Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Stewart for the question and for her interest in addressing cost-of-living pressures for Australian households. Since we came to government, the government has been totally focused on addressing cost-of-living issues. You saw that in our election commitments, which directly went to assisting households with cost-of-living pressures. You've seen it in the way we've handled issues while we have been in government, including in providing energy bill relief—around this time last year in the final weeks of parliament—which those opposite voted against, of course.

We are working hard to support families by introducing measures which bring down the cost of living, like cheaper child care and reduced medicine costs. We're seeing results, particularly in the area of medicines but also in childcare fees, which are a big part of household budgets when you have children under the age of five. When we look at reducing medicine costs, we've seen significant savings—$20 million each month—from lowering the price of monthly scripts, with that money going directly going into people's pockets. In relation to 60-day dispensing, which, again, those opposite voted against, we've already seen 600,000 scripts, saving $5 million, as a result of the changes that we have been putting in place and which you voted against.

We are also seeing improved good results—and it is early days—in the increased investment that we have made to bulk-billing, which is allowing more GPs to bulk-bill more people. We've been doing this because we've been taking measures to strengthen the budget so that we can find room for these important programs that assist Australians with the increasing cost of living, and we will continue to do so.