Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We've got half an hour this evening to discuss the latest proposal of the Greens. I'm not sure you would call it a policy, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one confused here, because, while it's pretty consistent for the Greens to be going after the billionaires on tax—I get them doing that—aren't they lining up with them on electoral reform? There's a genuine matter of urgency to get the billionaires out of our electoral system, which we could be debating today. So I'm not sure. The Greens are the billionaires' besties one day; they're the bad guys the next. 'Frenemies' might be the best way to describe the relationship.

But, on the serious matters contained within the motion, the Albanese Labor government has been delivering cost-of-living relief, and it's the Albanese Labor government that has been ensuring multinationals pay their fair share of tax—two things we do because they're consistent with Labor values, with the values of every Labor member on this side, with the values of a Labor Prime Minister and with the values of a Labor government who has been elected to govern. Under our government, we've passed legislation to set a global minimum tax and a domestic minimum tax for multinational enterprise groups with an annual global revenue of at least $1.2 billion from January 2024. We've worked with our partners in the OECD to coordinate this approach for a fairer domestic and international tax system because we believe that multinationals making a profit in Australia should be paying tax on those profits.

And, of course, cost of living remains our focus. It's our focus in this chamber and the other chamber, and it's the focus of every single minister in our government, because it's the focus of the Australian people at the moment. It is our focus particularly in health. You can see that with the measures we've taken recently to triple the bulk-billing incentive, which is the largest ever investment in bulk-billing in the history of Medicare. And, because of that, we've reversed the decline in bulk-billing. I will remained the Senate why bulk-billing was in decline and freefall. It was because the former health minister, Mr Peter Dutton, froze the Medicare rebate, which started this freefall, and he claimed at the time there were too many free Medicare services.

We're also as a government investing significantly in Medicare urgent care clinics across the country, including six in my home state of South Australia; 1.1 million Australians know the value of these clinics, just how important they are and how valuable they've been when they've visited them. They've got treatment for conditions and injuries which are urgent but not life threatening. This is taking pressure off our hospitals and getting more people treatment sooner. We're also working tirelessly to bring down the cost of medicines for the Australian public, freezing the maximum cost of PBS prescriptions to $31.60 and making nearly 200 medicines available for 60-day prescriptions.

On the weekend we announced the largest ever investment in women's health: half-a-billion dollars, including the first PBS listing for new oral contraceptive pills in more than 30 years with Yaz and Yasmin finally being listed on the PBS, and the first PBS listing for new menopausal hormone therapies in over 20 years. This will save hundreds of dollars a year for more than 200,000 women. It also includes larger Medicare payments and more bulk-billing for costs women experience—the tax on womanhood in our medical system—for IUDs and birth control implants. Around 300,000 women will save up to $400 in out-of-pocket costs on these items. These measures come into effect immediately—a real cost-of-living measure making a real difference in the lives of Australian women, building on our work on cheaper medicines, Medicare and the development of urgent care clinics.

Our work also continues as we deliver cheaper child care across the country. We're expanding access to the single parent payment,. We have boosted paid parental leave, increased income support, delivered free TAFE and are fully funding public schools, including a massive investment in my home state of South Australia to fix the black hole left by the former Liberal government when they gutted those school funding agreements. We're investing $32 billion in our Homes for Australia Plan to build 1.2 million homes by the end of the decade. We're providing energy bill relief directly to families, and we have delivered a tax cut to every single Australian taxpayer.

I joined the Labor Party because I believe in the power of good public policy delivered through government to deliver good outcomes for people. These things have happened because there's a Labor government—a Labor government led by a Labor Prime Minister implementing Labor values through meaningful reforms which help with the cost of living and have a positive impact on people's lives.