Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I firmly believe that every member of this parliament, regardless of their political stripes, knows or at least should know just how tough many Australians are doing it with the cost-of-living pressures these days, and I know that in Cowan it's no different. I see that every time I go to my local shops and see people at the check-out making decisions that, frankly, they shouldn't have to make. I see that and I recognise that, because I understand that I've had to make those decisions in the past in my life too.

We know that Aussies are doing it tough right now. That's why our government, the Labor government, has taken action to ease the cost of living for Australians. In just four days time, on 1 July, around 83,000 Cowan constituents will get a tax cut. That's going to make a real difference to their cost of living. And, since coming into government, we've supported not one, not two, but three increases to the minimum wage, with the latest being a 3.75 per cent increase in the minimum wage. These kinds of increases in minimum wages often impact women more disproportionately because women tend to be in those lower paid workforces. We're also giving every Cowan household a $300 energy rebate, and that comes on top of the $400 energy rebate from the Cook Labor government. So, together, Western Australian households will be getting $700 in energy bill relief.

Importantly, we're freezing the cost of PBS medicines, because we believe everyone should have access to affordable health care. Pensioners and concession card holders will not pay more than $7.70 for their PBS medications for the next five years. In fact, the people of Cowan have already saved $1.9 million from our commitment to delivering cheaper medicines. We're delivering more free mental health services, higher Medicare rebates for common medical tests and a $160 million women's health package. We're delivering more help for renters in Cowan. All of these policies build on other cost-of-living measures that the Labor government has undertaken since coming into office.

Labor has a proud history of backing workers and backing the most vulnerable people in our society. It's who we are, it's in our DNA, it's what makes us Labor and it's what drives us to make a real difference to the people in my electorate of Cowan.