget, taking the government 's total housing investment to more than $32 billion. This builds on existing policies, like the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, which I wish the coalition had voted for. It opposed it. There's also the $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator and the Help to Buy shared equity scheme, which they did not approve of or support either. More than 1,600 people moved to Ipswich in the first quarter of this year, so doing this will help to ensure we have the increase in housing infrastructure we need to meet our growing population.

One of the things that is really important for the about 7,000 participants in the NDIS in my electorate is making sure that we get every dollar in the scheme to the people who really need it the most. One of the big issues for not just my electorate office but those elsewhere around the country is making sure that local people get access to the NDIS and get what they need. The budget allocates a further $468.7 million to support people with disability and get the NDIS back on track. There's $214 million over two years to fight fraud and to co-design NDIS reforms with people with disability. That's critical. I've seen evidence—and I've taken it to the minister—of occasions in my electorate where I felt people were not doing the right thing. If people aren't doing the right thing, I'm calling on people in my electorate to bring it forward to my office, to make complaints about it and to take it further, because we've got to make sure that people who are living with disability are not abused. There is a shocking power imbalance for those perpetrators of abuse, those criminals and thieves who want to abuse the system. The fraud needs to be stamped out. So I'm calling on people to do the right thing. This is absolutely vital to the thousands of people in my electorate as well.

Finally, we're making sure that we make a future made in Australia. This is critical—and I was pleased to see the Prime Minister in Ipswich for this. We're providing $15.3 million to support the manufacture and export of 100 Boxer heavy weapon carriers to Germany. That's provided for in the budget. They'll be manufactured by Rheinmetall Defence Australia at Redbank in Ipswich. The contract is valued at more than $3 billion. There will be 600 direct local jobs and hundreds of indirect jobs, involving 300 local companies. That's supporting small business. It's the largest defence export agreement in Australia's history and it makes sure that Ipswich is at the forefront of the global defence industry.

Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Much as I enjoyed listening to the member for Blair's contribution, I think if you were listening to the member for Blair's contribution you would think that all is well with the world, that nothing is wrong, that the budget has solved every problem that this country faces. Well, I'm sorry to say that that is very far from the reality, and we are seeing the Australian people pay the price for Labor's wrong priorities and bad decisions.

This government is proof positive of this. We've seen once again, through the government's homegrown inflation, that the cost of living is up, energy prices are up, mortgages are up and grocery bills are up. The latest inflation data shows that, under Labor, prices across the board have risen by close to 10 per cent, with increases even greater in essential items. Food is up 10 per cent. Housing is up 12 per cent. Gas is up 25 per cent. Electricity is up 18 per cent. But what do we see in this budget? Do we see any effort to address the issues that are at the root of this inflation? No, we don't. Labor have instead made budgetary decisions that only create a situation where inflation will worsen or the risk that inflation will worsen will increase.

We've seen additional spending in this budget of some $315 billion in addition to significant increases in spending in previous budgets. This is some $30,000 of additional spending for every Australian household. It's this extra spending that doesn't take pressure off inflation but risks compounding the problem. Prolonged inflation, as we all know, means that your money is worth less. It means that your real income is falling and that costs are continuing to increase.

Over the past two years of the Albanese Labor government, we've seen family budgets smashed by higher prices, higher mortgage repayments and higher taxes. The average Australian household with a mortgage—and there are many across the electorate of Forde—is now $35,000 worse off following three Labor budgets while they have been in government. This budget does nothing to restore what Labor has cost Australians, and we'll all be poorer as a result.

Across the electorate of Forde, Labor has failed to address the cost-of-living concerns for local residents. At the same time, they've failed to deliver support for important projects across the Forde electorate. For each of Labor's budgets so far in government, I've written to the Treasurer urging him to fund vital projects not just for the benefit of residents within the electorate of Forde but also for those living in his electorate, Rankin, which neighbours Forde. I'm incredibly disappointed to say that those budget submissions have gone unanswered in terms of funding being included in the budget.

It's interesting to note that the projects that are occurring in the electorate of Forde at the moment were all funded under a previous coalition government. Other than some additional funding from this government due to project cost blowouts, there have been no new additional projects across the electorate of Forde that have been funded by this government. That includes those that I wrote to the Treasurer about again this year. They have been left unfunded and completely ignored. There are a number of worthwhile projects across the electorate of Forde which need to be built, particularly the priority road projects—and particularly the M1. I note from the budget papers that additional funding is continuing for those. But, importantly, those projects need to be fast-tracked, given the level of growth that is occurring in South-East Queensland. Can I also say that this is where the state Labor government, under the Premier, Steven Miles, is also at fault for not planning and progressing those projects anywhere near quickly enough.

One of the major projects we asked for on the M1 was the upgrade of exit 38 at Yatala, which we took as a commitment to the 2022 election. This is a vital exit that is probably the last exit between the Albert River and the Coomera River that need to be upgraded. The coalition government successfully delivered upgrades to exit 54, an upgrade to exit 49—which is presently underway with a $55 million investment—and a $41 million investment to the upgrade of exit 41 at Yatala. We also provided some $10 million for a small upgrade to exit 45 at Ormeau. That exit will still require further significant upgrades as time progresses. Exit 38 provides access to the Yatala enterprise area, both on the eastern side of the M1 and on the western side. If you have a look at those two major business areas on the northern end of the Gold Coast and the sheer volume of traffic that goes through that interchange, it's extremely disappointing that the government hasn't seen fit to fund the $60 million that is required to upgrade that exit, in addition to an equivalent commitment from the state government. The state government has had the plan sitting on its desk since 2018 and done nothing—zero, zip. It's the same with the other exits I just mentioned. If it weren't for the funding that was provided by a coalition federal government, those exits would still not be getting upgraded, because the state government under Labor had no plans to upgrade those exits. It was only through the work by my former colleague Stuart Robert and I to get that federal funding that we got those exits upgraded. It just shows that Labor governments, both state and federal, don't care much for the electorate of Forde.

In addition to exit 38, we called for funding to commence the duplication of Beenleigh Redland Bay Road to the tune of $40 million, and another $40 million for additional lanes and upgrades on the Mount Lindesay Highway between Chambers Flat Road and Greenbank Road. Sadly, none of that funding was provided.

As you, Mr Deputy Speaker Young, and others would know, our sporting clubs play a valuable role across our community. We have a number of major projects that we'd sought funding for. The funding for Hammel Park upgrade, which would provide upgrades for Beenleigh netball, Beenleigh rugby league and Beenleigh baseball clubs, wasn't forthcoming. We also sought funding to assist the Ormeau Bulldogs AFL Club to install field and car park lighting as well as the implementation of the Beenleigh tennis centre's master plan. No funding was provided for those.

Additionally, for the arts, which can often be overlooked—and in this case, they were—the funding we sought to assist Phoenix Ensemble to upgrade some of the facilities within their theatre was not forthcoming. When we were in the middle of a youth crisis, it was disappointing to see that the Logan City Council's submission for funding to install 120 CCTV cameras around the City of Logan, which would have also benefited the electorate of Rankin and the electorate of Wright, was also not supported. Once again, we see that the current Labor government does not care for the upgrades of facilities that are required across the electorate of Forde.

That is in contrast to what we did as a coalition government. We provided funding for clubhouse upgrades at Chris Green Park. That project is now well underway and will be finished hopefully in the next few months. We provided funding for the clubhouse and change rooms for the Ormeau Shearers Junior Rugby League, change room upgrades for Logan Basketball, field lighting for the Mustangs Brothers Rugby League Football Club, upgrades to the Mt Warren Park golf club and also upgrades to the clubhouse facilities at Cornubia Park for Logan Lightning Football Club. It is once again a stark demonstration of the difference between what a coalition government delivered for the electorate of Forde and what the current federal Labor government is failing to deliver.

More broadly, in uncertain economic times such as these, we need a budget that gets back to basics, addresses the underlying issues and helps Australia get back on that. To do this, three key measures need to be met: the budget must restore our standard of living by addressing inflation and the pressures being felt by families at the check-out and from their energy bills; restore prosperity and create opportunity by supporting small businesses and helping young Australians into a home; and restore budget discipline and honesty by restraining spending, bringing back fiscal guardrails and a tax-to-GDP cap and delivering a structural surplus, not a windfall surplus. This is what a future coalition government will be focused on delivering.

We have already recommitted to allowing Australians to access up to $50,000 of their super to buy their first home and extended this policy to separated women to help restart their lives. Additionally, we would support Australian families and businesses by implementing policy which takes inflationary pressures off the economy and provides it with the right environment to foster growth through measures such as: implementing a two-year ban on foreign investors and temporary residents purchasing existing homes in Australia; reducing the permanent migration program by 25 per cent, from 185,000 to 140,000, for the first two years in recognition of the urgency of the housing crisis; reducing excess numbers of foreign students studying at metropolitan universities to relieve the stress on rental markets in our major cities; extending the value of the assets eligible for the instant asset write-off to $30,000 and making this ongoing for small business; removing red tape from business by restoring the pre-existing definitions of 'casual worker' and bringing back certainty for thousands of small businesses across the country; and doubling the existing work bonus from $300 per fortnight to $600 so older Australians and veterans can work more should they wish without reducing their pension payments. We also announced in the Leader of the Opposition's budget-in-reply speech the incentivisation for more junior doctors to become GPs.

I know that people living in Logan and the northern Gold Coast are doing it tough and, for the third budget in a row, they've looked to this Labor government to provide relief and support through the cost-of-living and inflationary crisis. Once again, sadly, I can report that they have been let down by the current Labor government.

Sitting suspended from 12:59 to 16:00

Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm really pleased to rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2024-2025 and related bills. On 1 July this year the Albanese Labour government will deliver a tax cut for every Australian taxpayer. That's a tax cut for 13.6 million people, including 81,000 people in my electorate of Chisholm. Every taxpayer in my electorate will receive a tax cut.

The average tax cut for taxpayers in my electorate will be $1,640. Of course, we know that Labor's tax cuts will deliver a bigger tax cut for Middle Australia to help with the cost-of-living compared with the previously legislated cuts. Under our plan, an additional 2.9 million Australians earning $45,000 or less, who were excluded under the coalition's plan, will now share in the benefits of these tax cuts. These will provide greater tax relief to low- and middle-income taxpayers from 1 July. These taxpayers are disproportionately women, so these tax cuts will see 90 per cent of female taxpayers retaining, on average, an additional $707 per year compared with the previously legislated tax cuts. In our budget, we've also increased the Medicare levy low-income thresholds, ensuring that more than one million low-income taxpayers will continue to be exempt from the Medicare levy or pay a reduced levy rate.

We are providing $3.5 billion in energy bill relief for all Australian households and one million eligible small businesses. From 1 July, more than 10 million households will receive a total rebate of $300, and eligible small businesses will receive $325 on their electricity bills throughout the year. I know that this is really good news for small businesses and households alike. We already know that our current energy bill relief plan has moderated electricity price increases. This is really important. Prices increased by just two per cent through the year to the March quarter. We know that, had that relief not been provided, prices would have increased by 14.9 per cent, almost 15 per cent.

This budget recognises that households and small businesses remain under pressure. We are going to extend and expand relief already provided. This is truly a Labor budget, and a budget designed to help people who are under pressure right now while setting Australians up for the future. This is a budget for the here and now but also a budget for a better future for all Australians.

We know that many are doing it tough right now, and our No. 1 priority is to ease cost-of-living pressures. We're also able, at the same time, to invest in a future made in Australia. This is a budget for every Australian and for every person in my electorate of Chisholm. Every taxpayer will receive a tax cut and every household will receive energy bill relief.

An issue that I know is really important to my electorate is the issue of student debt. We're wiping around $3 billion of student debt, and in my electorate that will impact 24,430 people. Overall, it will impact three million Australians. I've had parents and students alike writing to me about the importance of this change. In fact, I made my own submission to the Universities Accord process that our government initiated. This was something that I heard loudly and clearly from my electorate. It was a really important step that we could take as a government, and I'm really pleased that wages will never move slower than student debt and that debt will never outpace the amount of money someone can expect to earn in their job. We're also introducing a Commonwealth prac payment for teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students undertaking mandatory placements. We're also delivering fee-free uni ready courses to provide more students with the enabling pathways to higher education. This is expected to increase the number of students undertaking these courses by 40 per cent by 2030 and double the number of students by 2040. This helps us with our ambition to see more Australians being able to realise their ambition of higher education. This is going to give more Australians the skills they need to get into the courses they want to study.

For those in insecure housing, we're kickstarting the construction of more homes in every part of the country. For those who need access to medicines, we're cutting the prices of more common medications through our cheaper medicines policy. If you're a working parent in receipt of paid parental leave, we're providing a better deal by paying you superannuation. This is a really extraordinary step. I know there have been so many advocates for this in the community, and I want to thank them for their advocacy over the years. There is, of course, always more to do for a government, and we will keep working every day to deliver for all Australians.

Importantly, the added cost-of-living relief we've delivered in this budget builds on our work to take pressure off people, critically, without adding to the pressure on inflation. This is a budget to train more tradies, to build more homes, to boost bulk-billing and to give more Australians an opportunity to access university or TAFE. Our budget is investing in a future made in Australia—the transformative opportunities of clean energy and innovative technology. We're strengthening our defence industry and capability and investing in strategic industries.

I know how important sovereign capability and good, well-paid, secure jobs are for our communities, including mine in Chisholm. I speak to my constituents about this issue all the time, and I'm really privileged to represent a part of the country where we see a thriving hub of activity in these transformative industries. I have met with people working in innovation, in clean energy, in advanced manufacturing, in pharmaceutical and medical technologies, and I'm really optimistic about our future and about the opportunities that are possible for people working and living in my electorate of Chisholm.

We know that, because of our responsible economic management, our government has been able to forecast a second consecutive budget surplus. This is quite significant. In addition to being able to forecast that surplus, we're building on cost-of-living measures that have already been taken, such as cheaper child care, cheaper medicines and fee-free TAFE. Really, this budget is about two things: acting on cost-of-living pressures, and building our economy for the future—making our future here in Australia—a better future where nobody is left behind. Some of this can be seen in our ambitious Homes for Australia Plan, which will help more Australians rent, build and buy.

Whilst we acknowledge that no single budget can fix all the problems that are being caused by global uncertainty and a tricky economic climate—not to mention an unfortunate 10 years of neglect and waste from those opposite—we do know that the measures we've announced in this budget will help make a real difference to people in Chisholm and right across the nation. This is a Labor budget through and through because it is a budget for every Australian, not just some, and it's a true Labor budget because, while it's designed to help people under pressure here and now, it also invests in the jobs, skills, energy and infrastructure to power our growth in the future. This is an ambitious and optimistic budget because we are ambitious and optimistic for Australia.

We know that this budget is framed in the context of challenging and fragile global conditions. The global economy is resilient in parts but subdued overall. We see tensions around the world and we know that global supply chains are still fragmenting. Despite all of this, we as a government want Australians to know that we are amongst the best placed economies to manage these uncertainties and maximise our opportunities. As the Treasurer pointed out in his budget address, we have an enviable combination of moderating inflation, record new jobs, new record participation, real wages growth, the lowest ever gender pay gap and expanding business investment.

While we know that annual inflation has more than halved from its peak in 2022, we know that people are still feeling pressures. That's why we've designed our cost-of-living policies to ease those pressures and take another three-quarters of a percentage point off inflation this year and half a percentage point off next year. Treasury is now forecasting that inflation could return to target earlier, with the possibility of this occurring by the end of the year. This is all happening while around 780,000 jobs have been created under this government, which is a record for any first term. These jobs mean security to people. They mean an opportunity to pursue ambitions for households. These are significant things. This is also a stronger jobs growth than in any major advanced economy.

In addition to this, real wages are growing again for the first time in almost three years. This is a really important development for our nation.

This budget represents responsible relief that eases pressure on people and directly reduces inflation. We're delivering a tax cut for every taxpayer, we're providing electricity bill relief for people and small businesses, and we're making student loans fairer. I know that freezing the cost of medicines for pensioners and concession card holders for five years will provide meaningful relief. What this means is that no pensioner or concession card holder will pay more than $7.70 for the medicine that they need.

This budget shows that we are realistic about the pressures that people face right now, but we are also optimistic and ambitious about the future. We are realistic—that's why we are acting to support Australians now—but we can see the optimism in the significant investments in the future for people in our country. To realise the opportunities of a future made in Australia, we are changing the way we attract and deploy investment in our economy. We know that the global energy transformation presents a generational opportunity for Australia. The world is changing and the pace of that change is accelerating. Our approach to growth and investment needs to change as well. We know that, if we hold back, the chance for a new generation of jobs and prosperity will pass us by, and that will make us more vulnerable and poorer. And that's not what we want to see for Australia.

I'm really disappointed to hear, from those opposite, such negativity about some of these really positive steps. We don't have an energy policy from those opposite. I am really disappointed, too, at the lack of ambition and optimism that those opposite seem to have for Australian ingenuity and for our communities. We are trying to deliver to people who are under pressure right now, while making sure that our economy and our vision for this country are strong and ambitious for the future.

I am really proud to be part of a government that is managing to do all of these things at once. We're not just thinking about the here and now; we're thinking about the future. We're investing in education. We're investing in skills. We're investing in industry. We're investing in housing.

I think all of us in this place want to leave knowing that the country looks better at the end of our time than it did at the start. I think that, through a budget like this, and through the efforts that our government is continuing to make to invest in relieving cost-of-living pressures now but building a better future for Australians where no-one is left behind, a lot of us will be able to look back and say that that was achieved. I'm really proud to be part of a government that's continuing to prioritise the welfare and future of Australians everywhere, and I commend these bills to the House.

Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How can a government that knows the serious pain that people are in across this country give so much to billionaires and big corporations and so little—scraps—to the people doing it tough? We know there are millions of renters and mortgage holders in serious financial stress right now, making tough choices between paying the rent or the mortgage and feeding their families. We know that people are struggling to put food on the table because the supermarkets are price-gouging and are being allowed to do it by the major parties. People are sending their kids to school with hungry bellies. There are ordinary people being forced to work multiple jobs just to make ends meet and missing out on time to actually live a good life.

Labor knows all of this—except, in this budget right now, every politician in this place will get $4½ thousand off their tax. That's at a cost of over $80 billion, just for the tax cuts for people earning over $200,000 a year.

Labor has $175 billion in tax handouts for property investors over the next four years. That is money that goes towards property investors that allows them to go to auctions and beat out renters trying to buy their first home and bid up the price of housing.

Despite oil and gas corporations last year making $164 billion in revenue, the revenue that the government will make from their oil and gas tax this year is just $1 billion. That is a 0.6 per cent return on their oil and gas tax. That means a nurse pays a higher tax rate than some of the biggest multinational gas corporations, including Chevron, Santos and Woodside. That's outrageous.

They've also announced and found in this budget, over the next 10 years, $50 billion extra in defence spending, to bring total defence spending to $750 billion over the next 10 years. Imagine how much public housing that could build. Imagine what that could do for putting dental into Medicare or making sure we could fully wipe student debt, not just tinker around the edges. Instead, that money is going to disastrous projects like the nuclear attack submarines, the AUKUS submarines, which have nothing to do with Australian safety and everything to do with backing up the United States' ambitions and backing in United States foreign policy.

And the government has the temerity to brag about a $9.3 billion surplus. They're sitting on $9.3 billion; it's just sitting there. That could build over 18,000 public homes in a single year, changing the lives of tens of thousands of people. But the government is just sitting on that money.

Honourable Member:

An honourable member interjecting—

Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Reducing the national debt—there we go; we heard it from a member opposite. I frankly do not think anyone who is choosing right now between feeding their kids and paying the rent cares about reducing the national debt. What they care about it staying in their home. What they care about is not being on a public housing waitlist for 10 years.

When it comes to housing, let's talk about the housing crisis. This is the worst housing crisis Australia has faced in generations, and the most money that the government is going to spend—the biggest line items in this budget for housing—is on tax handouts for property investors: tens of billions of dollars, $175 billion over the next four years, in handouts for property investors. That's where the lion's share of government spending on housing is going. These are property investors who go to auctions and bid up the price of housing, beating out first-home buyers. Imagine how many public homes we could build if instead we were giving that money to build public housing and help out renters rather than to wealthy property investors. By the way—and let's be clear about this—over 70 per cent of the Labor caucus in this place are property investors; 65 per cent of the coalition members in this place are property investors. Remarkably, there are more Labor property investors than coalition property investors—something to reflect on. And the parliament, right now, with the support of the government, is refusing to change any of the tax handouts for those same property investors. How are members of the Australian public meant to look upon that?

Then there is the huge, apparently really exciting announcement. But before we get to this announcement: it demonstrates how few members of this government probably get it, and how few people in the Labor Party properly get how serious the rental crisis is. Renters are in a massive crisis, and this is what the government announces: an extra $9 a week for people on Commonwealth rent assistance. Never mind that two-thirds of renters do not get Commonwealth rent assistance. That is $9 a week, when rents are going up by sometimes hundreds of dollars a week. In fact, we know that the total cost of increasing Commonwealth rent assistance by that much over the next year will be about $380 million. That sounds like a little bit, until you think about the fact that the rent increases over the next year alone, based on Parliamentary Library research, will be over $5 billion. So, renters are about to cop a rent tsunami of $5 billion in rent increases, and the government is doing nothing for two-thirds of renters, and all that the one-third of renters who do get Commonwealth rent assistance will get is $9 extra a week.

I think it's worth reflecting on and talking about the human impact of the choices the government is making in refusing to freeze and cap rent increases, refusing to build enough public housing so that people aren't waiting 10 years to get into a public home, refusing to phase out the massive tax handouts for property investors. Here are just a few stories from the People's Commission into the Housing Crisis, from Everybody's Home. There are people like Lyn, who talks about how she's been homeless on and off since her marriage ended because she couldn't afford any rentals or because her landlord was selling the house. Now, at the age of 73, after a 50-year career as a nurse, she hasn't even bothered putting her name down for public housing, because they told her it would be a 10-year wait—10 years; what is she meant to do in those 10 years? Sleep in her car? By the way, if she does end up sleeping in her car, she doesn't get Commonwealth rent assistance. The way the rules are written is quite remarkable: if you do not live in a home, you don't even get Commonwealth rent assistance.

What about Joe who, at 73, has had to move six times in under 10 years. Again, landlords kept kicking him out so they could sell their houses for massive profits. By the way, when they sell their house for a massive profit, 50 per cent of that profit is tax free thanks to the Labor government. During one of those moves, Joe fell backwards down the stairs, breaking his spine and 14 ribs. Frankly, he's very fortunate to be alive.

Racheal has been homeless three times since leaving a violent relationship 13 years ago. She is now facing homelessness for the fourth time in her life. Rents in her area have doubled since COVID—doubled by hundreds and hundreds of dollars—so what good is an extra $9 a week even if she were receiving Commonwealth Rent Assistance?

Lucie is a single mother who has been forced to move repeatedly due to rent increases and evictions. I thought I'd actually quote from her story directly. This is from Lucie:

I have three jobs, one permanent part-time and two casual jobs. Every chance I get I am working only to pay bills. I have nothing left over. I am exhausted. I have had just four days off in six months.

In the last ten years my children and I have moved seven times. I have had to move as I couldn't afford the rental increases. This is not what I want for my children. I would like them to have stability a home that they know. But unfortunately there is very little help for single parents in my situation. The housing waiting list is ten years—

again, 10 years because the government refuses to build enough public housing to clear the public housing waitlist. Lucie says:

I am on all the affordable housing lists I know.

Because I am paying my rent I probably won't be considered for public housing so this again puts me in a stressful situation.

Last year I was paying $640 a week—

and then—

the landlord raised the rent at the end of the fixed term to $840—

$840! Let's just pause here for a second: this could have been stopped if the government froze rent increases. If the government froze rent increases, right now Lucie—working three jobs, raising kids, making tough choices in her life—could have stayed in her home. Those are the choices this Labor government is making. Here's Lucie again:

I told her—

that is, the real estate agent—

that I could afford—

that rent increase—

but my limit was $750. She issued me with an eviction notice. Frantically looking for a new place, I was turned down so many times. We had nowhere to go.

She finishes:

I found a place near my children's school but I was only approved when a friend stepped in to be the guarantor. We have a roof over our heads but I am struggling to pay all the basics. Sometimes I do go without to provide for my kids meaning skipping meals.

I am now six months into my lease and I am worried because I know that at the end of this term the real estate agent will raise the rent and I won't be able to afford it.

This should not happen in a wealthy country like Australia. It should not happen! It should be a great shame on this government that when they have the power to freeze and cap rent increases, instead they choose to lock in unlimited rent increases. It should be a great shame that this government, over the next four years, will be dishing out $175 billion in tax handouts to property investors but won't spend enough money to build the public housing that this country needs to ensure people like Lucie aren't forced to make choices like this.

It is genuinely remarkable that the Commonwealth Bank can record a record $10 billion profit and just announce that and the government makes no changes in the budget to make sure we take a large portion of that money back from the Commonwealth Bank because we acknowledge that it is made off the back of the misery of millions of mortgage holders and renters and put that towards building public housing. I thought Labor was meant to represent working people. Instead, in this budget there is vastly more amounts of money going to the super wealthy property investors than there are going to people like Lucie.

But of course there is something we could do about all of this. The Treasurer could have stood at the dispatch box and delivered a budget that fundamentally changed the lives of millions of people. I know people watching at home, whose faith in politics is understandably pretty low at the moment, watching the gap between the major parties shrink every single day, are starting to wonder what the point is of paying attention to this at all. The first thing I would say to them is that is part of the government's strategy. What they are trying to do is shrink the scope of what is considered possible in politics. All of a sudden, when we're in the middle of the worst cost-of-living crisis we've seen in a generation, the government isn't able to say, 'Over the next five years we could build enough public housing to clear the waitlist.' No, that's impossible. But what is possible, apparently, is giving $175 billion in tax handouts to property investors. They continue to shrink the scope of what is considered possible in politics so you switch off. That is their goal. The lower your expectations, the less they have to meet them.

It is entirely possible for the government to have announced this year that they were raising taxes on gas corporations, scrapping the stage 3 tax handouts for people earning over $200,000, making the supermarkets and the banks pay tax on their super profits and raising hundreds of billions of dollars. The government could do that. They could use that money to help coordinate a freeze and cap on rent increases so people who are one rent increase away from eviction get to stay in their homes. They could phase out the tax handouts for property investors and invest that money in not only building enough public housing so the most vulnerable in our society have a place to call home but building housing and renting and selling it at prices people can afford to anyone who needs one. European countries do that right now. That's the thing. Everything that I'm proposing right now is done around the world.

We could entirely scrap student debt, not just tinker around the edges: scrap it entirely and make university free. There are a lot of members in this place on the Labor and Liberal sides who went to university for free. They're now denying it to millions of people, who are getting smashed by unfair massive student debts. We could bring dental into Medicare. We could bring mental health into Medicare. We could give people the things they need to get on and live a good life. Instead, this government is dishing out hundreds of billions of dollars in tax handouts and benefits to billionaires and big corporations.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

FREELANDER () (): I'm very proud to be a member of the Albanese Labor government. They say that changing the government changes the country, and I think this budget was definitely evidence for that. Tax cuts, road and transport funding, placement payments for nurses and for teachers, and HECS debt write-offs are just some of the big wins for the country and for Macarthur residents in particular. From 1 July, our reformed tax policy will provide larger and fairer tax cuts to more Australian households, meaning that virtually every taxpayer will get more back from their tax return. Under our federal government, those earning from $40,000 a year will receive a tax cut, as opposed to the coalition's plan, which had no tax cut for the same income bracket. Your return increases with salary, so you'll be better off under our policy and you'll get much more back in the next tax year than you would have under the previous government. This means that you get more of your money back into your pocket to help with your financial needs.

We're very much aware that there is a cost-of-living problem around the developed world. Our government is providing much-needed investment and support and helping people struggling with an economy that is under stress. We're getting inflation under control, and we're getting things done for our communities. In my community of Macarthur, we're getting funding for an upgrade to Appin Road from Appin to the Mount Gilead Estate and for the St Johns Road intersection on Appin Road, and further funding is planned in the future as we develop the new communities to the south of Appin. We're getting money for the south-west rail project, a scoping study to make the business case to extend the Western Sydney Airport rail link from the city of Bradfield to Leppington in my electorate of Macarthur. We're getting the rapid Sydney bus infrastructure upgrade of over $100 million and the Spring Farm parkway, connecting parts of my electorate from Camden to Campbelltown and Menangle across the M5 motorway. These announcements will make a huge difference to Macarthur residents, and they are a really great thing for the electorate. I'm very excited about them.

In addition to these important supports, we've announced that university students studying degrees in teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work will receive placement payments, as I said. I'm hoping that will extend also at some stage to medical students. The new payments will provide around 68,000 eligible higher education students and over 5,000 VET students each year with just over $300 per week during their clinical and professional placements. This will be means tested and available from 1 July 2025 and will be in addition to any income support the student may also receive. Further, we've announced that our federal government will cut student debt for more than 3 million Australians backdated to 1 July last year, and 23,500 Macarthur apprentices, students and trainees will benefit from this. This will help those with HECS debts. I know that in many families this is a big problem. It will reduce their HECS debts and reduce the increases in HECS debts that people have every year. Many people around the country will benefit from this.

I strongly welcome these measures, and I know that whilst there's much more to do—especially when it comes to dealing with cost-of-living pressures—these are practical, important steps to handle these pressures while also tackling inflation and global problems. In terms of the other cost-of-living measures, there's the energy bill relief of $300 to every household. There's the rent assistance payments, the cheaper medicines policy, and in health we're doing what we can to improve access to primary care.

It's long been a concern of mine that access to good quality primary care through GPs in Australia has been deteriorating in many areas. It's particularly so in disadvantaged areas and in rural, regional and remote areas. Our GP workforce is ageing, and it's particularly so in the country and the bush. In some places—like in the Deputy Speaker's area of Tasmania—there have been huge problems with access to affordable general practices. Our bulk-billing incentives announced at the last budget and the measures in this budget for increased practice incentives, increased payments for long consultations and case conferencing with other health professionals—such as allied health practitioners like podiatrists, diabetes educators and community nurses for someone with diabetes—will enable people, often with chronic multisystem illness, to access primary care. They will be bulk billed and able to access the type of health care that they need rather than going from place to place.

We are very keen to improve access to primary care in rural areas. That's why there are rural practice incentives, and there are incentives for medical students to enter into rural training schemes by increasing the number of rural placements in universities—particularly with what was recently announced in the Northern Territory with their own clinical school. This will encourage people who attend those rural and regional training schemes to become doctors. They are much more likely to stay in rural and regional areas than if they are trained in city medical schools. So that's a great thing.

We're also making medicines much cheaper, with the freezing of the copayment for medicines for four years for those on healthcare cards and for two years for those who are paying privately. This will make a difference together with our 60-day prescribing that we introduced earlier this year. It will make medicines much cheaper, particularly for older people, people on welfare payments and people with chronic illness. A very important part of our health infrastructure will be much cheaper for people to access with pharmacies et cetera. Our national immunisation programs have increased, with better access now to vaccines such as those for shingles and the recently available Respiratory Syncytial Virus vaccine. They are all federally funded and available through pharmacies and general practitioners.

We're investing in a future made in Australia. That has very important implications for the health system by encouraging local manufacturing of high-tech medical products and other products that provide good, well-paying jobs in the longer term for Australians. We've had many successes in Australia in the health field, but we've also had many losses to overseas manufacturing, such as the Gardasil vaccine for cervical cancer. But we've had many successes, like Cochlear and ResMed, and we need to build on that by using our Future Made in Australia funding to improve access for startup medical companies to manufacture in Australia. There are also now lots of supports for pharmaceutical manufacturing in Australia. As we speak, the multinational company Moderna is building a messenger RNA, or mRNA, production facility in Melbourne for things like mRNA vaccines and biological products.

So there are really important things happening in medicine, and our government, through the health team led by Mark Butler, is doing really great things to try and make sure that people can access health care on an affordable and equitable basis wherever they live in Australia, after 10 years of complete neglect by the coalition government. We've had more interest in trying to reverse the trend of pressure on our public hospital outpatient system and emergency departments with the development of the urgent-care centres, and these are now becoming more accessible in all parts of Australia. In my own electorate of Macarthur we have the Macarthur urgent care centre, funded by the federal government, and we've got the urgent-care centre funded by the state government in Gregory Hills, which is making a big difference and taking a lot of pressure off our hospital system, and I'm very grateful for that.

On the terrible instances of violence against women, we're making much more progress through our initiatives to provide victim support funding and to make sure that people are able to leave violent situations by increasing the grants available to them to $5,000. There's much more to be done. I know that, and it is a blight on our society that we have violence against women occurring on a regular basis in all areas of Australia and that many women are losing their lives every year due to this. The government is working hard to look at what available solutions there are. It is something that governments of all persuasions in Australia are supporting, and I know the Attorney-General is very keen to see if there are supports that can be put in place through the legal system to make it more responsive to the needs of women in violent situations.

We are managing our economy responsibly. We're doing many things for people who suffer from disadvantage, and this is something that Labor governments have traditionally done. I'm particularly proud of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The recent announcement of a new specialist disability employment program will make a huge difference to many of the patients I've looked after in my electorate of Macarthur and even in the wider community. We've committed an additional sum of almost $230 million to this, and that'll make people with disability more able to access jobs, and that makes a huge difference. I was recently in the restaurant at the Campbelltown Catholic Club, and I was served by a patient of mine with Down syndrome who, through our disability employment system, has been able to secure a full-time job working in hospitality in the club. They have been very supportive of disability employment in Macarthur, and this will make it easier for them to employ people with even moderately severe disabilities.

We're investing in a modern digital program to deliver better supports to people in the NDIS, and that has revolutionised the lives of not only people with disabilities but their families in Macarthur. It is very important that we focus on the NDIS and its support for people with disabilities and their families. We need to bring costs under control, and the minister is certainly doing that. But we are also focused on the fact that this has revolutionised the lives of such a large number of people with disability in our communities. It means that families know that their children and other family members with disabilities have certainty into the future on things like housing, employment and support as they grow older. We are rationalising NDIS funding, and it's important that we use an evidence base to rationalise the funding for supports with disability so that those with the most severe disabilities can be guaranteed ongoing supports in our community. We are also increasing efforts to address tax compliance in the shadow economy, in particular with that multinational tax avoidance, which will improve tax takes and the pool of spending that we can use in this country.

So I'm very excited about the budget. It's made a big difference to Macarthur residents, particularly in areas like the tax cuts, in education supports and in the wider community. I know there is much more to be done. There is certainly much more to be done in health, and access to primary care is a really important part of that. There are also improvements that will need to be made in providing supports for people who are falling outside safety nets in terms of housing policy. The government has committed $32 billion for that, and it will make a difference, but it takes time. We can't redress the 10 years of failed coalition policy in housing in one or two budgets. This will take a long time. But we will do it, and it can be done. I'm proud to be a member of a government that has delivered a really wonderful budget that will make a big difference to the future of Australia.

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

There is no new money for housing, nothing for mortgage holders, no new money for DV support services and nothing to stop corporate price gouging. HECS debts will keep going up. The cost-of-living crisis will continue to get worse. But there is room for $50 billion for fossil fuel subsidies, $12 billion for nuclear submarines and $174 billion in tax handouts that make the housing crisis worse. This isn't a budget for everyday Australians; it's a budget for fossil fuel corporations and corporate CEOs that actually locks in the cost-of-living and climate crises.

That $9.3 billion surplus that the Treasury is so proud of could have supplied thousands of public homes. It could have put dental cover into Medicare. It could have raised income support. It could be wiping HECS debt. It could fund years of free public transport across the entire country. But, no, it's more important that the Treasurer positions himself as sensible to the political and media class.

So here are three—let's put it politely—untruths that Labor is telling you about their budget. Untruth No. 1: that there is $11.3 billion in new money for housing in the budget—not true. Most of that is an extension of Morrison-era agreement with the states. So it's not new money. The rest is the $1 billion that the Greens secured in negotiations last year on the Housing Australia Future Fund Bill, and the rest is for housing-adjacent infrastructure, not actually building new housing. Untruth No. 2: that they're wiping $3 billion in HECS debt. This was debt that they created last year by refusing to scrap indexation, leading to debts massively climbing by 7.1 per cent. But we're expected to treat retroactively changing that indexation as some kind of incredible generosity. It's like pulling the knife out after they've stabbed you. Finally, untruth No. 3: that this is a responsible budget. I'll tell you who it's being responsible for—the big banks, the CEOs and the fossil fuel corporations, who will keep benefiting from massive subsidies and tax breaks. It's not sensible or responsible for everyday people, who will continue to pay for those tax breaks and who will continue to suffer as the cost-of-living and climate crises get worse under this government. If they want to actually curb inflation, just cap rents and stop corporate price gouging.

The cost of bread is up over 20 per cent in the last two years. Cheese and eggs are up over 20 per cent. Oils are up almost 30 per cent over two years. Supermarket price gouging is out of control, and there is nothing—nothing—in Labor's budget to stop it. They're refusing to make price gouging illegal or to empower the ACCC to break up the duopoly. But when governments fail we know that our communities will still go out of their way to support each other.

Our community pantry in Ryan has been open for nearly a year now, and, sadly, its use increases day by day. It now empties almost every day. My office and I provide the basics that we need, and we have generous donations from many Ryan locals. We've also just launched a very popular weekly free dinners program at two Ryan locations. People really appreciate meeting each other and taking a night off from cooking, and I really love catching up, too, in a friendly, informal family setting. Thanks again, amazing Ryan volunteers. You make this possible. I love your tireless work, but you really shouldn't have to be doing it. We need real action from our government to urgently alleviate desperate cost-of-living pressures.

There are other dark pressures on too many in our community. Women are being murdered at almost twice the rate of last year—four women a week. The Prime Minister stood up at the No More rally in Canberra and said that his government would do more for prevention, more for cultural change that we so need and more to protect women. These seem like hollow words in the face of the government's budget that does nothing to address men's violence against women. It's offensive. It's a betrayal. Australia has an epidemic of men's violence against women. One in four women will have experienced violence since the age of 15, one in two have experienced sexual harassment, and 39 women have been murdered this year—I keep having to update that number every time I speak—but there is not a single new cent from Labor to fund frontline services that are so necessary. How many more women have to die for the government to actually do something useful and practical? What is the price that women have to keep on paying?

This budget could have funded support services, prevention programs, JobSeeker increases and crisis housing. Instead, there's money for fossil fuel subsidies and wealthy property investors, and nothing for women. If Labor were actually serious about this, if the condolences weren't hollow, they would actually commit to the immediate funding of legal aid—$1 billion for frontline support services every year and actual funding for prevention and education work. Anything less is a betrayal of women. The more Labor ignores this crisis, the more women are hurt and will die. There's no new funding for women or for real cost-of-living relief, and there's barely any spending on public schools. This is a budget for the likes of Brad Banducci, for Woodside and for property investors.

If you send your kid to a public school in Australia, you're getting pretty much nothing in this budget. Actually, what the Labor government will promise you is a funding shortfall of $3 billion for public education. What a disgrace. Less than two per cent of the public schools across Australia receive the funding they're supposed to get. Meanwhile, 98 per cent of private schools receive excess funding from the Labor government. It doesn't make any sense. This is actually harming our kids' futures. In my own electorate, for example, the Gap State School is shortchanged by $1 million a year, Ashgrove State School is shortchanged by $1.2 million annually, and Ferny Grove State High School has a funding shortfall of $3.5 million. Indooroopilly State High School can't even get any new funding to build toilets, despite overcrowding causing long lines every lunchtime. They've been refused any new permanent classrooms, and they're having to beg for demountables just so kids can have a library.

With this budget, Labor are saying that they would rather buy nuclear submarines, weapons and fund climate bombs like the Middle Arm gas project than fund libraries, science lessons or toilets for our kids. They'll give huge handouts to private schools, fossil fuel companies and property investors but cry poor when it comes to funding our public schools and our kids' futures. It's an absolute betrayal of everyday people who are struggling to pay the mortgage, to fill up the car or to pay school fees. The Treasurer may pat himself on the back and congratulate himself for a job well done, but if he had actually been listening to real people in the community he would know that this budget has crushed people—people who had hoped that Labor might listen to them; that they might have had the weight of HECS debt lifted off their shoulders or that they might be able to afford a roof over their heads or feed their families without fear of defaulting on another bill. But, once again, Labor have decided to listen to their wealthy corporate mates and have left everyday Australians behind.

Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The simple definition of DNA is: 'a molecule that contains the genetic code that is unique to every individual'. The code is, if you like, an instruction manual for making all the proteins that form our bodies and help us thrive. These codes or instruction manuals are, of course, genetic—handed from parent to child. It's true that the fruit never falls far from the tree, and we all inherit bits and pieces and odds and sods from our parents and grandparents. Often these are physical, but many are not. Miraculously, no two codes of DNA are the same. I've always loved science, and now I'm not sure whether this was inherited, an aspect of my DNA, or something I developed at school—and perhaps it was just a bit of both. But surely the discovery and the study of DNA is one of the greatest scientific advances of all time.

Science, much like history, is debated, so the question of who discovered DNA is a vexed one. Was it a Swiss chemist? Was it others? There are many who claim that they discovered it. As for me, I'll settle for the Eagle pub theory—it suits Australian larrikinism, I think—for it was in this pub that Crick and Watson, on 28 February 1953, celebrated the discovery of the structure of DNA, the building block of life.

As DNA is to people, budgets are to governments. No two are the same; they're codes or building blocks; they're often inherited—in the case of budgets, through ideology or history—and they are all unique, cut and tailored to suit the demands, challenges and pressures of the time.

The budget handed down recently is very much in the tradition of Labor, and it is unmistakably Labor. So today, in this place, I would like to outline the evidence for this and to ask: How is this a Labor budget? And how is it tailored for our times? But I also want to touch on my particular electorate's DNA and on how the budget will assist my constituents specifically. I also want to touch on some non-economic pressures and the pain that my community is feeling.

This budget leaves no Australian behind—not one. That is, every Australian taxpayer receives a tax cut. In Werriwa, this means that 80,000 taxpayers will, on average, get a tax cut of over $1,400. That's real money, in real pockets, from 1 July 2024, and it represents a significant increase on the tax cuts proposed by the previous government. In addition, we have increases to the Medicare levy low-income threshold, ensuring that more than one million low-income taxpayers continue to be exempt from the Medicare levy or pay a reduced rate.

Difficult economic times require a government to respond responsibly and appropriately. The new power-bill rebates do both. Again, no-one—I repeat: no-one—is left behind by the Albanese government, including small business, in these power rebates. Every household in Werriwa will receive a $300 rebate, applied quarterly, and small businesses will receive $325—real money, real assistance and real help with the cost of living.

Honestly, there's not enough time for me to detail all the cost-of-living measures in this budget. The billions for infrastructure in my part of south-western Sydney would take a speech in themselves. So, in this address on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2024-2025 and related bills, I'll restrict myself to just four measures that are particularly relevant to my constituents.

Firstly, there's more assistance to help nearly one million Australian households with the cost of rent, by increasing the maximum rates of Commonwealth rent assistance by 10 per cent. This benefits over 9,000 households in Werriwa and builds on the government's 15 per cent increase, which commenced in September 2023.

Secondly, this budget strengthens our healthcare system yet again. Members will remember the government's previous initiative in this area last year—namely, the establishment of urgent care clinics; cheaper medicines, through the 60-day scripts; and a historic $3.5 billion investment to triple the bulk billing incentive. This budget goes further by freezing the PBS co-payment and adding more medicines to the PBS. Residents in Werriwa have already saved over $1½ million thanks to our early reforms. Now everyone in Werriwa who has access to PBS medicines is set to save more. Further, we are expanding Medicare coverage to an MRI machine in Werriwa, which will expand affordable access to imaging services.

The third aspect of the budget I'd like to highlight relates to HECS relief for students. Many in my electorate are the first in their family to attend university, while others pursue alternative post-school educational opportunities. They know that solid education is a foundation for their future career and economic wellbeing. Labor has always been a friend of universities, beginning with Gough Whitlam's reforms all those years ago through to the Dawkins reforms a few years later. This budget makes the HECS-HELP system fairer. It does this by cutting $3 billion in student debt for more than three million Australians. Our government is doing this by capping the HELP indexation rate to the lower of either the CPI or the wage price index. This means HELP debts will never grow faster than wages. In Werriwa this change will support over 26,000 people.

Fourthly and finally, there was one item in the recent budget that wasn't picked up by many. It's the additional $67.5 million as part of the government's second tranche of reforms to crack down on scammers. Surely all Australians have either been a victim of a scam or know someone who has been scammed. In all their iterations—SMS, emails, phone calls, doorknockers and the like—scams are everywhere. We all know this, but it only really gets driven home when we experience it personally. Recently I was scammed. The exact mechanism by which I was scammed is still a bit of a mystery, which in itself is a worry. Thankfully I was alerted in good time and, to the best of my ability, have taken every appropriate subsequent action. I'm not out of pocket, which, unfortunately, cannot be said for some of the constituents of Werriwa. A few months ago, I was very grateful for a visit to my office by the Assistant Treasurer. He led a well-attended and very informative scams forum. In 2023 Australians made more than 600,000 scam reports, and they lost up to $2.7 billion to scams. These are terrible statistics. The Albanese government takes scams seriously, and the announcement of additional funds in the budget will help my constituents keep ahead of the scammers.

The economic and cost-of-living pressures that Australians are facing are real. Equally real are the relief measures in this budget. The measures in the budget are founded in our ideology and our DNA: to help those who need it, to offer a helping hand and to reward effort. As much as the economy and budgets are important, so are communities. I started today by talking about DNA. I refer to the physical traits we inherit from our forebears, but I also refer to other characteristics that are non-physical. For as much as we are all unique and individual, we have far more in common. The bond of humanity far exceeds our differences. We all feel pain, and we all feel joy. We all experience disappointment, and we hope for a better future. I rise today to talk about how my community has been hurting. It's only right that I speak not only about the economic pain but also about the shared heartbreak that many in my community are experiencing and continue to experience.

Over 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza. I don't say that lightly. Aid workers, journalists and innocent civilians have been killed, and the world is much poorer for their loss. There has been a massive swathe of destruction which has crippled existing infrastructure. The horror that we have seen is unfathomable and condemnable. The blocking of humanitarian assistance is unacceptable. To forget the suffering we have borne witness to would be deplorable. We must never forget how this most recent conflict began, nor the countless tragedies that have led to this moment. I mourn each of them. I mourn the good. I mourn the decent who have struggled for a peaceful future that they, sadly, have not now lived to see. I fear this cycle will not end until we resolve the perpetually unresolved issue: the recognition of the Palestinian state.

The Albanese government supports a two-state solution as the best possible path to ensuring peace and prosperity. Australia has voted to increase the participation of Palestine at the United Nations. We have voted for the cessation of hostilities. We've called for a ceasefire. We've called for humanitarian assistance. I've spoken and corresponded with many in my community. I share their sadness, their anguish and their frustration. I recognise their pain and will always endeavour to act on their behalf, with their best interest in mind. For as much as budgets and the economy and cost of living count—and they do—so do communities and people.

I will do everything in my remit and power to listen, to encourage and to foster tolerance, both on a one-on-one level with individuals but also on the broader policy front. I will continue to engage with all those with faith and those with none. I will continue to recognise those in my community who give selflessly of themselves for the benefit of others. I will continue to walk towards harmony, mutual respect and tolerance, and more than anything I will continue to listen. Genuine listing is hard, but if we all try then it will make a difference. Everyone has a story and everyone needs to be heard.

I genuinely feel that this budget is a response to listening to the concerns of everyday Australians and that it is a step in the right direction in addressing the economic hurt so many are feeling. It has much more to offer all Australians and in its DNA it is authentically Labor. It is a budget I'm proud to defend. In the same way I am proud of my community, my home electorate and its constituents. They've been through tough times, and I hope this budget will be a solid step for them in addressing their economic concerns. But more than that I also hope that, as a community in its full diversity, we can begin to address those other deeper, longing pains that are shared by so many—these pains that desire a better tomorrow, a more peaceful future and an end to war and division. The responsibility for addressing those pains lies with all of us. I commend the budget to the House.

Colin Boyce (Flynn, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the appropriation bills 2024-25. The Labor government's 2024-25 budget is a betrayal of regional Australia. Labor's budget has stripped away funding from nation-building infrastructure in regional Australia and failed to provide new money for regional programs, while refusing to fix its self-made cost-of-living crisis. Labor's decision to slash funding to restore Paradise Dam is a kick in the guts for not only the Bundaberg area but the agriculture industry as a whole.

I've been fighting for Paradise Dam to be restored for many years, and the Labor government's announcement is an enormous blow to our region. The Bundaberg area produces 25 per cent of Australia's fresh food produce, and hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in agriculture have now been put at risk due to the Albanese government's inexcusable decision to slash funding to restore the dam. I recently directed a question to the Prime Minister in question time. To make matters worse, Prime Minister Albanese deflected and, when he was asked about the restoration of Paradise Dam, treated the issue as if it was a laughing matter. The Prime Minister handballed the question to Minister Plibersek, who could not answer it and could not provide certainty to agriculture industries in the Wide Bay area. I invite Prime Minister Albanese and Minister Plibersek to come to the Flynn electorate and meet with the growers and the communities set to be affected by Labor's decision to cut funding to restore this critical piece of water infrastructure. Why is the Labor government breaking another promise to regional Australia?

Under Labor, the aspiration of home ownership has become out of reach, and all migration records have been broken. Even finding somewhere to rent is near impossible in many regional areas. Amidst a housing crisis, Labor is bringing in a record 1.67 million immigrants over five years, but, on available data, it has only built 265,000 homes. While we celebrate the contribution of immigrants, our program needs to be well managed. Under the Prime Minister, the great Australian dream of home ownership has turned into a nightmare. His decisions have made the housing and rental crisis worse.

To alleviate pressure on the housing market, Peter Dutton, the opposition leader, and the coalition have announced a reduction in permanent migration from 185,000 to 140,000 for two years, and then 150,00 in year 3 and 160,000 in year 4; the return of the refugee and humanitarian program planning level to the long-term average, from 20,000 to 13,750; a reduction in the number of foreign students at metropolitan universities and an increase in the student visa fee, to be applied to foreign students who change providers; and the implementation of a two-year ban on foreign residents purchasing existing homes. By getting the migration setting right, the coalition will free up almost 40,000 additional homes in the first year and well over 100,000 homes in the next five years.

There are still a lot of questions that need to be answered about Labor's Future Made in Australia bill. This includes $13.7 billion in taxpayer funded subsidies for businesses, which doesn't address the source of Labor's cost-of-living and cost-of-doing-business crises. I'm a proud supporter of job creation in regional Australia, but I am of the firm belief that a successful industry should be able to stand on its own two feet. Eight billion dollars has been announced for hydrogen hubs across Australia, and I suspect Gladstone will be one of these sites, in my electorate of Flynn. The Gladstone Ports Corporation have publicly stated that a hydrogen industry at Gladstone will need 110 gigawatts of renewable energy to produce four million tonnes of hydrogen. This will require 10,000 wind turbines, 2½ thousand square kilometres of solar panels to be built and 45,000 megalitres of water each year. This requires over half the capacity of Rookwood Weir, near Rockhampton, to reach this target.

The things that I want to know are: how much money will be directed at the Gladstone renewable energy hub in respect of hydrogen? Where will all of these wind turbines go? Are they proposing to put them out in the Great Barrier Reef? Where will all the solar panels go—on prime agricultural land? Is this funding for hydrogen more money and subsidies for billionaires like Mr Forrest? Where will all the water come from for Gladstone's hydrogen industry? I say this as the Fitzroy to Gladstone pipeline will provide 19,000 megalitres of water for industry at Gladstone. Even with the unlikely possibility of the hydrogen industry receiving the full allocation, where is the remaining 26,000 megalitres of water going to come from?

There has been speculation that large-scale desalination plants could fill the void. According to the Water Corporation, of Western Australia, seawater desalination is four times more energy intensive than groundwater collection and over 40 times more energy intensive than water sourced from dams. The math and the economics does not add up. So the economics tells us that the plan to use energy to convert seawater into freshwater and then use more energy to convert the water to hydrogen is a ridiculous notion.

Instead of addressing the causes of Labor's homegrown inflation, Labor is spending up to $315 billion—that's $30,000 of extra spending for every Australian household. Spending does not take pressure off inflation. In fact, it makes it worse, which will affect families across the Flynn electorate. Labor's focus should be on dealing with the high energy costs, high inflation and out-of-control red tape. Instead, Labor continually fails to address the fundamental realities facing most Australian businesses. The latest inflation data showed that under Labor prices across the board have risen close to 10 per cent and the increase is even greater for many essential items. Food is up 10 per cent, housing is up 12 per cent, gas is up 25 per cent and electricity is up 18 per cent. Australians are poorer under this Albanese Labor government.

There is a risk that this spending will keep inflation higher for longer. While we support any help for families and small businesses with high energy costs, this rebate is a bandaid on a bullet wound. It doesn't change the fact that Australians still won't see the $275 reduction in their energy bills that the Prime Minister promised before the election. In fact, many Australians would need to see a $1,000 cut in their bill just to get the $275 reduction. As the shadow Treasurer said, Labor waste seems to know no bounds. They spent $450 million on the failed referendum that has divided this nation, spent billions on corporate welfare, provided funding for anti-resource project activists, spent more than $85 million for spin units in the Treasurer's department, created 36,000 additional Commonwealth Public Service jobs and had $45 billion in off-budget spending, which we have opposed. When Labor runs out of money, they come after yours, and it is little wonder that personal income taxes are now 23 per cent higher than when Labor came to office.

The coalition have made it clear that we will unequivocally and unashamedly champion our mining and resource sector. We will stand up for our gas industry, recognising the crucial role it plays in meeting our national energy goals. We will support our farmers, including ending any bans on live animal exports. Indeed, we will not turn our backs on industries that make this great country tick, as Labor has done.

Regional telecommunications are critical for rural and regional Australia. I'm bewildered at the fact that the Labor government has abolished the Mobile Black Spot Program and provided no ongoing funding for other key regional communications infrastructure projects. Buried deep in the budget papers is the statement that funding for communications programs will fall, including 'the conclusion of the Mobile Black Spot Program'. The budget papers confirm that funding for the Mobile Black Spot Program ceases in 2026-27, with $0 allocated for 2027-28. Improving connectivity for people in the bush shouldn't be at the whim of the Albanese government's political strategy. The Minister for Communications needs to explain why she is abolishing the Mobile Black Spot Program while failing to provide long-term funding for other mobile connectivity programs that so many Australians rely on.

I'm pleased that the Labor government has heard my calls for change to the HECS debt system loud and clear. The changes will mean that if your student loan was indexed on 1 June 23 you will receive a credit on your Higher Education Loan Program or other student loan account. This was needed because a higher-than-usual CPI resulted in an indexation rate of 7.1 per cent when applied to student loans on 1 June 2023. The government is proposing a retrospective change to reduce the indexation rate from 1 June 2023 to 3.2 per cent. This means you'll automatically be credited the difference on your study loan account. This will be welcomed by students across the Flynn electorate and by over three million students with HECS debts across Australia.

One of the few positives that I've seen in the budget is the continuation of the $20,000 instant asset write-off until 30 June 2025. However, I would like to see the instant asset write-off increased to unlock investment and create more jobs, particularly in rural and regional Australia. I strongly welcome Peter Dutton's announcement that the future coalition will extend the value of the assets eligible for the instant asset write-off to $30,000 and make this ongoing for small businesses.

I also welcome the $11.6 million over two years from 2024-25 to continue support for men's sheds and existing national men's health research and data collection initiatives, in line with the National Men's Health Strategy 2020-2030. Men's sheds play a vital role in preventing social isolation and mental ill-health. They offer thousands of men of all ages a safe and friendly environment where they can work on meaningful projects while building strong social connections. So, I'm sure this funding will be well received.

I also agree with the following government initiatives: the $3.4 billion addition of life-changing and life-saving medicines to the PBS; $1 billion towards accommodation for women and children fleeing domestic violence; and $925 million for a leaving-violence program.

I want to reiterate Peter Dutton's plan to get Australia back on track. As Peter Dutton explains, first we will rein in inflationary spending to take the pressure off inflation. As a start, we will not spend $13.7 billion on corporate welfare for green hydrogen and critical minerals. Second, we will wind back Labor's intervention and remove regulatory roadblocks which are suffocating the economy and stopping businesses from getting ahead. We will condense approvals processes and cut back on Labor's red tape, which is killing mining jobs and entrepreneurialism.

Third, we will remove the complexity and hostility of Labor's industrial relations agenda, which is putting unreasonable burdens on businesses. For example, we will revert to the former coalition government's simple definition of 'casual worker' and create certainty for our 2.5 million small businesses. Fourth, we will provide lower, simpler, and fairer taxes for all, because Australians should keep more of what they earn. Fifth, we will deliver competition policy which gives consumers and small businesses a fair go, not lobbyists and big corporations. And sixth, we will ensure that Australians have more affordable and reliable energy. Our economic plan is made up of tried and tested principles, which will restore competitiveness and rebuild the economy with confidence.

Labor is pressing ahead with its new fresh food tax. It's called a biosecurity protection levy. The fresh food tax is a disorganised, shambolic and terrible idea that is not even likely to work. There are 84 agricultural commodities set to be taxed to raise around $150 million over three years. Food costs will continue to climb, because Labor is refusing to reinstate the Ag visa. Instead, it's introducing just $1 million in its budget for a skilled agricultural work liaison pilot to attract graduates to work in agriculture.

In conclusion, regional Australia has been betrayed in Labor's budget. Sadly, it is clear that Labor has no plan to fix the cost-of-living crisis for regional families, and they will feel the pain in their wallets. Under Labor, regional Australia is the poorer for being hit with higher taxes, higher mortgage payments and higher grocery and energy bills. This is an inflationary budget that has no incentive for productivity whatsoever.

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

I rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2024-2025. This month the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, delivered his third budget. This budget is one that truly delivers for Australian families and sets out a vision for our nation's future. As a representative for the people of Holt, it is my duty to advocate for policies that alleviate the burdens faced by families particularly in the outer south-east of Melbourne, where the challenges are keenly felt. We all know that families are doing it tough, and that is why Labor is working very hard to support them. This budget builds on our plan to support families and address the cost of living.

Last year, we delivered $23 billion in cost-of-living relief, fee-free TAFE, more affordable housing, cheaper medicines, cheaper child care, more bulk billing, expanding paid parental leave, creating jobs and getting wages moving again. Building on our existing cost-of-living relief, Labor's stage 3 tax cuts represent the next step in this plan. It means that 90 per cent of taxpayers in my electorate of Holt will get a larger tax cut than they would have under the coalition—from fast food workers in Cranbourne to IT professionals in Clyde and from my former colleagues at Woolworths to migrants like my parents who have journeyed to our shores. Only the Labor Party stands up for Australians who are doing it tough, and these changes are proof of that.

Our plan will give all 13.6 million taxpayers a tax cut. This includes minimum wage and part-time workers, like many of our nation's youth. These workers—I used to be one—received no support under the coalition's plan. This is the difference between Labor and the coalition. In Holt, where families are feeling the pinch of skyrocketing living expenses, these tax cuts will make a difference. For instance, a minimum wage worker on $45,000 a year will be $800 better off under Labor's tax cuts. With the average tax cut for a resident of Holt being $1,320, this will offer significant relief to families.

We are also providing energy bill relief for 10 million households, who will receive $300 off their power bill over 2024-25. This is on top of the expected six per cent decrease in the price of the default market offer in Victoria, saving Victorian families a further $100 across the year. This will help families keep the lights on, and it will put downward pressure on inflation.

In this budget we are addressing one of the most pressing issues facing Australians today—affordable housing. The Albanese government is increasing Commonwealth rent assistance by 10 per cent to provide much needed relief to renters. This increase will mean that Commonwealth rent assistance has increased by 43 per cent since we came into government, reflecting our commitment to ensuring that every Australian has access to safe and affordable housing. For many families in Holt and across this nation, rent is the largest single expense. The rising cost of living has made it increasingly difficult for low-income households to keep up with the rent payments, pushing many into financial stress and housing insecurity. By increasing Commonwealth rent assistance we are directly reducing the financial burden on renters, ensuring that more Australians can afford to stay in their own homes. This increase will benefit 6,000 residents in my electorate of Holt, providing them with an additional layer of financial support. From a single mum in Hampton Park to a pensioner in Cranbourne or an apprentice in Tooradin, this will make a tangible difference for those who are struggling the most.

The government is making significant strides to address the housing crisis by boosting the supply of homes across Australia. In this bill, we are committing an additional $6.2 billion, bringing the government's total housing investment to over $32 billion. This substantial funding will support the construction of more homes, ensuring that every Australian has access to safe and affordable housing. We are allocating $3.5 billion to accelerate the building of new homes by funding essential infrastructure such as roads, services, sewers and parks. This is crucial for developing new housing projects in areas like Clyde, Botanic Ridge and Cranbourne West, where the infrastructure has been slow to catch up to new developments.

Additionally, we are creating 20,000 new fee-free TAFE places, focusing on construction courses to address labour shortages and speed up housing development. Most importantly, the government is investing to support women and children fleeing domestic violence, with $1 billion for projects that support them to find a safe place to call home. This investment ensures that our housing strategy is inclusive and meets the needs of all Australians. This investment shows our commitment towards our target to build 1.2 million homes by 2029, as agreed with the states in the National Housing Accord.

Today we stand at the crossroads in Australia's economic history—one marked by the consequences of policy decisions that have undermined our manufacturing sector. A decade of neglect and short-sighted policies under the Liberal governments has led to the demise of national institutions such as our car-manufacturing industry. Instead of fostering local businesses, the Liberals chose to prioritise cheap imports over domestic production, sacrificing the livelihoods of hardworking Australians in the process. As we look to the future, it is imperative that we chart a new course: one that prioritises local industry and puts the needs of our communities first.

The Albanese Labor government is steadfast in its commitment to build a future made in Australia. We are building a future where Australian ideas and industries thrive, benefiting every Australian and securing our place in the global economy. Labor's vision is anchored in our $22.7 billion plan, designed to unlock the full potential of our resources, transforming Australia into a manufacturing superpower. Our plan encompasses a bold agenda to drive innovation and industry growth, establishing Australia as a global hub for cutting-edge technology. With initiatives like the Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund, the Hydrogen Headstart program, the Battery Breakthrough Initiative and Solar Sunshot, we are investing in breakthrough technologies that will revolutionise our industry. Moreover, we are building resilient supply chains and fostering collaborations between industry and academia to drive research and development. This isn't just about securing our economic future; it's about shaping a future where Australian innovation and creativity are celebrated on the world stage. In this future made in Australia, we see a nation that leads by example, a nation that not only meets the challenges of the 21st century but thrives in the face of adversity. It is a future where every Australian has the opportunity to succeed, where innovation flourishes and where sustainability is at the core of everything that we do. Labor embraces this vision. We are working tirelessly to make it a reality. This is a future made in Australia for all Australians.

Higher education is vital to any future made in Australia. Our higher education sector is one of our national assets and contributes immensely to our national wealth. To transform our economy, we must continue to invest and expand the reach of our higher education system so that those from disadvantaged backgrounds and those from the outer suburbs can attend. The Liberals ran a crusade against the higher education sector, with cut after cut each budget and attempt after attempt to make students pay thousands more for their degrees. After a decade of attacks on our universities by the Liberals, it is exciting to see a Labor government which is supporting our students across many fields.

Students must undertake hundreds of hours of unpaid work placements to finish their degrees. I know that taking hundreds of hours of unpaid work to do placements is difficult, especially with today's cost-of-living pressures. That is why we have announced that, from July 2025, students studying nursing, teaching, social work and midwifery will be paid $319.50 per week while undertaking their placements. These are vital industries for the future of our nation. They also have some of the fastest-growing demands.

Studying at university shouldn't burden a person with a lifetime of debt. Last year, we saw student loans increase at some of the fastest rates in history, and, if we didn't act, we would have seen a historically large increase again this year. This rapid rise in debt threatens to discourage young Australians from studying. This is why Labor is changing the indexation of loans in this budget, so that student loans will never increase faster than their wages. This change will wipe $3 billion in student debt for three million Australians. We are investing $350 million in fee-free uni-ready courses so that more students have a pathway to higher education, with a focus on students from underrepresented backgrounds. The funding will replace the current mixed funding system with consistent funding to deliver higher-quality courses. This will result in 30,000 students studying in fee-free uni-ready courses each year by 2030, an increase of 40 per cent in student numbers and doubling the numbers of students by 2040.

We are continuing our work to strengthen Medicare so that all Australians have access to health care they need. We are investing $2.8 billion to enhance Medicare, including more urgent care clinics, higher rebates for common tests and improved women's health services. In Holt, Labor's investments have led to an additional 1,577 bulk-billed GP visits since November 2023, showing our commitment to make health care more accessible. Labor is also expanding Medicare urgent care clinics to 29 new sites nationwide, ensuring more Australians can benefit from bulk-billed walk-in urgent care. Moreover, we are bringing an MRI machine to Holt and ensuring that pathology tests remain bulk-billed, reducing wait times and catching health problems sooner.

With one-quarter of my electorate being under 14 years of age, youth mental health is one of the top issues in Holt. Treating issues while kids are young is vital to ensure they start off life on a founding footing. Labor is investing $361 million to establish a free online mental health service to expand access to care. This means any Australian can access the mental health care they need at any time from the comfort of their bedroom. These initiatives demonstrate our dedication to a stronger, more accessible healthcare system for all Australians.

This budget is a responsible budget that delivers for Australian families. This is a budget that delivers on our core priorities of cost of living, housing, health care and education. This is a budget with a vision for the future of our nation. This budget will drive down inflation. This budget has delivered back-to-back surpluses for the first time in 20 years. I would like to thank the Prime Minister and the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, for their work on this bill, and I commend the budget to the House.

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

According to the Treasurer, Labor's budget 'is realistic about the pressures people face now', and apparently it's 'a budget for every Australian'. What self-serving rubbish! This isn't a budget which is realistic about the pressures that people face. It's not a budget for everyone. This is a budget that does just enough so that Labor can say that they understand the challenges that people are facing while continuing the special treatment for big corporations and wealthy property investors. This is a budget that puts people under more pressure. Under Labor, cost of living's up, rents are up, food prices are up and climate pollution is up, because this is a government that is more concerned with the big corporations and their profits. They're more concerned about the stock exchange than ensuring that everyone has a roof over their head or enough to eat. They're more concerned about CEOs' pay than workers' pay. To many people, Labor's so-called answers are just plain offensive. They're glib talking points, weasel words designed to allow Labor to say that they're listening and that they're a bit better than the Liberals, but in reality the problems people face keep getting worse.

Labor said that in this budget they're delivering cost-of-living relief, but a few hundred dollars off your power bill won't stop the international gas cartel making billions of dollars while driving up prices. A tiny chop-out for the fraction of people who are on rent assistance won't help the majority of those in the country who rent. The student debt indexation changes won't deliver cost-of-living relief to people now, when they need it, and people will still get stuck with completely unaffordable degrees. Saying that things like giving rent assistance to people will help when most of the renters don't even get it is exactly why people are losing faith in the major parties.

Labor say they're realistic, but what's realistic about spending $342 billion on nuclear submarines when 3.3 million people are living in poverty under the worst support payments in the OECD? What's realistic about spending $50 billion on fossil fuel subsidies in a climate crisis while not spending a single extra cent on underfunded frontline services for women escaping violence? What's realistic about banking a $9.3 billion surplus when every one of those dollars could help people who are now living below the poverty line in this wealthy country of ours? None of this is realistic. It is deeply unrealistic.

Millions of people are trapped in a pressure cooker, and Labor is turbocharging inequality. The rent keeps going up, food prices keep going up, power bills keep going up, health costs keep going up and, despite working harder and harder, people are going backwards. Labor ignored these real concerns. They refused a rent freeze. They won't take on the wealthy property investors, and most of their MPs are property investors. They won't take on the big supermarkets and make price gouging illegal. They let big banks push up mortgage rates to slow down the economy while completely ignoring the big banks' massive profits that they're making off the back of people's pain. And now everyday people are paying the price. Parents are skipping meals so that their kids can eat. People are going hungry just to be able to pay the rent. And instead of ensuring that everyone has enough to eat or a roof over their head, Labor is spending billions of dollars on nuclear-powered submarines.

I'll tell you one sure-fire way to make the problem worse: ignore expert advice. The government 's own expert advisory body told them to raise JobSeeker by $17 a day, but Labor refused because apparently they know better. The parliamentary inquiry into supermarket prices, which heard from experts, farmers, economists from around the country, told the government we need to make price gouging illegal and break up the duopoly. But the Prime Minister apparently knows better, saying:

… we have a private sector economy in Australia and not a command and control economy.

But we do, Prime Minister, we do, and it's working exactly as the designers intended. We have a command-and-control economy, where the big corporations say 'jump' and Labor says 'how high?'

Labor and the Liberals have created an economy for the big corporations which preys on people for profit. They have created an economy where the share which goes to working people has never been lower and the share which goes to corporate profits and billionaires has never been higher. They have created an economy where one in three big corporations pays no tax! When a nurse pays more tax than a multinational something is deeply wrong. They have created an economy where the government is no longer in command and can't control the big corporations, but rather is at the mercy of them.

Under Labor there are fewer people in unions than ever before, more people living in tents and real wage growth just isn't keeping up. Labor has overseen an economy where billions of dollars of government services is spent on big consulting firms; where public housing is sold off; where energy, telecommunications, water and every other public service that you can think of gets privatised; where already wealthy private schools get overfunded, but public schools have to fight for every scrap.

Labor says it's realistic about the pressures that people face. Well, why won't Labor stop increasing the pressure? Labor could reduce the pressure for a single mother couch surfing with her kids or facing the pressure of wondering whether the card's going to go through at the checkout. People's problems are caused by these big corporations, these wealthy property developers making massive profits from essential services like food and housing, but Labor can't even bring themselves to say that these big corporations are to blame. They blame supply chains and the global situation. They said the cost of living is moderating, but 'not as fast as we would like', but they never say a word about the price gouging or the profiteering of these big corporations, about the people who are charging too much for the things that we all need. How can you fix a problem that you can't even name? What we need is an economy that works for people. People need representatives who are going to fight for them, not fight for the big corporations.

Labor is more concerned with the future of coal and gas corporations and their massive profits than they are about the climate crisis or the cost of the gas that they sell us. For years we've known Labor, together with the Liberals, have been fully owned entities of the coal and gas corporations. Just look at how many frontbenchers, how many ministers leave this place to go and work in the coal and gas industries. Pretty much every former energy minister in this country now works for coal and gas corporations or their lobby groups.

Labor takes millions in donations from the coal and gas corporations. The one time that Labor, under Kevin Rudd, tried to make the coal and gas industry pay a fairer share of tax, the mining industry and its big lobby groups mobilised a massive campaign that saw Kevin Rudd turfed from office. It was a campaign which cost the industry millions and made them billions. Now, Labor does whatever the gas corporations want. That's what the Prime Minister means when he says this is a private sector economy in Australia. It's why students paying for their university education deliver more to the public purse than the entire gas industry does through the gas tax. It's why giant corporations like Woodside and Santos get the go-ahead to trample the land and water rights of First Nations communities, even though the Prime Minister wants to be remembered as a champion of the Indigenous people of this country. It's why Labor is backing climate bombs like the Scarborough gas field and the Beetaloo basin—and backing them with the public's money. The most recent budget has billions of dollars of your money going to coal, gas and oil corporations, the same companies who are causing the climate crisis. Labor's new policy, a Future Made in Australia, is a future for coal and gas past 2050, when they told us that we were meant to be at zero emissions. They're now saying it'll go past 2050. You can't put your foot on the brakes and the accelerator at the same time and expect to go anywhere. When Scott Morrison announced the gas led recovery, he was rightly mocked, but this is the same plan now. It's why so many people are telling me that it is getting harder and harder to tell Labor and the Liberals apart.

Gas is one of the leading causes of the climate crisis. Australia is one of the biggest producers of gas pollution. Gas is not safe. Gas is as dirty as coal. It's not renewable. It's deadly, and it's massively expensive. It's going to cause more floods, more fires, more droughts and more diseases. It is going to smash people's future, all for the profits of these big corporations—profits which are largely sent offshore, tax free. Labor's plan is to back gas all the way until 2050 and beyond. The concerns from Labor backbenchers, like the member for Macnamara, have been licensed by the government because those seats are under pressure from the Greens, but, when it comes to parliament, those members all line up to vote to back new coal and gas mines in the middle of a climate crisis.

Labor's not even using this gas to lower the power prices for people struggling here. The whole strategy is about protecting the profits of big gas corporations, not reducing power prices or emissions. Eighty per cent of this gas gets sent overseas. The biggest user of gas in this country, the biggest source, is the gas industry itself. They use more than all of the manufacturing in Australia put together. That's what this gas strategy is about: propping up the big corporations and the massive profits that they pay.

We rank, together with Russia and Saudi Arabia, in the top three exporters of fossil fuel pollution. That is not a podium that you want to be on, but that is a podium that Labor puts us on. In the middle of a climate crisis, Labor is opening more coal and gas mines. You can't tackle the problem while you're making the problem worse. You can't put the fire out while you're pouring petrol on it.

What is also clear is this: Labor is running the economy for the profits of big corporations, and it's selling off the future of generations to come. The Prime Minister, as he loves to tell us, grew up in public housing as the son to a single parent, to now become the most powerful person in the country. Now a family in a similar situation would face the risk of hunger, homelessness and poverty. When the Prime Minister was 21, university was free. You could see a doctor for free. You could buy a home on an average worker's wage. Working people didn't have to choose between having kids and buying a home. Now, 40 years later, the country is in a much different position. Going to university will saddle you with debt for decades, you will need to save for decades to have enough for a deposit to buy a home, you won't be able to see a doctor for free, food and power are more expensive than ever, and you'll face a growing climate crisis. All of this is because we have an economy that is working for the big corporations but not working for everyday people.

The decisions made by the Liberals and Labor over the last 40 years have made growing up today much harder than it needs to be. They have grown the profits and the power of the big corporations across the economy, whether it's the big banks, the big supermarkets, the big power companies or the big gas corporations. But the share of the economy that goes to working people and everyone else is at a record low. We know that corporate profits and their excessive price gouging are driving the cost of living and the climate crisis. We know that the cost of living and the climate crisis will hit gen Z and future generations the hardest. We know that they are the first generations in peacetime that face a declining living standard and a declining level of homeownership, and they are, rightly, pretty worried.

The price of housing is the clearest example. Homeownership was once a defining feature of life in this country, but now it is simply out of reach of a whole class of people. Renters are now worried about being thrown out onto the streets. Nurses and teachers aren't able to find properties near the hospitals or schools where they work, forcing them to travel for hours just to get to work. Young people are living for longer with their parents, and tent cities are springing up across the country. In a wealthy country like Australia, where on last census night a million homes were vacant, this is outrageous. Meanwhile we have this race to the bottom where they seek to blame migrants and say that that is somehow the problem. They are not the people who have caused this problem. The competition for a renter when they turn up to an auction is a wealthy property developer who has a big fat check in their pocket courtesy of Labor and who is able to push the price of housing out of reach of people in this country. In a wealthy country like ours, no-one should go without. It's time to fix this broken system.

Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My community of Bennelong is just like many across Australia. We are a community that faces the very real consequences of a decade of inaction on housing, underinvestment in infrastructure and a lack of care for the environment, whilst we also navigate the cost-of-living pressures posed by global economic turmoil, inflation and rising costs of living. Recognising this, our government has made easing cost-of-living pressures its top priority in this year's budget. This budget shows a clear intent by the government that we acknowledge that many are doing it tough and that everyone needs support to deal with cost-of-living pressures. This budget is good for Australia and it's good for Bennelong.

Firstly, this budget provides every taxpayer with a tax cut, directly putting more money back into the pockets of 92,000 taxpayers in Bennelong. Additionally, every household will receive a $300 energy rebate—much-needed relief as energy prices remain high. We are also investing significantly in our local infrastructure. There has been $115 million allocated for New South Wales's first electric-only bus depot in Macquarie Park and an additional $10 million for the Macquarie Park Precinct and Bus Interchange. Further, over $25 million will be dedicated to upgrading local roads, ensuring safer and more efficient travel for all of our residents. In health care, we are committed to making essential services more accessible to everybody. A Medicare urgent-care clinic in Top Ryde—Bennelong's first—will provide critical healthcare services closer to home, and publicly funded MRIs will be available to locals for the first time from 1 July 2025 in Bennelong. This will ensure that everyone in Bennelong has universal and bulk-billed access to these important services.

Furthermore, this budget adds more funding to address the housing crisis we face, with an extra $6 billion in new measures to build homes across Australia, helping first home buyers and renters in Bennelong find secure and affordable housing. That's a total of $32 billion in funding for housing to address a decade of housing inaction by those opposite. In Bennelong, 23,805 students will benefit from the government's HECS and HELP reforms, making education more affordable and accessible, and wiping $3 billion in student loan debt across Australia. This year's budget is a comprehensive plan that provides immediate relief and long-term investments to strengthen our community, our economy and our nation. From tax cuts and energy rebates to significant infrastructure projects and improved healthcare services, this budget is designed to address the pressing needs of our economy and ensure a better future for all Australians.

I'd like to take the opportunity to go a little deeper into some of the measures in this budget that people in Bennelong care about, starting with housing. We all know that a secure and affordable home is a cornerstone of a stable and prosperous society. Housing is something I've cared about, and advocated for, for a long time during my decade in public life. I was proud to stand as a candidate for Bennelong in 2022 because I knew that our government was going to do something about the housing crisis. This budget continues on the monumental work we've done to date, but I also acknowledge that there is much more to do. As mentioned, more than $6 billion in new housing measures have been allocated through this year's budget, bringing the government's total investment in housing initiatives over the next decade to $32 billion. These investments will increase market and non-market housing supply. They'll support homebuyers and renters and provide assistance to our most vulnerable citizens.

Breaking down this allocation, we are first and foremost allocating a billion dollars to infrastructure projects to accelerate the construction of new homes. This funding will go to states to provide this essential infrastructure, including roads, utilities and parks, which are crucial for additional housing supply. We are also committed to providing more social and affordable rental housing. To this end, we are increasing the liability cap of Housing Australia by $2½ billion and providing an additional $3 billion in loans to support ongoing programs.

Recognising the need for a skilled workforce to build these homes, we are creating 15,000 fee-free TAFE places and 5,000 pre-apprenticeship programs specifically for the construction industry. This initiative will ensure that we have the workers required in order to build the homes that we need. Moreover, we are unlocking up to a billion dollars through the National Housing Infrastructure Facility to create more homes, particularly focusing on housing for women and children who are fleeing domestic violence.

We are increasing the maximum rates of Commonwealth rent assistance by 10 per cent, on top of the 15 per cent increase last year, to further help one million households with the cost of rent. This measure is costed at $1.9 billion. We are also doubling Commonwealth funding for homelessness support and building more social housing through a new $9.3 billion National Agreement on Social Housing and Homelessness, with an additional $423 million in funding. Additionally, we are dedicating more than $100 million to build more transitional housing for women and children who are impacted by family and domestic violence and older women who are at risk of homelessness.

Finally, we're providing $30 million to support veterans who are experiencing or are at risk of homelessness. Our veterans have served our nation, and it's our duty to ensure that they have a safe place to call home.

These new measures build on our Comprehensive Homes for Australia Plan. Through the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund and the $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator, progress has been made. We understand the critical role that housing plays in our lives, and we are dedicated to ensuring that everyone has access to safe, secure and affordable housing. However, whilst housing remains a cornerstone of this budget, we must also take action to tackle the broader cost-of-living challenges that impact every household. Our government recognises the financial pressures that families, students and small businesses face every day. It was with this understanding that we presented a budget designed to ease these pressures and provide tangible relief to all Australians, not just some.

On 1 July the Albanese Labor government will deliver a significant tax cut for every taxpayer. That's 13.6 million Australians who'll get a tax cut—not just some, but everyone. And we changed those tax cuts to ensure that they help those who need it most. These cuts are aimed squarely at middle-income earners and those who've been telling me that they need support. For example, a part-time worker on $40,000 would have got nothing under the Liberals' plan—nothing. Under this budget and this government they'll get a tax cut of $654 a year—$0 under the Liberals; $654 under Labor. That's 2.9 million taxpayers who earn $45,000 or less. They will get a tax cut because of this budget.

But it's not just tax cuts that will help with cost-of-living relief. Our government is allocating a further $3½ billion for energy bill relief starting on 1 July. We know that last year the Liberals and Nationals voted against energy bill relief. Last year's relief was targeted, as it should have been; that was right for the time. But locals in Bennelong over the last year have been telling me they need energy relief, too. In this budget we have energy relief for everyone. More than 10 million households will get a $300 rebate on their energy bills, while one million eligible small businesses will receive a $325 rebate. And this time there'll be no applications. You don't need to fill out forms; you don't need to apply for it. It will automatically be applied to the household's and small business's energy bill. The rebates from 1 July will be simple, universal and much needed by every household in Bennelong.

On energy, it is great to see that this budget reaffirms our commitment to renewable energy and that renewable energy is paying off. Wholesale electricity prices in the electricity market have fallen by eight per cent in the first quarter of 2024, compared to the same time last year. This decrease is a direct result of our efforts to increase the share of renewable energy, aiming for an 82 per cent renewable energy target by 2030.

Very recently, the Energy Market Operator released its default market offer for 1 July, which will see energy prices for small businesses in New South Wales fall by eight per cent and for households by 2½ per cent. But there's more to do and that's why this budget delivers billions and billions of dollars for the environment and not one cent of new money for gas.

I now turn to another topic: education. Education should be a pathway to opportunity and not a lifetime of debt. That's why our government is cutting $3 billion from student debt for over three million Australians. We are capping the HELP indexation rate to the lower of either the consumer price index or the wage price, backdated to 2023. This means HELP debts will never grow faster than wages and will provide much-needed relief to students nationwide.

Health care is another critical area in which we are making substantial investment in this budget. There is nearly $4 billion allocated to make medicines more affordable by freezing the PBS copayment and by adding more medicines to the PBS. We have already saved residents in Bennelong over $2.4 million. For the next five years pensioners and concession cardholders will not pay more than $7.70 for PBS medicines, ensuring our most vulnerable citizens can access the medications they need without extra financial pressure.

Supporting families is at the heart of our policies as well. From 1 July 2025 we will pay superannuation on government funded paid parental leave, an investment of $1.1 billion over four years. This measure will benefit 180,000 families annually and help reduce the retirement income disparity between men and women, who currently retire with 25 per cent less superannuation than men.

This budget lays a strong foundation for a future made in Australia, ensuring that our nation remains resilient, innovative and self-sufficient. We will invest heavily in the manufacturing sector, allocating $2 billion to the National Reconstruction Fund designed to support the development of critical technologies and industries which will create jobs and foster innovation. Instead of chasing out manufacturers like the Liberals did, we will invest in them. We are prioritising sectors such as renewable energy, advanced manufacturing and critical minerals processing, which are not only essential for our transitional to a low-carbon economy but also essential to the world's transition to a low-carbon economy.

This budget lays a strong foundation for addressing the key issues facing our community and our nation by focusing on immediate relief through tax cuts and energy rebates, and by adding a significant investments in housing and infrastructure, essential services and health care. By looking towards the future, a future made in Australia, we are taking concrete steps to improve the lives of our residents. This is a budget I endorse and it's a big and good budget for Bennelong.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think this might be my 16th or 17th budget appropriations speech. I have been listening with interest some of the previous speeches and I just want to start by issuing a warning to the government and my colleagues in the opposition. I won't be here at the next election; I am retiring. I think the speeches made by the Greens members in this appropriation speech should be sent to every household in Australia. They are absolutely terrifying contributions, because if there is a hung parliament next time and the Greens get the balance of power, this country will be in a world of pain. Listening to the member for Melbourne, the Greens leader, as he admonishes coal and gas. He lives in an electorate that is completely altered. I've been there at night-time. They don't even turn their lights off when they go home in those office towers. It's an electorate that relies on the resources industry not only for its construction but also its maintenance, and then to attack the very hand that feeds it—it is terrifying.

I should mention the irony in some of the previous contributions. The member for Melbourne talked about his concern for the Indigenous people. What about the 250 Aboriginal people who work for Whitehaven Coal at Narrabri? What about them? They would take their jobs away—good paying jobs that support their families. Just a word of warning: the Greens are a very dangerous organisation. They're not environmentalists, and if they get any more influence in this country than they already have then we're in serious trouble.

What I found interesting is the fact that this budget was quite narrowly focused. There was a lot of money for green hydrogen and not much else. There was some for other renewables, but the main focus was green hydrogen. Now, I actually believe that there will be a future for hydrogen, but at the moment it's an experimental fuel. There are a lot of issues around hydrogen, particularly green hydrogen, that have yet to be overcome—issues around transportation, the amount of water that it uses and, if it's going to be green hydrogen, the amount of renewable energy it takes to produce it. At the moment they don't stack up. Like it or not, in this country we are still reliant on traditional fuels to generate power. Whether the member for Melbourne or those opposite that admonish gas and coal like it or not, that's what is keeping the lights on in their houses at the moment. We don't live in a parallel universe where by wishing something it can happen. We live in the real world where we actually have to look after the industries that support us.

My electorate, the Parkes electorate, helped carry this country through the pandemic. It produces large quantities of clean agricultural produce, food and fibre. It produces minerals, coal, gold, copper, lead, zinc. Soon it will be at the forefront of rare earths and those minerals that are so important for modern technology.

But I think I should start by recognising what I appreciate in this budget under the Growing Regions Program. I should acknowledge the payments that came to my electorate for the Moree pool; for a Brewarrina PCYC and an indoor stadium—Brewarrina is a very good strong community on the Barwon River in my electorate, and this will be a wonderful proposal for them; and for the Gunida Gunyah Aboriginal Corporation in Gunnedah, for their community centre—they do a great job helping people in that area. In Dubbo the Wiradjuri cultural centre will be a great facility for the Wiradjuri people and the broader Dubbo community. It will not only be a keeping place and an important place for the Wiradjuri people; it will be an opportunity for visitors to the area to get an understanding of the Wiradjuri culture. I congratulate the Dubbo council for that. There's also the Narrabri tourism project. Once again, Narrabri is a very strong community, and having that addition to their tourism precinct, adjacent to the Crossing Theatre, will be of great benefit to them.

I listened to the member for Bennelong's contribution He spoke about all of the issues with health and the additional spending. My electorate is still reeling from the changes to the DPA, the distribution priority area, which was the incentive that took doctors to regional Australia. The first thing this government did was change that, and it decided to classify peri-urban areas like Wollongong, Newcastle and Geelong—and probably some areas in Deputy Speaker Wilkie's electorate as well—as regional. When that happened, western health lost six doctors in one week.

The lack of concern for regional Australia, and areas like mine, is absolutely breathtaking. We talk about this government wasting millions of dollars and splitting the country on a proposal for a voice that was ill thought out and not wanted, and I've heard speech after speech in this place about their care for Aboriginal people, yet time after time the projects that are important to those people get ripped out. At the moment I'm dealing with the weir at Wilcannia, where people were promised a weir that would raise the river by two metres, but it got packed back to one metre. So, while we care for Aboriginal people in this place, something that would really make a difference to that community—something that they really wanted and that the land council and everyone was behind—got cut back. That's the frustrating thing about the hypocrisy in this place. This place is like a university debating room where we talk about our virtue but nothing equates to what happens on the ground.

A great example is the Inland Rail north of Narromine. People in my electorate—not wealthy people but entrepreneurial battlers—saw the potential of the Inland Rail construction, went to the bank, borrowed money and bought trucks and excavators. Aboriginal people in Moree undertook training. They were working on that first section—Narrabri to Moree and Moree to North Star—and that all just got ripped out. I talked to a young fella the other day; he had to sell his truck and he's had to go and get a job because the work stopped.

In the work on the Newell Highway now, the $250-odd million is still money that was allocated from the previous government. The Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program has been cut. With the Stronger Communities Program, there was just $150,000 to each electorate, which helped the local CWA hall maybe upgrade to a safety ramp or which got a barbecue for the Lions Club or some nets for the tennis club. Little things like that just got ripped out. Roads of strategic importance, where roads that would link onto the Newell Highway and help the productivity of the local area—gone. LRCI, one of the most popular projects with local government—gone.

What we're seeing now is ministers from this government coming into electorates like mine to cut the ribbons of projects that they can—projects that they are taking credit for but that they didn't fund or construct. Just the week before last, Senator O'Neill had nearly a week in my electorate—fair enough. I've acknowledged the money under the Growing Regions Program, and, if she had asked me, I would have stood alongside her as those announcements were made. In the country, we are civil. We do know the right thing to do. When Senator O'Neill came to open the museum, funding under the Building Better Regions Fund, and cut the ribbon despite the fact she had no idea about the project, I was gracious and welcomed her. That's what country people do.

But, in the electorate, she had the temerity last week to say that the rorts and the slush funds had come to an end. So the rorts and the slush funds had come to an end; she turned up in my electorate to announce this. What I've decided to do is ask the government and Senator O'Neill: which one of these projects is a rort, which one came from a slush fund and which one is not appropriate? Is it the $265 million for safety upgrades on the Newell Highway, the $176 million for a new bridge in Dubbo or the $39.4 billion for the Clontarf Foundation, one of the biggest game changers for young Aboriginal boys at school? I think 10 or 11 academies in my electorate have seen these lads stay at school and go on to employment and further education. Is that a rort? Did that come from a slush fund? There was $35.2 million for the Moree Intermodal Overpass. Well, they've withdrawn that—it's gone.

There was the Hargraves Lane and Federation Street bypass in Gilgandra, the Newell Highway and Oxley Highway intersection upgrades and the $25 million for the cancer centre. Don't they think the people of western New South Wales are entitled to have cancer treatment? Is that the rort? The Indigenous people and the people that live in western New South Wales who were dying because they couldn't get to Sydney were then getting world-class cancer treatment in their area, in Dubbo. There's a PET scanner. Professionals have come from all over Australia to staff that. Is that a rort, Senator O'Neill? I'd like to know.

There are more projects: Tooraweenah Road, another highway, the Wilcannia weir, which has now gone from a two-metre weir to a one-metre weir. There was $12.5 million for Pooncarie Road, because when the Menindee Lakes went dry because of drought, I went to the tourist association, and I said: 'We can't make it rain. What do you need?' They said, 'We need better access from the south for the tourists to come with their caravans because our economy relies on that.' So we funded the upgrade to Pooncarie Road. Was that a rort? A terrible thing to do—unbelievable! What about the $10 million for the Burke small stock abattoir that went to the council so they could put in the infrastructure for the abattoir that is now employing 150 people in Burke? Is that the rort? We gave $9½ million to the Australian Opal Centre—a centre that will highlight the unique beauty and the rarity of the Australian black opal from Lightning Ridge. That $9½ million in Commonwealth money came from the previous government, but apparently that's no good either.

It goes on and on and on. There was $8.7 million for the Broken Hill CBD revitalisation, and $8.2 million for the County Boundary Road at Croppa Creek. It doesn't sound much, does it? But what if you lived on that road and you had to get your produce to market and you couldn't do it after rain or you couldn't get fertiliser in because the road was wet and unsafe? What about the $7.6 million for the new rural medical school and for those young people who are actually doing their medical degrees in Dubbo and who are now in their second year? There are 520 applicants for those positions. They are some of the brightest young minds in regional Australia. Apparently that's not a good thing either. I've got another page of such projects here—so much frustration in this place. We've seen from the Greens that we live in some sort of a parallel universe where we talk about how we want to improve the lives of Aboriginal people, improve the environment, and do this or that, but they have not one single clue how, practically, to do that. Then all the funding that gives some quality of life to the people who provide the wealth of this country gets ripped out.

This is probably the last chance I will have to make a speech on an appropriation bill, and I find it incredibly frustrating. It shouldn't be like this. Good luck to the member for Bennelong with all the electric bus interchanges and medical centres and things that he's got in the inner suburbs of Sydney, but the people of regional Australia deserve better than this. They do not need to be ignored, and this budget, apart from what we've seen with the divisive Voice, has done very, very little for the people of western New South Wales.

Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I've got fantastic news for the member for Parkes: every taxpayer in his electorate will be getting a tax cut, thanks to the budget. I'm sure he will be glad to report back to every taxpayer in Parkes that he'll be supporting it and proudly voting for this budget—unlike what the previous government tried to do, which was to bring in tax cuts only for some people. Those on lower and middle incomes will be getting a much bigger tax cut thanks to this budget.

This budget was absolutely responsible while it also met the times right now that many Australians are facing. We know that many Australians are facing difficult times right now. We know that many Australians are facing real pressures in their household budgets. We know that, for many Australians, mortgages have been a real stress. Rents have been going up significantly in my own electorate of Macnamara. Over half the electorate are renters, including myself. It is a real stress, if you've got a year-long lease, when the time comes and you have to renegotiate the terms of the lease. Sometimes rent has gone up by 20, 30 or 40 per cent in areas like St Kilda, Southbank and Port Melbourne. It's been extremely stressful, especially for those people who are low- and middle-income earners. This budget recognises that it's time to give Australians a bit more support in their cost-of-living-pressures not only for paying for their home but also for paying for the groceries and the bare minimum. That's exactly what this budget does, and there's a tax cut for every single taxpayer.

All 95,000 workers in Macnamara will be getting a tax cut. On average, that tax cut in Macnamara will be $1,954. All 95,000 taxpayers in my electorate will be getting a tax cut. If you are a student at Monash and just got your first part-time job, you'll probably be getting a tax cut of around $500. If you're a nurse at the Alfred, one of the great hospitals in Melbourne, and you're on $75,000, you'll get a tax cut of $1,579. If you're working at one of our incredible local arts institutions—one of the fantastic world-class institutions in Macnamara that we are so proud to boast of—you'll get a tax cut. If you are at one of those incredible tech companies or at an engineering or manufacturing company at Port Melbourne, you'll be getting a tax cut as well.

In order to complement the tax cuts, we'll also be giving a $300 energy rebate to every single Australian household. You won't have to do anything. That money will go directly onto your power bill, and it will be a reduction of $300. It will also go towards the one million small businesses. They will get just over $300 for their energy bills as well. This rebate goes on top of the rebate we did last year, which was in legislation that we actually recalled the parliament for.

If you remember, those opposite like to talk about the cost-of-living pressures that Australians face. But despite being given the opportunity to put a cap on coal and gas prices, those opposite decided to vote against it. They decided to vote against a cap on gas and coal prices and to vote against a $1.5 billion nationwide reduction in rising power bills which have filtered down towards businesses and households. The price of power, especially gas on the international market, has gone up dramatically, and it's mainly due to the fact that Russia has invaded Ukraine. It's had a huge flow-on effect on the spot price and a whole range of other different factors, leading to a complicated energy market. So the price of energy has gone up, but these pressures will bring it down. The default market offer only last month reflected that that is now starting to turn, and, with renewable energy coming into the grid, the price of energy is coming down. These energy rebates will add to that.

One of the other really important reforms of this budget is around HECS. HECS is such an important program. I had a HECS debt, but, like the hundreds of thousands of people around the country who have been able to access university since HECS was brought in, I paid a relatively low-interest loan—as HECS was designed to be. When HECS was introduced, it was designed to be an access point so that anyone who wanted to go to university could go to university. They wouldn't be charged while they were at university; they would be charged only at the point when they were earning enough money to be able to pay back a low-interest loan. We know that the design of HECS was in a low-inflationary environment where wages were traditionally above the inflation rate, and what we have done in this budget is reform it so that HECS is always going to be lower than the real wage increases of Australian workers. What that means for Australians, in simple terms, is that there is now $3 billion of student debt that is going to be completely wiped out. Obviously, we have to pay for that, so there's $3 billion budgeted in this budget that will come off student debt. If you've been paying a higher rate of HECS interest, it will be reduced, and you will be getting a return or a credit in order to have a reduction in your HECS debt. This will mean hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of dollars for most HECS-paying workers, and it is a fantastic reform. I believe in making sure that universities are accessible. The HECS system has been a program in Australia which has allowed governments to support people going to university from right across the country and provide an opportunity for people who otherwise wouldn't have been able to go or afford to go to university.

What we don't want in Australia is a United states style system where only those who can afford to go to college go to college. What we want in Australia is to maintain that incredibly important Australian principle of opportunity. We know that education is most powerful form of helping people up the ladder of opportunity and giving people social mobility, my family included. My grandparents left school when they were 13 or 14 when coming to this country, but both of my parents were able to study in a higher education institution and both of my parents were able to go on to jobs that provided a life for me, my brother and my sister that my grandparents would have only dreamed of. My brother, my sister and I were all very fortunate to be able go to university, to have a HECS arrangement and to work towards paying it off. That is something that I completely support and that change will, in this budget, affect roughly 27,000 people in Macnamara. So that, along with the tax cuts, along with the energy rebates and the HECS debt, will be very important.

I also want to mention another key aspect of this budget—that is, housing. This budget is quite historic in the way the federal government is re-engaging in the housing system right now. For 10 years the federal government had the approach that it would not be at the table funding social and affordable homes. Previous governments had an ideological bent against investing in social housing. They said it was a matter for the states. Well, it's not. It's not a matter for the states. The federal government has to be at the table working alongside the states and territories in order to fund social housing, because if there are not enough social homes the price of housing will go up everywhere. We need to ensure that right across the housing spectrum there are enough social housing homes, enough rental properties and enough homes for those people trying to buy their own homes, because if there are not then more and more people will be squeezed down the housing spectrum. That's why we have made these record investments into housing and it is why we will be investing in homes right across the country, making sure there are new pockets of development, working with states and territories, making sure there are reforms to try and meet the target of building 1.2 million homes over the next five years.

It also means we will be investing in trades and careers in the construction sector, because building homes creates jobs. It creates jobs, good jobs, and we want to make sure that not only are we supporting the training and the professional support and development of tradies but we will also be investing in 20,000 fee-free TAFE spots for those people who want to help build homes for Australians. We are providing incentives to state and territory governments to get homes built more quickly. I know those opposite like to say housing is a responsibility of the states and territories and I know the Greens, including in my own electorate, like to oppose the development of housing at every opportunity. They are very happy to say they want more social housing but are not happy to actually get on and help build it. But we are committed to delivering homes for Australians. It can't be fixed overnight. This is a very difficult problem, but we're going to be investing billions of dollars in building more homes.

In the last part of this speech, I want to make some comments about the investments and the dollars in this budget that are going towards the future of this country, especially around the investments in transitioning our economy from a high-emissions economy towards a low-emissions economy. One of the things that was a real frustration of the previous government 's budgets was they would constantly try and use the levers of government and the financial instruments of government to take away money from investing and subsidising in the energy transition from coal and other forms of fossil fuels, and use that to prolong the fossil fuel industry. But this budget does not do that. This budget does not invest in new coal. This budget does not invest in new gas. This budget does not invest in CCFs. This budget is a direct investment in the new and low-emission technology we need going forward. I'm incredibly proud of it for a number of reasons. First, it creates jobs. It creates jobs in the region and right around the country, because climate change is an economic opportunity. Deputy Speaker Vasta, you know this and I know this. Those opposite like to put their heads in the sand and pretend it's not, but it is. Instead of coming into this place and trying to do things like making the Australian Renewable Energy Agency invest in gas, in other forms of CSS—as the shadow Treasurer did when he was the energy minister—we have used every fund and budgetary measure that we can to invest in the transition towards a low-emission future.

You don't need to take my word for it. I'm going to quote the Climate Council, who said this about the budget:

Billions for green industry, no new money for gas—this is how we build Australia's clean future.

And I'm proud of that. I'm proud of the fact that, as part of the investments that we are making, we have allocated $22.7 billion to fund the transition towards net zero. There is our new money, including $28 million over two years towards a national adaptation plan, $1.3 billion over the next decade for the Hydrogen Headstart program, $121 million for Australia's first national independent environment protection agency, which the minister for the environment introduced into the parliament today and which is going to have strong new powers and penalties to better protect nature. This is a good budget and a responsible budget, when we look at how we are setting up our future and how we are setting up our economy as we transition towards a low-emissions future.

There are a couple of other measures in this budget that I'm really proud of. The electorate of Macnamara is home to some of the best artistic institutions in the entire world, let alone the country. And we don't get that world-class creative sector that we've got in my electorate without training the young Australians and training the young artists in the fields of their talents, passions and expertise. That's why I'm incredibly proud of the $117 million in this budget that is going to eight national arts training organisations, including the Australian Ballet School, which I was pleased to visit with the Minister for the Arts last week, and the Australian National Academy of Music, whose home is in South Melbourne, in my electorate; it's currently got a residency in Abbotsford, in the electorate of the member for Melbourne. I'm looking forward to ANAM taking its rightful place back at home in Macnamara. We are investing in the future of these organisations and the future careers of these young artists, and I'm incredibly proud of that.

This budget is a responsible budget. It's one that delivers a surplus for the second time in two years—something those opposite put on a mug but didn't actually deliver in the budget papers. This budget is a reflection of responsible economic management, while also understanding that Australians are facing cost-of-living pressures and while also investing in the things we need for the future—investing in more homes, investing in the future of education, making sure that more Australians can access university but not be burdened by debt. This budget also invests in the clean energy future that we desperately need.

We cannot have our heads in the sand. We need to do everything we possibly can to reduce our emissions. But we have to do it by creating jobs, bringing the country with us and investing in the sort of technology that is going to make Australia prosperous for the years to come. I'm proud of this budget. I'm proud of the impacts that this is going to have and the assistance it's going to give to the people in my wonderful electorate. I commend this motion to the House.

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on these appropriation bills which deliver this government's third budget. As the Independent member for Indi, I seek out my constituents' views on the issues that come before the federal parliament: the high cost of living, health and aged care, climate change and energy, housing, and much more. I approached this budget—and in fact every budget—no differently. I reach out widely across my electorate to understand where Indi is thriving and where we need a boost from the federal government to fully reach our potential. This includes the nine local government areas of Indi—health providers, including Albury-Wodonga Health; education providers, like GOTAFE and Wodonga TAFE; the peak tourism bodies, which are huge drivers of Indi's economy, like Tourism North East and the alpine resorts; and many, many more. These vital organisations have underscored for me the challenges that we collectively face: the impacts of severe weather events like the flooding in 2022 and the impacts of the pandemic-driven regional population boom. They've not gone away.

The hardworking Indi electorate offices are the key point of contact for everyday Indi constituents. My staff in these offices hear about people's experiences and struggles and provide support to constituents in areas from health care, NDIS and social services to immigration, housing and many more things. I want to thank everyone of those groups and individuals that wrote to me, met with me, called and emailed my office about what they wanted to see in this budget. I'm proud to represent these voices. I'm proud to represent them in my annual budget submission, which I presented to the Treasurer before the budget. I now want to address that budget itself and whether it met the needs and the expectations of the people I represent.

The member for Macnamara just listed many arts organisations that have benefited from this budget, but he forgot one really important one, the only regional arts organisation that was included in that funding. I'm really pleased the budget included $7.3 million for the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, Australia's national youth circus located on the border of my electorate in Albury-Wodonga. This money will help fund additional staff, including circus program teachers. I called for this support for the fruit flies in my budget submission. It's a really significant investment in our region's talented young people, and the border community should feel very proud about this recognition. Congratulations to the CEO Richard Hull and all of the fruities, staff and students, for this absolutely fantastic boost—in fact, the best boost they've had in funding in their 48-year history.

Like much of Australia, cost-of-living pressures are being felt strongly across Indi. I'm acutely aware that households are struggling to stay on top of daily expenses like energy bills, like rent or mortgage payments, like groceries and like trips to the doctor. These are all essential items. In my budget submission, I called for practical measures the government can take to lighten the load on households without increasing inflation. I'm pleased the government announced in the budget that it will extend and expand Energy Bill Relief Fund to provide a $300 rebate to all households, and $325 to eligible small businesses. Reducing power bills will be a welcome relief to Indi households and businesses. This will help them, but really it is just a start. The government needs to follow the lead of the states and make it easier for households to access new rooftop solar home batteries and energy efficiency upgrades, because that's the kind of investment that will permanently lower energy bills.

I'm also deeply disappointed that the government did not expand the energy efficiency grants for small- and medium-sized enterprises. Making it easier for households and businesses to electrify is one of the best ways to reduce energy bills now and, again, one of the best ways for long-term savings.

The government have failed to improve cost of living for the most vulnerable by failing again to increase JobSeeker in this budget. Since 2019 I have pushed the government of the day to raise the rate. The experts are backing me in this call. It's a recommendation of the government's own Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee. Make no mistake the government have the means to raise JobSeeker. They did it in 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, when JobSeeker was increased by $550 a fortnight. The positive impact of that was profound. The Productivity Commission said as a result Australia experienced an unprecedented fall in income inequality. That this budget fails to increase JobSeeker, or any other related working age payments, is truly a very big missed opportunity.

To address the cost-of-living crisis requires action on the housing crisis. According to CoreLogic just this week, house prices in regional Australia are the highest they've ever been and are growing faster than the capital cities. Government action is desperately needed. For the 50 per cent of renters in Indi experiencing housing stress, the announcement to increase all Commonwealth rent assistance maximum rates by 10 per cent from September this year—that will help. An additional $1 billion in grants for transitional housing for women and children experiencing domestic violence and for youth is so important, but it must reach women and children in regional areas.

The additional $1 billion for critical enabling infrastructure provided in the budget is exactly what I've been calling on this government to deliver. Local governments in my electorate and right across regional Australia desperately need more funding to connect the utilities, including sewerage and water infrastructure, required to unlock new housing supply. This funding is a step in the right direction, but it isn't enough, and I'll tell you why. My proposal for a regional housing infrastructure fund shows that the regions alone require up to $2 billion for the crucial infrastructure that will help to address the housing crisis, but the government has only invested $1.5 billion to meet the needs of the whole nation, and, despite 30 per cent of Australians living in regional communities, there is absolutely no guarantee from this government that a fair share of this funding will flow to them. The government fails to answer why there is no dedicated amount of funding to build homes in regional and rural Australia. Regional councils and the communities that they represent should not be forced to compete with major cities for housing funding. It simply isn't fair.

After assistance with social security payments and housing, one of the topics constituents call my office about most frequently is access to health services in Indi. Health services in my electorate desperately need government support, leadership and action. My electorate is serviced by the only cross-border health service in Australia, and we have been waiting years to see the funding for a fit-for-purpose single-site hospital. We know that, in a publicly released letter, the state governments in Victoria and New South Wales have been told their funding commitment to redeveloping Albury Base Hospital will not even come close to meeting the needs of this rapidly growing community, and the implications of this are truly dire. People across the Albury-Wodonga region will continue to face longer wait times. Doctors, nurses and allied health professionals will be spread across two sites, and our system will remain under stress and strain.

I was glad to see in the budget an increase in federal funding towards public hospitals from 2025 under the National Health Reform Agreement, with the Commonwealth government's contribution increasing from 40 to 45 per cent. This increase means there is now no excuse—no excuse at all—for the New South Wales and Victorian governments to withhold funding for a single-site Albury-Wodonga hospital. Indeed, I call on the Prime Minister and the health minister here to hold them to account on this. An increase in funding means they need to finally give due attention to Albury Wodonga Health and a single-site hospital on the border, because in the regions we deserve a hospital that puts people at the centre of service delivery and is capable of training and retaining a world-class healthcare workforce.

Regional towns must be set up to attract and hold onto the skilled professionals required to meet our healthcare needs, our aged-care needs and our childcare needs. But to achieve this requires meaningful investment in regional development. The Regional Ministerial Budget Statement acknowledges this, stating that health and aged care are fundamental to making regions increasingly better places to live, work and invest. Well, yes, of course I agree with this. However, in addressing measures to improve regional outcomes, the budget statement simply repurposes budget announcements that apply to all Australians no matter where they live, like funding for an additional Medicare urgent-care clinic. Tacking the phrase 'including in regional Australia' on the end of funding announcements does not equate to good policymaking for regional Australia. It simply doesn't.

The budget leans heavily on the Future Made in Australia as an investment opportunity for regional, rural and remote Australia—billions of dollars to produce renewable hydrogen, refine and processed critical minerals, manufacture solar panels and more. I welcome new investment in renewable energy, a necessity to get us on the pathway to achieving net zero by 2050. What I didn't see, though, was how regional communities will have a say in and benefit from these projects and the energy transformation.

The Minister for Climate Change and Energy knows all too well how I feel about this. It's why last year I worked with him to get up an independent community engagement review into renewable energy infrastructure, led by former Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Professor Andrew Dyer. This review confirmed what I have heard right across Indi: that regional Australians feel like the renewable transition is happening to them; it's not happening with them. Over 90 per cent of the review's survey respondents were dissatisfied with the extent to which project developers engaged with the local community. This is serious.

I've called on the government to implement Professor Dyer's recommendations in the federal budget, and I'm pleased to see a start on this. The budget provides $20.7 million to improve engagement with communities impacted by renewable energy projects; movement on national developer standards; and a package to realise community benefits—all recommendations of the Dyer review. With no information, though, about how this $20.7 million will be delivered, the devil will be in the detail, and I want to see these measures deliver long-term prosperity for regional communities. The government must offer meaningful, tangible, touchable community benefit, if it wants to make its Future Made in Australia plan one that will truly succeed.

Like me, local governments in Indi are relieved to see in the budget increased funding under the Roads to Recovery Program, which will rise from $500 million to $1 billion per year. Regional and rural roads are eroding before our eyes after flooding. Councils are struggling to find the funds to repair them, let alone to build them back better to withstand future severe weather events. As a member of the Standing Committee on Regional Development, Infrastructure and Transport inquiring into roads last year, I heard about expanding Roads to Recovery as the type of funding our roads need.

But, in many ways, this budget is a missed opportunity for investment in regional, rural and remote Australia. The government's flagship regional grant programs, the Regional Precincts and Partnerships Program and the Growing Regions Program, are not allocated additional funding rounds, despite the growing need and increasing price tag on development projects. In fact, the first round of successful and unsuccessful applicants has only just been announced.

Now, I'm pleased that two projects in my electorate—one in Mansfield, the Lords Reserve pavilion; and one in Benalla, the art gallery—received much-needed funding. The Benalla and Mansfield communities will see benefits from these projects for years to come.

But the recent announcements left many, many people disappointed. Despite communities around Australia asking for more than $2.7 billion in projects, the government has funded just $207 million—only seven per cent of what regional Australia needs. It shows that these programs are underfunded and oversubscribed, despite the obvious need in regional communities. The ask is massive because the need is massive, and there's nowhere else to go. It's why, in my Indi budget submission, I made the case for increased and ongoing investment in these grant programs that specifically fund regional and rural projects. Regional and rural councils continuously make the case to me about how hard it is to compete with their metro and suburban counterparts for the same pools of grant funding because they don't often have the resources and the ratepayer base to match Commonwealth funds.

This budget has some welcome measures, and I understand the government's challenges in not wanting to fuel inflation. It's vital that we bring inflation down, to ease cost-of-living pressure. However, where the government has announced funding in their housing and their Future Made in Australia policies in particular, the regions remain a blind spot. I'm worried about it, and I want the government to step up to the challenge.

Regional Australia powers the nation. We feed and clothe the nation. I want to see the government put focus on the regions so that we're not constantly competing with the cities for our fair share of funding, and I will keep advocating for measures that ensure a prosperous and thriving future for all regional and rural communities.

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

From 1 July, the Albanese Labor government will be delivering a tax cut for every Australian taxpayer. That means every one of Newcastle's 78,000 taxpayers will receive a tax cut. On average, Newcastle taxpayers will have, come 1 July, an extra $1,642 in their pocket. That's because the Albanese Labor government wants Australians to earn more and to keep more of what they earn. Our bigger tax cuts for more taxpayers will help make that happen. Nurses, teachers and truckies are some of those who will most likely benefit, among the more than 95 per cent of taxpayers now getting a bigger tax cut. And, from 1 July, all Newcastle households will have a $300 credit automatically applied to their electricity bills. That's a $75 credit each quarter. Then there are around one million small businesses who will receive $325 off their electricity bills over the 2024-25 year. This builds on the cost-of-living measures we've already put in place, like cheaper child care for families, tripling the incentive for GPs to bulk-bill and creating local jobs and getting wages moving again.

To support renters in Newcastle who are doing it tough, we're delivering the first back-to-back increase to the Commonwealth rent assistance in more than 30 years. We're increasing the maximum rates of Commonwealth rent assistance by 10 per cent, benefiting some 7,810 households in Newcastle. This builds on the government's 15 per cent increase in September last year. Combined with indexation, since the Albanese Labor government was elected, rent assistance has now increased by more than 40 per cent.

We're making student loans simpler and fairer, reducing the debt of more than 25,000 Novocastrians and backdating these savings to 1 June 2023. That date is important. We're making sure that student debt never grows faster than someone's wages or their ability to pay it off. Last year's indexation spike was unfair. Under our changes, that won't happen again. We've fixed the problem, and we've also backdated the fix to 1 June 2023 to take account of that big inflation spike that really hit students last year.

For the first time ever in Australia's history, we're introducing a new Commonwealth prac payment to support teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students who are undertaking mandatory work placements as part of their degree. This payment will provide around 68,000 eligible university students and over 5,000 VET students each year with a payment of just under $320 per week during their clinical and professional placements. This will be in addition, of course, to any income support they might already receive and will help up to 5,200 students who are enrolled in teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work at the University of Newcastle.

The Albanese Labor government is committed to delivering cheaper medicines. We know that six out of 10 PBS scripts go to pensioners and concession card holders, so we're freezing the cost of their medicines for five years. That means that no pensioner or concession card holder will pay more than $7.70 for their PBS medications for the next five years. Everyone else with a Medicare card will pay no more than $31.60 per script for PBS medicines both this year and next year.

We've got a budget that takes important steps to build women's health into the very foundations of our stronger Medicare. As part of our dedicated women's health package, we're cutting the cost of a revolutionary new breast cancer treatment from $100,000 to just $31.60. We're establishing new Medicare items so that we make sure that women have got that affordable access to the longer specialist consults for endometriosis and complex gynaecological conditions like chronic pelvic pain and polycystic ovary syndrome. We're establishing new Medicare services for mothers to see midwives before and after birth. We're improving education on miscarriage support services and collecting data on miscarriages to improve care and support. More health practitioners will be undertaking training to deliver long-acting reversible contraceptive devices such as IUDs. We're improving the treatment of women going through menopause by training our health professionals. We're tackling period poverty by providing free pads and tampons to women in rural and remote First Nations communities, and there will be more access to professional indemnity insurance for midwives, which will improve birthing-on-country services for First Nations mothers.

We're also putting mental health at the heart of a stronger Medicare. Almost half of all Australians will experience a mental health concern in their lifetime, and everyone's experience is different. Our $361 million package means Australians will get the right level of care for their level of need. Measures that shift away from the one-size-fits-all approach and relieve pressure on the Better Access initiative include: a new national early intervention service that anyone can access for free whenever they need to; an upgraded nationwide network of 61 Medicare mental health centres to offer free walk-in access for adults with more complex mental health needs; funding for primary health networks to work in partnership with general practices to commission mental health workers to offer wraparound care for people with high needs, in between their medical appointments; and a new national peer workforce association to help unlock the potential of the workforce.

We're making big investments to support women's safety. Rates of intimate partner violence remain at epidemic proportions in Australia, with a quarter of women experiencing this in their lifetime. We know that violence isn't inevitable, and the high rates of gender based violence demand our full attention as we work to tackle the deeply ingrained social, cultural, political and economic factors that lead to violent behaviour. The National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children continues to guide the efforts of all Australian governments to end gender based violence within one generation. Funding in this budget brings the Labor government's total investment to support women's safety and the national plan to over $3.4 billion.

I know that people's eyes gloss over when they hear these big figures. So what do they actually mean? They mean we're improving and making permanent the Leaving Violence Program. Too often financial insecurity can be a barrier to escaping violence, and this investment will help people experiencing intimate partner violence to leave those relationships. It will provide those who are eligible with access to up to $5,000 in financial support as well as important referral services so that they have access to safety risk assessments and proper safety planning. These are services that women are not currently accessing. We need to make sure that when women make the very difficult and brave decision to leave a violent relationship—because we know that's when they are most at risk—they have access to the financial means to get themselves and their children to safety and that they undergo risk assessments and safety planning.

We're strengthening the social safety net through the back-to-back boost to Commonwealth rent assistance and by expanding eligibility for parenting payment single. Single women, including single parents, make up around 51 per cent of those claiming Commonwealth rent assistance, and they are now going to be eligible for this additional rent assistance. The maximum payment they will be able to receive will have a really positive impact on vulnerable cohorts such as women and kids leaving violent relationships.

The budget also includes a new decision to direct $1 billion of funding from the National Housing Infrastructure Facility towards crisis and transitional accommodation for women and children fleeing violence, and for youth. We know we must do more to prevent violence from occurring, and indeed escalating, including targeting high-risk perpetrators and the risk of homicide. To address this, this budget provides funding for a rapid review of targeted prevention approaches to violence against women, with a panel of experts to provide advice to government on preventing gender based violence, including a focus on homicides. We're putting more funding into Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety, ANROWS, to further build the evidence base on pathways into and out of perpetration of family, domestic and sexual violence.

We're establishing the National Student Ombudsman to help eradicate gender based violence from our universities, and we're establishing the National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence. This budget also delivers investments to support the National Criminal Intelligence System, which provides Australian law enforcement and our intelligence agencies with secure access to a national view of criminal intelligence and information, including on domestic violence perpetrators.

Whilst this announcement didn't make the headlines, one thing we wanted to see in this budget—and that I, especially, wanted to see in this budget—was an expansion of the primary health networks' domestic and family violence primary health outreach program, which has just been trialled on the Central Coast. I am thrilled that an investment of $6 million over two years has been included in the budget. This will allow the program to expand both within the Hunter New England Central Coast PHN and across five other PHNs. This fantastic program provides trauma informed health care to women and their children residing in refuge accommodation. This care includes a GP, a mental health nurse and a paediatric speech pathologist working in partnership with the domestic and family violence sector. Its expansion means that women and children in temporary accommodation and refuges across our region will have access to trauma informed primary health care for the first time in a very long time—possibly the first time ever. The PHN team rightly argued that children and their mothers in refuge accommodation were some of the least likely to access health and early intervention services. Without attendance at early intervention nursing checks, unique developmental needs were not being identified until school age, resulting in children missing out on the important window for early childhood intervention prior to formal schooling. I look forward to seeing the continued success of this as it evolves across our region.

We know that there is a massive housing shortage in Australia. Whether you're renting, buying or building, more homes are necessary for more security for everyone, especially those people I represent in Newcastle. That's why we've got a very ambitious goal to build 1.2 million homes by the end of the decade. I know that there are some people who scoff at this bill, but I say that, if you do not dare to be ambitious about addressing this housing crisis, then you are wasting your time in this chamber.

If ever there was a region well positioned to do the transition to the net zero economy, it's Newcastle—I spoke earlier tonight on another piece of legislation on that—but this budget before us tonight is a budget for all Australians. It's not just for some; it's not just for the precious few. We know that there is much more to do in all of these areas I've outlined this evening. Our commitment is that we will work every day to deliver for every Australian.

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2024-2025 and related bills. Whilst I won't oppose these bills, which ensure that the government's programs are funded, I must express my deep disappointment with this year's budget. The central promise made by the Prime Minister at the last election was that if you voted for him and the Labor Party, you would be better off. Life would be cheaper; life would be better. However, as we all know, the opposite has occurred, and the cost of living has gone through the roof, impacting every Australian household. Housing is up 12 per cent. Rents are up 12 per cent as well. Insurance is up 26 per cent. In many parts of my electorate it's up significantly more than that 26 per cent. Electricity is up 18 per cent, and gas is up 25 per cent.

Of course, the dozen interest rate rises that have occurred under this Labor government have amounted to severe mortgage stress for so many Australian families. Despite promising cheaper mortgages, the typical Australian household with a mortgage is more than $35,000 worse off. The budget provided the government with the perfect opportunity to outline a plan to get homegrown inflation under control, which will in time enable the Reserve Bank to reduce interest rates. Unfortunately, the government is now doubling down on their big spending agenda and failing energy and migration policies. It's not just the Liberal Party that is raising significant concerns with this year's budget. Steve Hamilton, a renowned economist, described it as 'reckless' and 'the most irresponsible budget in recent memory'. This budget means higher inflation for longer. A worrying sign today sees an increase in CPI to 6.4 per cent, up from 5.4 per cent last month.

I recently caught up with a team at Foodbank in Geraldton. Incredibly, Foodbank are now servicing dual-income families because they can no longer afford their groceries. How shameful for a country as rich as Australia that we now have the working poor. Sadly, more and more dual-income families are walking through the doors of Foodbank looking for help.

Despite this $315 billion of extra spending, the regions are still being left behind. Given the limited amount of time I have to speak in this debate tonight, I will swiftly remind the House that there has been a two-year funding drought for regional infrastructure after Labor abolished the Building Better Regions Fund and cancelled grants to the successful applicants under round 6. In October '22 Labor announced the Building Better Regions Fund would be substituted by the Growing Regions Program, which sounded pretty good at the time. As to what could be expected with this funding drought, many applications were made under the new program. In fact, there were 440 applications initially assessed as worthy by the regional development department and a parliamentary panel which was handpicked by the minister for infrastructure. Incredibly, 90 per cent of regional projects were rejected despite the government confirming the program underspent $93.4 million or 31 per cent of the provided funding. So not only did Labor bin nine out of 10 applications but only two-thirds of the funding promised for the Growing Regions Program's first round was actually spent.

I want to take the opportunity to congratulate the Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley for their successful application for funding towards an extension of the runway at the East Kimberley Regional Airport, a very worthy project. I note the previous government, when we were in government, had also provided them with important infrastructure funding also for their airport.

I would also like to congratulate the Midwest Community Living Association, who will receive funding towards the creation of an inclusive multipurpose opportunity hub in Geraldton which will support independent living and training for people with disabilities. I am particularly pleased for this organisation who provide such a critical service to those in need in the Midwest, so well done.

Unfortunately, there were many, many other worthy organisations and local communities that had their projects rejected. These included projects like the construction of the Newman youth and community hub, the Broome regional resource recovery park, the Lower Chittering community centre, and the new marine rescue facility in Port Hedland. This is just to name a few of the very worthy unsuccessful applicants from my electorate. Many of these projects could have been funded if the program had been delivered as promised or perhaps from other areas of government waste and spending like the $40 million the government has spent to advertise the revised tax cuts, or the wasteful $450 million spent on the failed Voice referendum. As we see once again, it's not about money; it's about priorities, and clearly regional Australia is not a priority for the Albanese Labor government.

I hope that those opposite understand the disappointment and anger of the applicants that have missed out, especially the ones that, after the expression of interest process, were then encouraged to spend more time and energy to complete a full application. Not only did the government choose to gut the program but they failed to deliver the funding announcements on time. Amazingly, the guidelines for the program stated:

If you are successful, you must commence your project no later than 15 May 2024.

Well, it's a little bit hard when the successful applicants were actually announced on 16 May. So they told you, 'You've got to have started spending the money and started the project by 15 May,' but they didn't tell anybody who was going to be successful until 16 May. Honestly, what sort of show is this mob running? The government's failures through the Growing Regions Program are simply indicative of a broader trend of neglect for regional infrastructure.

Also foreshadowed in the budget is the abolition of the Mobile Black Spot Program from 2026-27. People won't be surprised that this is a very successful program of the coalition. It funded somewhere in the vicinity of 1,500 new mobile phone towers in areas where the telcos tell us that it's not commercially viable for them to build the towers themselves. People will understand that in an electorate like Durack, the largest in our country, we were a major beneficiary, and I don't think anybody would hold that against the people of Durack, because there is such great need. But there is still great need, so I can tell you my constituents will be very disappointed to hear that in a few years that program will be gone. Not only will this have a drastic impact in case of emergencies, whether they're to do with health or with natural disaster, but there is also no escaping that mobile connectivity is so important to participating in the modern world, whether you live in Marble Bar, in Chittering or in Geraldton.

The Mobile Black Spot Program joins a long list of regional programs that have been abolished by the Albanese Labor government. These include, as I've said before, the Building Better Regions Fund and the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, which was so important during COVID and which kept local councils and local tradies afloat and enabled our local councils, of which I represent some 41, to get small low-hanging fruit projects done. For the last two years, all I've heard about is how important that Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program was, and it's a real shame that this government hasn't continued with that.

There were also community development grants and, of course, the wonderful Stronger Communities Program, which my friend here, the member for Hinkler, will know was such an important program because—and I know the Deputy Speaker will agree with me—it was a program that the local member could control together with a community committee. It made such a difference to identifying those important projects throughout the whole of the electorate, and it's a real shame. It's a shame on the Labor government for not continuing with that program.

But I did have some hope that in the budget we would see a return of the Stronger Communities Program, which, as I've said, has helped so many grassroots organisations in my electorate. I thought this was a very strong possibility because I have seen so many of my colleagues on the other side, time after time, spruiking how wonderful the Stronger Communities Program is when they would get up and talk about it in a 90-second statement or a three-minute constituency statement. So I had great hope and faith that we might have had a return to the Stronger Communities Program. Alas, that program was not re-funded.

In conclusion, despite the government's obvious failures, they have not provided funding in the budget for any new programs to support regional economic development. It's clear to me that only a change in government will lead to the prioritisation of regional infrastructure, particularly in Western Australia and particularly in regional and remote parts. Likewise, only a change in government will result in a return to sensible economic management. We will get inflation down, restore the Australian dream of homeownership and abandon Labor's reckless renewables-only strategy. The election will provide a clear choice for Australians, and it cannot come soon enough.

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Durack. The question is that this bill be now read a second time. I give the call to the member for Hinkler. Just note that I'll allow you to go beyond 7.30, if you'd like to use your full time.

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

Thank you very much. In September, I would have been here for 11 years. This is a place of highs and lows, challenges and roadblocks. There are a lot of things that get in the way, I've got to say, Mr Deputy Speaker—

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

But not 7.30!

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

Not 7.30! However, when you get something done here, it's usually a serious something. It is something that matters. They could be things that move the country. They could be things that are in the national interest. They can be things which assist your community. In terms of disappointments in the last budget handed down by the Treasurer, I don't think I've ever been more disappointed than to hear that the almost $600 million which we secured as the coalition government for the repairs to Paradise Dam had been cut. The budget paper has a line in it that says they are deferred. I can tell you they're not deferred; they are not there. In the five-year forecast of the budget, the money is not there. That is a cut. By definition, it has been cut from the budget.

To give you an idea of just how important this is, this dam secures our agricultural region. It has been one of the highest-reliability dams in Australia for water supply, and it has been an absolute debacle. Make no mistake this is the biggest public infrastructure failure in this country's history, and it is all at the feet of state Labor governments and now a federal Labor government who will not fund it. The repairs are necessary. Some of the history—it has now been 4½ years since the Queensland state Labor government announced the dam had safety issues and capacity would need to be reduced. So they lowered the level of the dam and then spun that as 'free water'. So you were pouring literally thousands of megalitres down the river for people who may or may not be able to pick it up at the time it flowed past. Apparently, that was free and that was a great outcome. They then passed legislation to override all the other things they'd have to do in order to knock the wall down and reduce capacity.

Now Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, on 22 July 2021, in the ABC Wide Bay studio, my local studio, said of Paradise Dam, 'It should be fixed and it should be fixed as soon as possible.' Well, Prime Minister, you can't fix it without funding. You simply cannot. For the people in my region, this will have a direct impact on the value of their properties and on the reliability of the water supply for what is now a very expansive agricultural area that relies on water for tree crops, macadamias, avocados and horticulture. If you cannot guarantee your water supply, then potentially you lose decades of investment, because tree crops are lost in a drought. If you're growing high-volume, low-value crop, like sugarcane—I don't have wheat locally—the reality is that you can pick up next year and try and recover, but not with tree crops. So this is an absolute disaster, and the people of my electorate know it. They know that it has to be delivered. But the idea that the Commonwealth, this federal Labor government, will not contribute in the next five years—five years on top of the 4½ that we have already had. So nine years, no money, no action, not repaired—that is clearly the only option, because it's not funded.

So what happens locally? There is a loss of confidence. Potentially, you have a loss in value. You definitely have a loss in people forecasting, planting and investing. There is no doubt about that whatsoever. I'd say to the state Labor government and to my own side, the state LNP: you need to fast-track this proposal. The concept that an existing dam, which has now been reduced in capacity, which is allegedly going to be repaired and reinstated to the same capacity, has to go through every single approval again, to put it back to the same level of water, in the same place, at the same dam, with the same offtake—you do not need to do the environmental assessments again. You do not. There is no change in the impact; it is the same. It is the same level. So there are opportunities here for state governments to put legislation in place which will fast-track this dam and get it secured for the people I represent, and that is absolutely critical.

I was at a function over the weekend. The Bundaberg Fruit and Vegetables Growers do a biannual event. It's huge. The waiting list has hundreds of people. Unfortunately, none of the state Labor members, including the local member—the member for Bundaberg—could get there. The state minister sent a video. Can I say that it went down like a brick and tile glider. Minister Furner presented a video to the group, and I heard one person clap out of the hundreds that were there. They know the impact of this decision. This is the future of our region. It is about water security, which they had; they had made investment decisions on it.

Can you imagine if you borrowed money for your home only to find later down the track that, actually, there had been an error and you would have to reduce it by three bedrooms, back to five bedrooms, assuming you had a substantial palace—off the basis of a failure by the then government to build a dam which they actually built to a price and not a standard and which has now failed. It is outrageous. There should be more noise about this, because Sunwater, the local operator, has said it is now going to cost—on top of the existing construction costs and the couple of hundred million dollars to already knock it down and do repairs—more than the $1.2 billion we had allocated to repair it. This is an incredible failure.

I reiterate that state governments—and I don't care where they come from—have an opportunity to fast-track this dam. It will make no difference to the environment. It is the same footprint at the same level. They could give confidence to my community and they could commit the funding that is required, and the Prime Minister could meet the promise he made to the people of my region. He made it publicly.

In terms of other things inside the appropriation bill, there's a significant number of projects and there's some argy-bargy. We heard from Senator Chisholm in the other place about how he, of course, always invites the local member. Well, he might have missed a couple. In fact, he was there for the opening of any number of the projects which were commenced by the coalition and completed in recent months. If we look at the Pacific Marine Base at the Port of Bundaberg, which was significantly delayed over a period of time, Senator Chisholm managed to open that in September 2023, but my invitation must have been lost—what an inconvenience! But that's great; we still got it delivered.

There's a multipurpose conveyor at the Port of Bundaberg, which actually matters. Because the state took so long to approve it, the $10 million we had allocated wasn't enough. I had to secure another $7.7 million. The Port of Bundaberg has, for a long time, basically solely been a sugar port. The local sugar industry is in decline. It is much smaller than it used to be. In fact, in the nineties the local region probably grew six million tonnes of sugarcane. This season I expect probably 2.5 tonnes. That has an obvious impact on what is exported out of a sugar port dedicated to that. One of the ways to ensure that the Port of Bundaberg is maintained and becomes profitable is to ensure that they can actually ship other products, and the purpose of the multiuse conveyor is to do exactly that.

The Treasurer showed up for that—sorry, it was Minister Kristy McBain who came along. In fact, the Treasurer was for a different one. He managed to find his way up to our place and to the local region. I'm sure if I sent him a map, he'd be able to find it again—it would be all good. The Hervey Bay CBD redevelopment, which is part of the Hinkler Regional Deal: Senator Chisholm came and opened that one too. I'm sure he did a good job. It's underway, and it's being delivered for the people I represent. That is the outcome that we need.

We hear from the Albanese government—from Minister King and others—who are constantly in the parliament, who are out in the media and who are out in our regions, and they describe some of our funds and priority projects as rorts. I want to give the House and those listening an idea of what the Labor Party, the Labor government and the Labor ministry consider to be rorts.

Under the Building Better Regions Fund in my patch, we contributed to and helped to deliver the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the LifeFlight joint base. The Labor government consider that to be a rort. Accommodation on site shortens the travel time, shortens the response time and delivers for the people at a time of desperate need. I've spoken about the Pacific Marine Base, the Burnett Heads town centre and IWC stage 2, but I'll give you an idea of just how essential the Stronger Communities Program was, which included $150,000 per electorate. In the last round that it existed, because it was cut by the Labor government, my office received 100 expressions of interest requesting $1,436,108 for the funding allocation of just $150,000. That is how desperate the need is in my local region, and this program is no longer funded by the Labor Party, by the Labor government, by this Treasurer and by this Prime Minister.

Here are some things that the Labor government considers to be rorts. Outside broadcast equipment for Fraser Coast Community Radio: the Labor Party considers that to be a rort. A new kitchen at C&K Oaks Beach Community Kindergarten: the Labor Party considers that a rort. Air conditioning at the Woodgate Community Hall: the Labor Party considers that a rort. The Hervey Bay Neighbourhood Centre Community Cafe, used to provide training: the Labor Party considers that a rort. A wheelchair-accessible bus for the Endeavour Foundation in Bundaberg: the Labor Party considers that a rort. Little libraries for Childers built by the Men's Shed: the Labor Party considers that a rort. Installation of a Liberty Swing at Hervey Bay Special School: because it's part of this program, this has been described by the Labor Party as a rort. A trailer for the Bundaberg Rowing Club to transport boats to competition: the Labor Party considers it a rort. New scoreboards for the Woodgate Bowls Club: the Labor Party considers that a rort. New change rooms and amenities at the Diggers Football Club: the Labor Party considers that a rort. The kitchen upgrade at the Elouera Girl Guides campsite at Mon Repos: the Labor Party considers that a rort. Cold room condensers for Fraser Coast Meals on Wheels, a barbecue trailer for the Hervey Bay Amateur Fishing Club for fundraising, an armoured personnel carrier on display at the Toogoom RSL, freezers for We Care 2 in Hervey Bay, an amenities block for the Hervey Bay Woodcrafts Club, a shade sail for the Burrum District Men's Shed, marquees for Woodgate Community Events, a tamping machine for the Australian Sugar Cane Railway at the botanic gardens in Bundaberg to replace the wooden sleepers, canteen upgrades at Bundaberg Touch and the Bundaberg Race Club, night vision goggles for the RACQ LifeFlight Bundaberg: these are all considered rorts by this Labor Party government.

A community bus for Woodgate residents; Angel's Second 2 None opshop; the Olympic trap layout and bunker for Bundaberg Clay Target Club; driveways and courtyards at Bundaberg Players; air conditioning in the Childers cultural centre; fridges and freezers and washing machines for Regional Housing accommodation; kitchen upgrades for the Bundaberg Small Bore Rifle Club, the Burrum Heads Bowls Club, the Burgowan Bowls Club, the Fraser Coast Artslink; a mower and shed for Bundaberg tennis; a patrol trailer upgrade for Hervey Bay Surf Life Saving Club: all considered by this Labor Party government to be rorts.

It is outrageous. They should change their language, because in the regions that is a lot of lamingtons. You have to sell a lot of sausages on bread to cover these significant costs for predominantly volunteer organisations that are desperately needed.

We of course will support the appropriations bills, as all oppositions do. But I, for one, think the Labor government needs to reconsider its language on how regional areas are supported, particularly at a time like this where a cost-of-living crisis is in place.

I'll conclude by saying thank you very much, Deputy Speaker Wilkie, for your forbearance, for the extra couple of minutes. We will get on with it, but, once again, a Labor government needs to change its language and reconsider what it means to live in regional Australia, because they need the help.

Debate adjourned.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:33