David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

As a community backed Independent, I am here to push hard for what the people who elected me want. I'll put forward solutions, be constructive and hold the government to account. While there are some good things in this budget, there is also a gaping hole at its heart. There's no increase to JobSeeker, youth allowance, Austudy or any other income support payment, leaving three million Australians in poverty. We have the expert advice that lifting this would not add to inflation, yet, despite having a surplus, the Labor government, who told us that they wouldn't be leaving people behind, have decided to do exactly that. We've seen the $300 energy bill relief, which, again, is very welcome but will also be going to people who don't need it—those in this chamber, who also get $4,500 off their tax this year.

Some of the cost-of-living relief in health is welcome, but one of the things I've been hearing a lot about is mental health—the difficulty in getting in to services and the cost to get in. We saw the government slash the sessions from 20 to 10 and promise us that there would be things to make up the difference, yet we've seen the lowest Commonwealth investment in mental health since 2018. We know what has happened to mental health across the country through the pandemic and in the last couple of years.

There was a 10 per cent increase in Commonwealth rent assistance, which, again, was very welcome, but that's less than $10 a week and only supports 40 per cent or so of renters. When you look at the median weekly rents, having increased by $49 in the last 12 months, you start to see how it's probably not the response that a lot of Australians were hoping for. A Future Made in Australia is very welcome, using our tax system to incentivise decarbonisation and building an economy for the future, with billions for critical minerals and hydrogen. But there is no funding for household electrification or solar. These are things that could permanently reduce power bills by as much as $5,000 per household per year, every year into the future. These are the sorts of ideas that we need Australian governments to be implementing.

Disappointingly, there was no plan to address our GP shortages here in the ACT. This is something where we need an ACT-specific solution. We find it hard to attract GPs. We can't get international GPs to move here because of our rating, and that needs to change.

There was no significant support for frontline community services. With 35 women murdered already this year, there is such huge disappointment that there wasn't more to combat men's violence. The $925 million to make the Leaving Violence Program is good, but more is needed. Here in the ACT, only 30 per cent of women who apply for it get that payment. We need more from the government.

I'm really concerned this is a budget that bakes in intergenerational inequity, because it fails to take on these hard challenges and deal with the root cause of so many of them. The scale of the government's response doesn't meet the magnitude of the multiple crises that we face. The housing and homelessness sector is heartbroken today. Despite the headline, the budget doesn't deliver the funding increase they need to build the social and affordable homes they stand ready to deliver.

Students have been massively short-changed. We saw an announced tweak in the indexation, but we're still charging students interest on fees that they've already repaid to the ATO, and we've left the Job-ready Graduates system in place.