Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Talk about a reality gap, Senator Smith! Tonight's budget will be a budget for the times. It will be a budget that provides a historic package of cost-of-living relief for Australians. It will be a budget that charts a path forward for a strong economic future for our country. And it will do all of this, despite what Senator Smith just said, while putting downward pressure on inflation—inflation that has already halved on our watch. It will do that while returning additional revenue to the budget bottom line and generating a second budget surplus.

In this budget, like the last budget and the one before it, we will show what the opposition hates us to show—that we are the better economic managers for this nation. We will provide the relief for the challenges that Australians face today, we will provide a path to the jobs of tomorrow and we will show the fiscal discipline that is needed to put downward pressure on inflation right now.

Those opposite couldn't produce one budget surplus in their nine years in office, let alone two. We know they had the 'back in black' mugs printed. We know they enjoyed puffing on their cigars while cutting programs that Australians rely on. But what they couldn't do was produce a budget surplus; they never delivered one, let alone two. We will do that at the same time we're providing the cost-of-living relief that Australians need—cost-of-living relief that those opposite have relentlessly opposed from the benches opposite.

The centrepiece of our cost-of-living relief will be the tax cut that every single Australian will receive on 1 July. Again, on 1 July every single Australian taxpayer will receive a tax cut. Every single person: every single nurse, every single truckie, every single low-income worker and every single middle-income worker will receive a tax cut under our plan. We want to see Australians earning more and keeping more of what they earn. Wages are already growing on our watch, at the fastest rate in over a decade. That's because we've proudly supported a boost to the minimum wage—a significant boost. We've proudly supported a boost to the pay of our essential but undervalued aged-care workers. I'm proud that there's going to be more to come in tonight's budget to support our essential and undervalued care economy workers even further. We want to see strong wages in this country. We want to see real wages growth returning, and that is exactly what we're seeing.

We have already delivered substantial support to the Australian people, and we will deliver more tonight; we know they need that. In Medicare we've made historic investments in bulk-billing, urgent care clinics and cheaper medicines, and there will be more tonight. We want a country where all that Australians need to turn up and get the health care that they need is their Medicare card, not their credit card.

There will be more fee-free TAFE in the budget tonight as well. We'll be training more Australians for the jobs of the future. And there will be $3 billion in student debt wiped for over three million Australians. We want Australians to get the education they want for the jobs they want too. That's why we'll also be addressing placement poverty for students in nursing, social work and teaching. Fee-free TAFE, HECS-HELP debt reform and placement payments are all going to help Australians get ready for the jobs of the future today.

Our budget will have a lot more to say about a future made right here in Australia as well, and a lot more about those jobs of the future. We want to seize those opportunities for Australia to become a renewable energy superpower and to make more of what we need right here in Australia.

Tonight we will be delivering more of the cost-of-living relief that people need right now today, starting with a tax cut for every single Australian. We will deliver the investment for the country that we need to build for tomorrow as well, with more jobs, more of what we need made right here in Australia and more homes that people need as well. And we will return more revenue to the bottom line, and a second surplus.