Tracey Roberts (Pearce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion before us by the hardworking member for Paterson. As the member has quite rightly pointed out, the Albanese Labor government is delivering a fiscally responsible government that supports Australians, while investing in a better Future Made in Australia. The budget is designed to help people under pressure, while supporting Australians for the future. It is no surprise that the No. 1 priority is easing cost-of-living pressures.

On 1 July this year the Albanese Labor government will deliver a tax cut for every Australian taxpayer, which is 13.6 million people. This includes 86,000 residents in my community in Pearce. Every single taxpayer will receive a tax cut. The average tax cut for taxpayers in Pearce will be $1,018. Whether you are a nurse, a teacher, a police officer, a tradie or working in retail or other industry, we will deliver a bigger tax cut for Middle Australia to help with the cost-of-living pressures.

The energy rebate will also be of enormous help to families living in Pearce and across the country. We are strengthening Medicare by growing the number of urgent care clinics, delivering more free mental health services, delivering higher Medicare rebates for many common medical tests and listing new medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Everyone in Pearce who accesses PBS medicines is set to save even more, thanks to our freeze on the maximum cost of a PBS medicine. Pensioners and concession card holders in Pearce will not pay more than $7.70 for their PBS medications for the next five years, and this has been overwhelmingly well received by our community.

The Albanese Labor government have an ambitious plan to build 1.2 million homes by the end of the decade. Our plan means we are training more tradies, funding more apprenticeships and growing the workforce, and we have announced 20,000 extra fee-free TAFE and VET places in housing and construction. We are kickstarting construction by cutting red tape and providing incentives to state government to get homes built more quickly. We are delivering the biggest investment in social housing in more than a decade, to help reduce homelessness. For renters doing it tough, we have increased rent assistance, which means over 5,000 families in Pearce will receive assistance with rent. Our ambitious Homes for Australia plan will help more Australians rent, build and buy.

The government is investing in a better future, recognising the need to create new, secure, well-paid jobs in our regions and our suburbs and a new generation of advanced manufacturing. A significant part of our $22.7 billion Future Made in Australia package will help us become a renewable energy superpower, with measures designed to maximise the economic and industrial benefits of the move to net zero and secure our place in a changing global economic landscape.

Importantly, we're also supporting small business and making sure they play a central role in our plans for a Future Made in Australia. The budget provides support for over 12,000 small businesses in Pearce and across the country. There are two major industrial centres in the Pearce electorate, which currently incorporate a number of manufacturing businesses, and I am aware that some businesses are already exploring options for new opportunities in advanced manufacturing research and development, including commercialisation, aimed at getting the maximum benefit of our natural resources in Western Australia.

I agree with the member for Paterson: the Albanese Labor government has without doubt proven to be a responsible economic manager and has delivered back-to-back budget surpluses. We have saved and reprioritised $77.4 billion of spending since coming to government. We are strengthening and rebuilding the public sector and have achieved savings by reducing spending on consultants and outsourcing contractors. Since coming to government, we have limited real spending growth and improved the budget position by a forecast $214 billion over the six years to 2027-28 compared to the former government. These budget measures that we have announced are considered fiscally responsible and will without doubt help lay the groundwork for a better future for all Australians.

Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak against this motion that relates to the economic management, or should I say the economic mismanagement, that has been demonstrated in the last budget brought down by the Albanese Labor government. This has again demonstrated that this is not a government that is interested in governing for all Australians. The motion here talks about easing cost-of-living pressures, building more homes for Australians and investing in a Future Made in Australia. If only that were the case. This budget has not eased cost-of-living pressures for most Australians, for Middle Australians, for those Australians who have again been forgotten by a Labor government.

If we turn first of all to cost-of-living pressures, this is the main issue that people in my electorate of Hughes talk to me about. Over the past two years, we have seen government spending of Whitlamesque proportions, spending largely in the wrong areas, government mismanagement and waste. That government spending has led directly to the cost-of-living pressures. It is for this reason the RBA has set its inflation target rates at two to three per cent for the government. For three budgets in a row, the government has failed, on each occasion, to bring its own fiscal policy into line to bring that inflation rate down. That is the reason we have seen 12 interest rate increases over the life of this government. That is the reason that the average Australian household is now paying $24,000 a year more in mortgage repayments than two years ago. That is the reason that property investors have had to lift rents. And that is the reason that rents have increased in this country by, on average, 9.1 per cent over the past two years, according to CoreLogic.

With housing the largest individual item of expenditure for Australian budgets, this demonstrates the government's failure on cost of living. In fact, Labor's spending has further fuelled inflation. The best way that the Labor government could address cost-of-living pressures would be to lower inflation through decreasing its own spending, through cutting the wasteful spending in the wrong areas. That would then pave the way for the RBA to cut interest rates. It would then provide some relief for Australians paying off mortgages, relief for Australians paying rent.

We can talk about the government building more homes. The government talks a big talk on this. We've had the headlines of $10 billion going into housing, with 1.2 million homes to be built over the next five years. Yet we have a housing affordability crisis in this country. It has been there for a number of years, but it has got progressively worse under this government. Under this government, there has not been a single home built in two years, despite all of the headlines. The government has failed to address the critical lack of supply. The government has also fuelled demand for housing with its rampant migration policy.

We have the highest rate of migration in Australia now since the 1950s—almost one million new immigrants over two years. For every four immigrants coming into this country, we are building only one dwelling. The maths just do not stack up. While sustainable and sensible immigration is applauded, and immigration has built our country—I am supportive of sensible immigration—this government's current immigration policy is failing Australians. It is clueless and it is also cruel. How can we realistically ask others around the world to come to our country and yet not provide them with sufficient housing and sufficient infrastructure? It's also grossly unfair to the Australians who are already living here who are trying to get into the housing market, whether that be into private ownership or into private rental.

This is a government that is great at headlines and great at slogans, but not great at all on delivery. To build 1.2 million homes over five years requires 240,000 new homes each and every year. Labor's own National Housing Supply and Affordability Council has said there is no chance Labor will reach its housing targets—so Labor's own people say it can't reach its housing targets. But what we have seen though is what Labor governments do best—straight out of the Whitlam playbook and the Rudd playbook—we've built a bureaucracy, and it's just come out that $30 million has been spent by this government on consultants and executives, with its housing agency yet to build a single house.

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

The government has introduced a responsible budget that will help alleviate cost-of-living pressures whilst also laying the foundation for a stronger and more resilient economy. We understand that household budgets are tight and that cost-of-living pressures are being felt right across the country. That's why we've delivered responsible cost-of-living relief in this budget, building on the targeted relief of last year's budget.

Our cost-of-living tax cuts will benefit every Australian taxpayer, with 13 million Australians set to receive a tax cut from 1 July—a matter of days away. This translates to an average tax cut of more than $1,700 dollars a year for the average worker in Bennelong, and every single taxpayer in Bennelong—all 92,000 of them—will benefit from these cost-of-living tax cuts at the right time. It will put money back into the pockets of every working Australian.

Out budget will also provide new energy bill relief for every household, with $300 for each home and $325 for one million small businesses across the nation. This is real, tangible wealth for those struggling to keep up with rising energy costs. And let's not forget that those opposite have voted against energy relief in the past. We urge them not to repeat their mistakes with this rebate. Opposing these measures will only hurt households and businesses already under pressure. In addition, we've increased Commonwealth rent assistance again, marking the first back-to-back increase in three decades. This boost, combined with our energy bill relief, is designed to directly reduce inflationary pressures, directly benefiting nearly a million households.

Beyond immediate relief, our budget is focused on investing in the future. We are committed to building more homes for Australians, with $6 billion allocated for new housing measures. This investment will help address the housing crisis and ensure that more Australians have access to a safe, affordable home. The extra $6 billion in this budget brings total investments into housing by this government to over $30 billion—an extraordinary amount in two years and in stark contrast to the decade of nothing under from the former government. We need more homes for young people, but young people also deserve cost-of-living relief. Our HECS reforms—wiping $3 billion of student debt—will benefit 23,800 people in Bennelong, making higher education more accessible and affordable. We've invested in cost-of-living relief in homes and for students.

But we also need to invest in our future. As the world decarbonises, we need to be at the front of the pack. We need to make sure that we benefit from the environmental and economic gains of a clean energy transition. Our commitment to a future made in Australia is evident in our support for low-emissions energy manufacturing. We are building a stronger more resilient economy by supporting Australian businesses and creating Australian jobs, while the alternative is more interested in fear and division.

The coalition claim to care about a net zero economy but have actively sabotaged Australia's switch to renewable energy. They reject the plan to ensure we build batteries and solar panels here locally, but then they complain that we import too many of them. They vote against energy relief and price caps but then complain that power bills are too high. You see the pattern here? The Liberals and Nationals are not interested in fixing the issues they created; they just want to be wreckers. You just need to look at their budget reply to reveal their real intentions. How many measures did the Leader of the Opposition announce to help families with cost of living? None. What policies did they propose to reduce the cost of essential medicines? Zero. And what was their grand plan to create better jobs and higher wages? There wasn't one. The only policies they announced on housing were to let young people wipe out their super balances and then, of course, to shamefully blame migrants for every problem under the sun.

On this side, we will increase housing supply, protect super and embrace migration and its benefit to our nation. On that side, there is no plan, only old ideas, fear and division. The government's budget is one for all Australians. It's a budget crafted with care and responsibility, addressing the immediate cost-of-living pressures we face whilst also building a foundation for a positive future. Our budget provides real solutions and investments and responsible economic management, and I commend them to the House.

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Another motion about economic management from those opposite. Another motion patting themselves on the back for the great job they're doing, when in reality the Australian people are suffering. We all know there's not one Australian who's doing better today than when Anthony Albanese and Labor came to government in 2022, but those opposite continue to pat themselves on the back, and my community know that it's all spin. Let's be specific and look at point (2)(b)(iii): 'saved and reprioritised $77.4 billion of spending since coming to government'. They're fancy words, but my community knows what that means. That's $100 million cut from my community for the roads for community program. That's $100 million taken out of Casey, the Yarra Ranges, the Yarra Valley and the Dandenongs and given to Daniel Andrews, the state Labor government and the Suburban Rail Loop. That's what has happened for my community.

To be clear: it is a program that was committed to in 2019, with bipartisan support, for 10 years. The then shadow minister for infrastructure, now the Prime Minister, committed to that funding. It was a project that was being delivered on time and on budget. It was a project that the department itself admitted improved the safety of residents in the Yarra Ranges, the Dandenong Ranges and Casey. It was a program that was delivering economic benefits and productivity growth. It was ensuring that families in my community could play in their front yard without their children or their grandchildren being covered in dust and inhaling that dust. What did those opposite do when they came to power? They cut that money. They cut that $100 million, despite agreeing to it.

That's why I've been campaigning ever since to get it renewed, to get the money put back into the budget. It's why I had the shadow assistant minister for infrastructure, Tony Pasin, out with me last week talking to residents. That's why I'm urging residents to go to our national road survey and add their voice to this petition. This government does not care about infrastructure spending unless it's for the Suburban Rail Loop or the inner city. They don't even care about the west. They were happy to pull lots of funding out of the west, like the airport rail link. One project in Victoria is all they care about—and they can't deliver that, because none of their projects are being delivered on time. They pat themselves on the back at a time when my community is struggling. Everyone is struggling.

I want to read a quote from Thomas, who is 18, from Wesburn. He wrote to me about his struggles: 'The cost-of-living crisis is getting far too out of hand, and Australians need some relief. This is my first year working. I work for $21.50 an hour in a factory far, far away from my home in Wesburn. My family has always struggled financially, but all of us receive an income, and, despite that, money still doesn't work out. I don't know what relief could seriously be provided to our citizens, but it's more than overdue for a mention to the powers that be. I'm tired of worrying about this stuff. It's an extra burden when I'm meant to be at the funnest stage of my life. The same goes for all the other kids my age in the Yarra Valley.' Thank you, Thomas, for sharing your story as we stand and have to listen to those opposite telling us how the Australian people have never had it better.

Let's be clear: last year their answer to the cost-of-living crisis was to take away $1,500 in tax relief from the Australian people. They let that measure lapse last year. They took away $1,500 from taxpayers on low and middle incomes. Then, this year, the Prime Minister broke his word in January, and he celebrated breaking his word. He's making you wait five months, until 1 July, to get $15 a week. To add salt to that wound, the government—the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and those opposite—then spent $40 million of taxpayer money to tell everyone about the tax cut that they're going to get anyway and to tell them about $15 a week. To make it even worse, at the same time that they committed $40 million to selling their broken promise, they committed $14 million to food banks across the country. It tells you everything you need to know about this government. It's all spin and misinformation; it's nothing for the Australian people.

Sam Lim (Tangney, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the past few weeks, at every door I have knocked on—from Willetton to Myaree or from Bicton to Willagee—my constituents' No. 1 concern has been the cost-of-living pressures that so many families are feeling. The second issue on my constituents' minds and in their hearts has been concerns about their families' future. So, when constituents in my seat of Tangney ask us what we are doing to ease cost-of-living pressures, I'm proud to tell them that this Labor budget provides energy bill relief not only to them but to their neighbours, to every household in Tangney and to every household in Australia.

As I talk to constituents about the tax cut that all taxpayers and 87,000 people in Tangney will receive from 1 July, I listen to people tell me how more money in their pockets will be of immediate help. Like in many families in Tangney, in my family education is everything. Like many parents in Tangney, I share the same concern for my children and the student debts they carry. My constituents and I discuss what it means for this budget to wipe out almost $3 billion in student debts and to make indexation fairer. We are helping more than three million people, mostly youngsters, in Australia. As a former TAFE student, I think it is wonderful that this year's budget builds on existing cost-of-living measures that the Albanese Labor government has already taken, like fee-free TAFE. Fee-free TAFE gives people the chance to grab an opportunity and make a change that will set them up for a better future.

My TAFE experience did that for me, and it is doing that for young people like Rebecca, Anika and Gemmalyn, who I recently met at South Metro TAFE in my seat of Tangney. Rebecca, Anika and Gemmalyn are studying for a Certificate IV in Information Technology. They told me how fee-free TAFE inspired them to make a change and go into an industry that they have a real passion for. As they spoke with great enthusiasm for their learning and about the opportunities they are getting through their studies, my heart felt so warm as I could see the bright future ahead of them. I'm proud to be part of a government that is making education more accessible to all, like addressing placement poverty by funding mandatory placement for teachers, nurses and social workers.

This Labor budget is a budget for all Australians. Cheaper medicines and freezing the maximum cost of PBS prescriptions for everyone will benefit many people in Tangney—senior citizens, pensioners, concession cardholders and families big and small. I'm especially proud to be part of a Labor government that will now ensure women are paid superannuation on their paid parental leave. This is simply the right thing to do. For far too long we have not supported women, and I'm proud to be a part of a government that has put in a real measure to help close the gender gap.

The ABS shows that our policy for electricity, rents and child care are all directly putting downward pressure on inflation. So many people that I talk to are struggling to balance the pressure of today with their concern for the future. This Labor budget helps people in Tangney ease cost-of-living pressures today, and it also invests in jobs, skills, energy and infrastructure to set us up for future growth. When I talk about this Labor budget to people in Tangney, I listen to their concerns, their stories and their dreams; I promise to continue raising the issues that matter deeply to them; and I share with them that in this Labor budget I see opportunity, growth and prosperity, not only to some Australians but to the whole of Australia.

Simon Kennedy (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm speaking against this motion and the budget, and that is because this government is mismanaging this budget and also the economy. Who's paying the price for it? It's everyday Australians. If we look at the cost of living, one of the biggest costs is housing. This budget does next to nothing to fix housing supply. Today, the average loan on a house or unit is $740,000—what an eye-watering figure to burden the average Australian household with—and those average Australian households are paying $24,000 more than they were just two years ago, and these are the ones lucky enough to own a house. Those that are renting are paying 9.1 per cent more in rent, with no increase to capital assets. This government is crushing Middle Australia and not listening to their concerns.

At this time when we're struggling for housing supply, somehow we have builders and construction companies going out of business, and they're not going out of business in normal times; they're going out of business at record rates in the middle of a housing crisis. It beggars belief. What are the government doing at this time when they shouldn't be looking at raising interest rates? They're increasing their level of spending. Make no mistake about it: the budget and its economic management are expansionary, and, when you've got an expansionary budget with this economy, you are not going to see interest rates go down. You're going to see Middle Australia get piled with pressure and collapse underneath it.

One other thing I don't think you see anywhere in this motion is a mention of productivity, and I refer to comments from the Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock, from November last year, as reported in the AFR, about wage rises:

Although wage rises of around about 4 per cent in a normal context of productivity growth aren't necessarily inconsistent with our inflation target. If we don't have any productivity growth, they're on the high side and they're going to contribute to rises in costs.

Given this inflationary environment, these wage rises that those opposite like to crow about are actually increasing costs, increasing inflation and leading to pressure on keeping interest rates where they are or, even worse, on increasing them. You've got the Reserve Bank highlighting this uncertainty that Middle Australia is now facing. In the seven months between these comments from the Reserve Bank governor and today, what has changed? It's only gotten worse. We've got an inflationary budget and we've seen the last reading of inflation be the highest we've had this year.

The government will try and convince you that the economy is growing, but how does it do this? It's actually record migration that's being used to paper over the weakness in the Australian economy. The truth of this growing economy is much murkier. We're in a household recession, and productivity has ground to a halt. What does this mean for the average Australian family? It means their real income is down 7½ per cent in the last two years alone. It means they can't buy as much as they could before. It means they can't afford a house and they can't afford rent. It means the 528,000 new entrants in the economy are competing for just 170,000 new homes, and this maths does not add up. The government will try and convince you and the rest of Middle Australia that the economy is growing, but you and your family are just getting poorer.

They are ignoring productivity. Productivity growth has been responsible for 80 per cent of the increase in living standards for the average Australian over the last 30 years. But under this government they're going backwards at now minus five per cent, and one of the lowest recordings of the last 25 years was the last one. Productivity is an integral part of making our federation work better. This government should be incentivising our states to take on productivity increasing reforms, like tackling stamp duty or tackling payroll tax. But, instead, it's just punishing state governments with its failures.

Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.