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

MARIELLE SMITH () (): The parliament is a unique institution, full of its own quirks, standing orders and ways of doing things. When children come and visit us, they go to the Parliamentary Education Office and learn about what's being done. Sometimes, even as a senator, the work we do can be a bit hard to follow. Things move pretty quickly. Sometimes you don't always know how the standing orders work and what's happening. So I thought it would be helpful to just draw the opposition's attention to something which did happen a few weeks ago which they may have missed. It's called a federal budget. It happens about once a year, normally in May. When they're handed down by the Labor Party, they're normally pretty good and worth tuning in to. It's the first sitting week back, actually, since the federal budget was handed down. You wouldn't necessarily know it, so I wanted to just remind you about that interesting little part of our work program here in the Senate, and I'll tell you what's in it. It's a Labor one, which means it's good.

We're tripling the bulk-billing incentive and halving the cost of medicine. There is $2 billion for hospitals in South Australia, $500 in energy bill belief for 423,000 households in South Australia and a 15 per cent pay increase for aged-care workers.

I think Senator Hughes wants some more tips! I'll tell you more about the budget. It's a really good event. We're increasing income support rates, and there is one of the biggest reforms to rent assistance in decades. There are 13,000 fee-free TAFE places in South Australia and another 300,000 on the way nationally. There is $1 billion for infrastructure, and 270,000 small businesses in SA are benefiting from our reforms. There is also more affordable early learning for 85,000 families around South Australia. The budget is a really interesting part of the work we do here. I encourage you to tune in, especially when it's a Labor budget delivering for South Australians. I'm super proud of it. School kids, that's something to get your head around too.