Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Albanese government is delivering stronger foundations for a better future. We are dealing with the pressing challenges of here and now while never losing sight of the future by investing $2 billion in social housing and reintroducing the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund; strengthening Medicare and helping Australians to save $118 million on their prescriptions; making child care cheaper for 1.2 million Australian families; funding fee-free TAFE places for 480,000 Australians; working with the states to deliver $3 billion of electricity bill relief to help shield over five million households and one million small businesses from the worst of the global energy price shocks, without adding to inflation; and backing real pay increases so that 2.7 million workers on awards receive a 5.75 per cent pay rise and 250,000 aged-care workers benefit from a historic 15 per cent pay rise.

Unemployment is now at a historic low of 3.5 per cent, with almost half a million more Australians in work compared to when we came to office. After a wasted decade under the Liberals, Labor is working for Australia every single day. Childcare subsidy increases are easing costs for 1.2 million families and reducing barriers to greater workforce participation. For a family earning $120,000 with one child in care, their childcare costs will be about $1,700 a year less than they would have otherwise been.

On 1 July, the National Anti-Corruption Commission commenced. On the same day we strengthened paid parental leave, with parental leave pay and dad-and-partner pay combining into a single 20-week scheme, benefiting 180,000 families per year. Again, on 1 July the Home Guarantee Scheme eligibility expanded, with 50,000 new places available, helping more Australians into their own home.

Again, on 1 July the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation's liability cap was increased by $2 billion to a total of $7.5 billion, supporting more lending to community housing providers for social and affordable housing projects. Again, on 1 July—there are so many things that start on this particular date—the interim 15 per cent pay rise for aged-care workers came into effect, with the Albanese government committing $11.3 billion to funding the rise. This means nurses can earn an extra $10,000 a year on the award wage, and some personal care workers can earn an extra $7,000 a year. From 1 July aged-care facilities will have a registered nurse on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week to improve care. Exemptions of up to 12 months will be provided for small facilities with 30 or fewer beds, particularly in rural and remote areas.

Also, from 1 July eligible New Zealand citizens who have lived in Australia for four or more years will be able apply for Australian citizenship. As a matter of interest, Senator Cadell, I am meeting the New Zealand trade minister in Adelaide next week to have further discussions on our economic relations, and then he is coming to the beautiful Clare Valley for a couple of nights to experience the wonderful, wonderful opportunities to taste South Australian wine, which I'm sure—

No, no antihistamines needed, but of course he will be very pleased that New Zealand citizens can receive citizenship and therefore vote in Australia. Again, on 1 July—you seem remarkably intrigued, Acting Deputy President O'Sullivan!

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Always, whenever you speak!

Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm trying not to go to sleep!

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very alert, please continue.

Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is a particularly obnoxious comment, Senator Brockman, and I think you should—

Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw.

Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Good on you, there we go. We will have to give you some explanation about how trade works in this country, too, so that you can—

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Farrell, I draw your attention back to the motion before us.

Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Again, on 1 July the Net Zero Economy Agency commenced to help workers, regional communities and investors transition to, engage with and invest in the net zero economy. From 1 July 11 Medicare urgent care clinics will be opening across the country. Also from 1 July all community pharmacies will be paid more for dispensing PBS medicines, giving the average metropolitan pharmacy more than $41,000 extra income per year. I can go on because there are so many more things that this government has done from the start of the new financial year. New rules have taken effect, which means that manufacturers of more than 2,900 brands of common medicines are required to hold a minimum of four to six months worth of stock onshore in Australia. Anybody who has had trouble getting access to some of those common medicines, particularly as they relate to diabetes, will know how important that change is. Again, from 1 July there have been changes to the petroleum resources rent tax to deliver a fairer return to communities from our natural resources. These are very important changes to those rules. There will be safeguard mechanism reforms to help Australian industries move to net zero. Again, from 1 July there's the Small Business Energy Incentive so that small and medium-sized businesses with a turnover of less than $50 million will be able to claim an extra 20 per cent deduction on spending that supports electrification and more efficient use of energy. Obviously, this is a very important step in the progress towards decarbonising our economy.

Again from 1 July, the temporary skilled migration income threshold has been increased from $53,900 to $70,000 to attract skilled migrants who can complement the skills of the Australian workforce. Anybody who visits particularly tourism places anywhere in the country knows just how important that will be to ensure that, for instance, chefs can come to Australia. There's now a higher threshold. The former government left us in a terrible situation with an inability to get a skilled workforce to try and recover from those terrible years under that government during COVID. We're doing something about it to encourage skilled migrants to come to Australia and earn more.

Under the Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement, UK passport holders will be able to apply for a working holiday-maker visa between the ages of 18 and 35, so that's a five-year increase from the current maximum to 30 years. Hopefully that will encourage young people from the United Kingdom who want to experience the wonderful lifestyle that Australia has, and it's a new opportunity for those of an older age and therefore a little bit more mature and perhaps with some extra skills that they can apply to the Australian economy. We welcome those people. You may recall the former government talked about getting the agreement, but, of course, it did nothing to actually implement it, so it was left to the incoming government, in particular the trade minister—

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The grown-ups.

Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, the grown-ups. It was left to the grown-ups to finish the job that the now opposition failed to do. Of course, that's been a wonderful development.

It's very much a part of the diversification strategy which this government has implemented to ensure that we're not solely dependent on one or two economies to keep our businesses thriving, which they are. Anybody who's been keeping an eye on the terms of trade will know that those terms of trade are higher and better for Australia than they have ever been at any time in my lifetime, and I've lived a lot longer than all of you. Those terms of trade are delivering. And, of course, that UK free trade agreement and all the associated benefits are adding to that contribution. In fact, I saw Gina Rinehart on the TV. Not only has she mineral interests; she also has cattle interests, and she was predicting at one stage that she might be able to deliver tens of thousands of tons of wonderful Australian beef into the UK market as a result of this new free trade agreement.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

All single-handedly delivered by you!

Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let's be honest about it. I wouldn't mind you claiming some credit for it had you been able to get the agreement through the parliament. But the hard work—

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When did it start?

Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It started when the UK government completed their side of the arrangement. I have to say, that did take longer than they would have liked, and it certainly took longer than we would have liked. In fact, I can tell you this, Senator Duniam: on the first day I was appointed to this job, I was invited by the British High Commissioner to come around for a chat about it. I committed the Australian government to complete this process, which the former government had failed to do, in the shortest possible time available under our legislation and do all of the things that needed to be done, and we did it. We did it in that time frame. Ultimately, the delay in starting the agreement ended up being on the other side of the world. You might recall that there was quite a bit of opposition within the UK to the agreement, so it took them a little bit longer to massage it through their processes. But it started, and, of course, we're now getting the benefit of all the things that flow from that agreement.

An opposition senator interjecting—

If you like, I can start talking about the India free trade agreement and your failure to get that through the processes that were required. We started both those processes—India and the UK—on the same day. We were fortunate that we were able to get the cooperation of the Indian government. I kept Minister Goyal briefed on where we were up to— (Time expired)

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What a delight it is to be able to make a contribution to a debate which has been made on the books of this chamber now for five months around the Albanese government and their broken promises. For the purpose of completeness, I will read out that motion in the time available to me. It says:

That the Senate notes the Albanese Government's broken promises to deliver cheaper power prices, cheaper mortgages, to not make any changes to super, as well as broken promises on medicines, country doctors, Medicare and mental health.

That was moved by our good friend and colleague Senator Ruston on 9 March this year. Often in this place, motions put down on one day lose their relevance down the track. In politics, as they say, a lot happens in a week. One week in politics is a long time. After five months, not only is this still relevant; it is more relevant, because there are more broken promises. The Australian people have been let down more than they were on 9 March this year, and that's why it is great to be able to make a contribution to this debate. It's those promises, quite clearly and succinctly outlined in this motion, that we should be focused on.

I'll give credit where credit is due, and I am pleased that Senator Farrell was able to outline the good work that he's done in the time that he's been trade minister. I will reject the characterisation that he applied to the way things were when he picked up. Anyone who thinks that a government can just wave a magic wand and suddenly have a free trade deal has to be kidding themselves. It's much same for anyone who thinks that the Albanese government, in the 15 months they have been in power, have been able to wave their magic wand and fix the Great Barrier Reef.

While we're on amazing embellishments and exaggerations and taking credit for things that have nothing to do with the government, it was amazing earlier this week to see the environment minister and the Prime Minister standing out there in the PM's courtyard saying, 'We've saved the reef,' after 15 months in this place. Just to put it on the record, I will remind this chamber that it was during the last time Labor were in power, in the year 2013, that the reef was about to go on the 'endangered' list. At that point in time, there was extreme underinvestment and, according to the Australian Institute of Marine Science, record low coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef. That was Labor's legacy back in 2013. It was then coalition government that invested, over the course of the next nine years, $3 billion in reef projects and activity to restore the reef. There was a range of legislative measures and regulatory arrangements to help land users minimise their impacts on the reef. We then found out from the same institute that told the world, shockingly, that reef coral cover was at a record low in 2012 under Labor, in the August 2022 that in it's 36 years of record keeping, the coral cover on the reef had never been higher. Guess who'd just left office? We had! But let's forget those facts. Let's forget the history and the context against which things like FTAs, reef health and coral cover originate, and let's just make it up and pretend the government has a magic wand.

If they did have this magic wand that I've been looking and that they've been talking about, then they would have been able to bring down power prices. I do want to talk about that promise that was made 97 times before the last election, and I believe 27 times after Russia invaded Ukraine illegally. That's 27 times after what they now claim is stopping them from bringing power prices down—they still made the promise—and it's only been referenced once since the election, by Senator Tim Ayres. I was grateful for him one day in this place to repeat the promise they'd made. But no-one else has done it. I look forward to the next government speaker, to see whether they will double-down and back in that promise about bringing down power prices by $275. Senator Sterle, the invitation is there, because there is a big difference between bringing down power prices by actually reducing the cost of electricity, whatever form of generation it comes from, and using taxpayers' money to help you pay your bill, which is exactly what's happening. We're using taxpayers' money to offset higher power bills. That is not lower power bills; that is taxpayers paying, through the government, their power bills. They're still high. None of the Labor policies that they've brought in since the election will go anywhere near reducing the cost of electricity.

It was great to hear the Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Farrell, in amongst the other things he talked about, talk about the safeguard mechanism, something we opposed because we knew it would do nothing to assist this government to deliver on its promises. We're all about helping the government deliver on its promises. The safeguard mechanism will stop them from delivering on their promise. The safeguard mechanism will not bring down power prices, will not actually deliver on economic growth, will not help country towns, will not keep jobs here, and I will come to housing policy bit later on, because I'm really interested in the benchmarks in the modelling around the HAFF, which I think we'll have a lot of time to talk about next week. But on the safeguard, and I acknowledge in the chamber probably one of my more patient Labor colleagues, Senator McAllister, who sat here very late into the night and early the next morning to take my questions and listen to the very well thought-through contributions of coalition senators on that abhorrent piece of legislation, which was rammed through this place in partnership with the biggest economic vandals in this nation, the Australian Greens. The Australian Greens are the party who the Australian Labor Party rely on for preferences to get elected right across this country, make no mistake. They protest so loudly. They say, 'You're partners.' Occasionally, they will identify, like we will, bad legislation that is bad for Australian families, bad for Australian businesses, and I tell you what, the HAFF is bad, and we'll come back to that.

But on the safeguard, cheaper transport? Couldn't be promised. People in Victoria didn't know if they were going to be paying more for train tickets as a result of the safeguard. The V/Line in Victoria was one of the big emitters caught up in the safeguard. Any concessions for users of transport under that arrangement? No. We went through a list of businesses that are going to be impacted. I met with one yesterday, in my office. In fact, it was representatives of a South Korean company, and they expressed in no uncertain terms their displeasure and their concern around what the Australian government has done with the safeguard mechanism. They saw it as a broken promise because it created sovereign risk, because Australia is now becoming an unattractive place to invest. If we don't have investment of that nature unlocking resources, creating jobs in regional communities, then, of course, we are going to see a reduction in economic activity and productivity. That drives up the cost of everything. When these businesses are faced with punitive measures and punitive regulatory arrangements, higher taxes in effect, as the safeguard mechanism is for the businesses that can't comply with Labor's arbitrary punitive safeguard mechanism, they will send their businesses offshore.

They talk about decarbonising. It's great language, but it doesn't help people pay their power bills. It never has and never will. They talk about the renewable transition. That's not going to help people pay their power bills. We need cheap, reliable, dispatchable baseload power. None of that is coming online. It's another broken promise.

The safeguard mechanism is driving us down this mad pathway to strangle our economy, and the upshot is that those businesses that provide economic activity, those sources of energy generation that Australian households and businesses rely on to be able to keep their houses warm in winter and their lights on at night and that hospitals use to keep the machines they operate with ticking over, aren't going to be able to compete here economically. We are pricing ourselves out of the market, and that is only going to be bad for our country—for jobs, for households and for their ability to deal with the cost-of-living crisis that the Australian Labor Party, along with their bedfellows, the Australian Greens, seem to be totally oblivious to.

I want to turn to something else, and that is the matter of forestry. A promise was made, and it's not referenced in this motion, but it is a broken promise nonetheless. In my home state of Tasmania we have a proud history of doing forestry well. I am disappointed that Senator Rice has left the chamber; I don't think she agrees with me on this point, but I still believe I'm right. In Australia, we do forestry better than anywhere else in the world. I have challenged the Australian Greens and members of the Labor Environment Action Network to tell me where in the world they do forestry better, and no-one has ever been able to tell me a single jurisdiction around the world where they do forestry better, be that native or plantation. And we've got to remember that the forestry industry isn't just the people who plant and manage the plantation or the native estate; it's also the contractors who go in and harvest it, the haulage contractors, who have massive financial commitments on their rigs. They're the people who depend on this sustainable, world-leading, science-based industry.

The Prime Minister made a promise during the election campaign about protecting native forestry—indeed, Labor's forestry policies largely mirrored ours—but the forest policy that they took to the last election was silent on what would happen in Victoria and what would happen in Western Australia. I think they had a sneaking suspicion that their Western Australian and Victorian counterparts would do what they ultimately did, which was to shut down these vibrant, sustainable industries—again, an attack on regional communities. And it removes a sovereign capability from our nation. I say to those people who defend that ridiculous set of decisions from those two governments: where do we get the timber from?

Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Have you actually seen the state of the forests in Western Australia?

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll take that interjection. Senator Pratt asked me if I have seen the state of the forests in Western Australia. Yes, I have. Have you seen the state of the forests in the Congo basin, Senator Pratt, where we rip our timber out of if we're not getting it out of Australian forests? I bet the answer to that question is no. The timber that comes out of those forests has tinges of modern human slavery attached to it. It destroys the environment. It results in huge acceleration of carbon emissions, but, hey, it's not happening in our backyard, so it doesn't matter. Not only are we offshoring the jobs through a broken promise of Labor governments—while this federal Labor government stands idly by, the former friend of the worker, and lets Labor state governments get away with economic carnage like this—but then they go and defend these decisions by saying, 'Have you seen the forests?' Yes, I have. It's not a pretty industry, but that doesn't mean it's environmentally destructive. You need to go and talk to scientists. You need to go and talk to the people in the industry who know what they're talking about, not people who operate on emotion and lack fact in their debate.

When we shut down this industry, we send it offshore. We send the jobs offshore. All of those people I talked about before, the contractors included, lose their jobs. The communities they're a part of lose their heart and soul—the footy club, the RSL, the school, the post office—as all of those amenities and the community itself evaporate. That is factored in nowhere in their thoughts, their policies or the decisions they make as they go about recklessly breaking promises.

Of course, when it comes to promises, I don't remember the Australian Labor Party promising at the last election that they'd fund a stadium in Tasmania, but they are. While doing so, of course, they're dudding—

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That was on Utopia!

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I love these interjections from Western Australian senators. Senator Sterle says that was on Utopia and can I tell you, yes, it is very utopian. It's very much a utopian project. That's the problem I have with this announcement they've made; it wasn't a promise but a bad decision. I'll tell you why it's bad. It's not because they're funding a stadium. It's because, in doing so, in putting $240 million of that finite resource of taxpayers' money on the table, they are duding Tasmanians by taking it out of our GST allocation. On multiple occasions, now, I have asked the Leader of the Government in the Senate. I have asked the—

Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave the GST alone, you Tasmanian!

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Federation is a beautiful thing! I asked the Leader of the Government in the Senate, who could give me no comfort. I asked the minister at the table during infrastructure estimates about whether she, as a Tasmanian senator, Senator Brown, has sought a commitment from the Treasurer to exempt our GST allocation. For those thousands, or tens of thousands, of Australians out there listening, GST is how a state like Tasmania pays for its health system, for its education system, in part for its roads and other amenities, essential services that a small state can't afford to pay. Thank God for horizontal fiscal equalisation. But the Australian Labor government, the Albanese Labor government, represented in Tasmania by Ms Julie Collins, the member for Franklin—a cabinet minister, who has a fair bit of say over what happens here—Senator Brown, Senator Bilyk, Senator Polley, Senator Urquhart, can do the right thing by the 560,000 people we represent in this place. They can ask the Treasurer to exempt that funding decision by this government from the GST. Do the right thing by the state, and, please, for heaven's sake, stop breaking promises you made to the Australian people, including your promise on power prices, which I look forward to hearing about now. (Time expired)

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As we enter into the final stages of our sitting week—and you can hear all the suitcases rolling down the hallway. I'm not pointing to anyone in particular, who will be back on Monday and making a lot of noise while they are here. But it's getting closer to aeroplane time, and they're long gone after question time. I couldn't let that one slip! We're still here. There are some times when you get a motion and you think, 'We can do all the theatrics and we can do all the hand movements and we can make all the jokes.' But then there are times when you actually have to clarify the record and put a few home truths on the table. I'm going to put a few home truths on the table.

I know this order was presented back on 9 March, as Senator Duniam did say, by Senator Ruston. I know how it works: they all get together on tactics, and someone says, 'Here's a great idea; let's run on this.' Then some poor bunny has to put their name to it. I've seen it all in opposition before. I get that. That's fine. It's no slight against Senator Ruston at all. But the motion does reference superannuation. It references medicines and it references Medicare as well. I just think, while all the frivolity is going on, let's just tell some truth, shall we? Rather than just try and waste a bit of time on a Thursday arvo while our mates are at the airport having a gin and tonic or something and while we're still here working. The opposition, seriously, have got more front than Myers when they come in here and start lecturing the Australian Labor Party on the values of superannuation. I mean, I love this, I have to say. There are some in your ranks, seriously, that believe that superannuation shouldn't even exist. We know who they are. You know who they are. We've seen the language. We've seen some of the terrible, toxic wording around superannuation and what they think about it. But let's talk about change, shall we? Let's have a go at this.

I want to quote an article by Peter Hartcher. It was titled, 'Labor's on a roll. No wonder the Libs are flat out'. This was from March of this year, where he pointed out, 'The Liberals'—not even they want to acknowledge the other mob who aren't in the room here, because they've got the hayseed in the suitcase out after question time and are gone too, but don't forget the Nats; they're in a coalition. But everyone likes to put on the Libs because they spend more time blueing with each other, but—

The Liberals' changes to super in 2016 were much broader. This week's decision—

And this is referring to March of this year.

… marked the Labor government as being cautious and incremental. Even responsible. The point of the change was to save $2 billion a year to help repair the yawning deficit left behind by the Liberals.

That's from Mr Hartcher. It can't be any clearer than that. Seriously, for those out there listening, we're still fixing up the mess that you left behind for us. We had a decade of waste and mismanagement—or nearly a decade; thank God we were a couple of months short of it! There were nearly ten years of waste and mismanagement.

Again, the opposition has the gall to come in and lecture us about alleged 'broken promises'. Everyone knows that the Liberals have always hated superannuation. We know that. the Canberra Times published a story in November 2019, with the headline: 'Lib Senator says superannuation a cancer'. That is what it says. I know who the senator was. He isn't here at the moment. He's probably between here, the airport and his home town in Queensland. I'm not going to name Senator Rennick! He'll work it out for himself. But we've got a fair idea who it is. Now, the Sydney Morning Herald

Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Sterle, you're getting very close to disparaging senators when they're not here, so—

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Chair, with the greatest respect? I'll send you an email, Senator Rennick! Seriously, Chair, come on. Disparaging? That is what he said, in the paper. I'll give you a copy of it. Anyway, let's move on shall we?

Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Sterle, please withdraw.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Withdraw what?

Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There was a reference to me, as well.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Look, seriously. If the glass jaw is that fragile, I'll withdraw. Okay, let's move—

Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Sterle, you do not then disparage further. You withdraw and—

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Okay. I withdraw! I withdraw! I withdraw! It's withdrawn. It's gone. I'll stop telling the truth. No I won't! And speaking of the former Liberal government, the Guardian in 2019 stated that 'this reckless government'—that's your mob over there—'are determined to damage superannuation'.

More recently, we saw calls from former government MPs to bench their own legislative timetable to increase the superannuation guarantee charge from 9.5 per cent to 12 per cent by 2024. I'm not making this up. It's all there for everyone to see. Then came the calls led by—you will remember—former Liberal MP Tim Wilson to allow people to raid their super for a housing deposit, the result of which would have seen a soaring price bubble in the market. Then came the pandemic, and the government's shocking decision to allow workers facing economic hardship to pilfer their super savings to survive the recession. Richard Wood, a senior journalist with Nine News, reported in an article published on 16 March that more than 2.6 million Australians drained their superannuation accounts at the height of the pandemic, with, unfortunately some spending the money on takeaway food, gambling and buying furniture.

The Brisbane Times reported that a study released in March showed that people during the health emergency accessed $38 billion under the former Morrison government's early release stimulus program. The study said that those people who use the scheme have deprived themselves of $120,000 in retirement savings. The then Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, talked up the policy, saying it was 'the people's money, and this is the time they need it most.' Researchers from the Australian National University and George Washington University and Harvard University in the US looked at what people spent their super money on and the occupations of those who used the scheme. They found the accounts of up to one-quarter of applicants were emptied within days of the scheme's launch. From those who accessed the early super scheme, 75 per cent withdrew the maximum $10,000 available to them. Gambling, they say, was one of the biggest expenditures for the withdrawn money. Sadly, they said it was with an average spend per person of $293—that's the average spend per person. They are quite alarming numbers. Spending included furniture and office equipment, supermarkets, restaurant or takeaway meals, and at department stores. The researchers warned accessing and spending super money had a huge impact on retirement nest eggs, and we can understand that is the case. People who used the scheme slashed their super balance by an average of 51 per cent.

Let's talk about medicines and about urgent care clinics. I want to turn to what the government is doing to deliver cheaper medicines, increased bulk-billing and our election commitment on urgent care clinics. Don't believe any of the misinformation and scare campaigns pushed out by those opposite. The government has already delivered major changes that are bringing down the price of medicines.

In July last year, we delivered a 25 per cent cut to the safety net, which has reduced the cost of medicines for pensioners. In September last year, we cut the price of 2,000 brands of medicines, which has put $130 million into the pockets of hard-working Australians—$130 million! On 1 July this year, we delivered the biggest cut to the price of medicines in the 75-year history of the PBS—yes, the biggest cut ever. Starting on 1 September this year, Australians with a chronic health condition—sadly, there are too many—will benefit when 100 common medicines listed on the PBS will shift to 60-day dispensing. This will be the first phase of changing the prescription dispensing arrangements for 300 commonly used medicines. This change will deliver cheaper medicines for patients and make it easier for people to get an appointment with their local GP. Every year, nearly a million Australians are forced to delay taking go without medicines that they need for their health—think about that. The shift to 60-day dispensing for many of the medicines needed to treat chronic conditions will halve the cost of those medicines for millions of Australians, importantly, including our pensioners.

Labor proudly took a commitment to deliver 50 urgent care clinics to the last election. I have good news for everybody: the May budget contained funding to deliver not 50 but 58 urgent care clinics. Not only are we delivering on our promises and election commitments but we are over-delivering. Sixteen of these clinics are already up and running. They are in Albury, Wentworthville, Randwick, Wollongong, Launceston, Sunbury, Shepparton, Geelong, Heidelberg, Ballarat, Werribee, Narre Warren, Prahran, Frankston, Perth City and Rockingham. The urgent care clinics are essential to delivering the care that people need when they need it. Urgent care clinics will be bulk-billed, operate seven days a week for extended hours and are there to treat non-life-threatening emergencies. How good is that?

Labor's cheaper medicines and urgent care clinics are already making a real difference. These significant changes, along with the indexation of Medicare, the tripling of bulk-billing from November and the strengthening Medicare grants will be a real shot in the arm for general practice, which, as we all know, is the backbone of our health system.

Concession cardholders will continue to be bulk-billed, medicines will be cheaper, and Australians will be able to get emergency health care they need and, guess what? It will be bulk-billed. These are all proudly brought to you by the Albanese Labor government.

Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Sterle, you really belled the cat there. You are one of my favourite senators on the other side but you really belled the cat there when you said, 'I will start telling the truth.' That's all we are asking for, Senator Sterle; we are just asking the government to start telling the truth. It would be really nice. I'm not going to focus on the litany of broken promises we have seen from the Albanese government in its first year and a bit. I will just focus on a couple because they are the ones I think are most important. They are the mistruths we hear repeated in this place day after day, question time after question time, speech after speech, from those opposite.

The one that is most egregious because it's just completely denied by reality is about wage rises. Real wages increased under the former coalition government; real wages went up. The Labor government, coming into office from opposition, promised they would see real wage rises and, instead, they have overseen the greatest declines in real wage rises, certainly in my lifetime and probably longer than that. Real wages plummeted thanks to the inflation and cost-of-living crisis that has impacted Australia over the last 12 months. Everybody out there knows that. They know that, whilst their pay packet may have been going up, it has not been going up fast enough to combat the inflation rises that have been forced on them and exacerbated by the poor handling of the economy by this Labor government. That is the first one. It's a clear broken promise of this Labor government. They promised real wage rises. They have delivered real wage declines, and they know it. They know it.

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's just not true.

Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Real wages rose under the previous coalition government except for the fact that something happened during that period, Senator Ayres—this thing called a global pandemic. Real wages rose.

I will table the document. I don't have it with me right now, Senator Ayres, but I'll make sure I get a copy sent to your office.

The other one that is really important to talk about because the myth is told in this place again and again by those opposite—they constantly attack us for not supporting their gas plan. We voted against it. Yes, I'm proud. I say it every day: I'm very happy to be on the record as having voted against your gas and energy price plan because it was a terrible plan. It was a terrible plan that deterred investment in the Australian economy. It would have done almost nothing in terms of power prices in the short term. And it would have forced up power prices in the long term by reducing investment in the production of supply.

The only way of putting long-term downward pressure on gas prices is to see new generation enter the marketplace. Instead of doing that, you have deterred foreign investment into the gas market. You've caused one of our largest trading partners, our most significant geopolitical ally, Japan, to look to other nations for their gas supply because they do not trust us any more. They have said this publicly. They no longer trust Australia to be a regular supplier of their gas needs, even though they and their corporations have invested billions of dollars over decades, particularly into my home state of Western Australia. Your gas and energy policy is built on the back of the $275 power cut promise, which just disappeared. It didn't see the light of day after you were elected. That was a number that you could not speak its name: $275 could not come out of the mouth of any minister in this place for months and months.

As I say, it's Thursday afternoon, so I'm not going to go to all of these broken promises. But, in the words of Senator Sterle, it would just be nice if the Labor government started to tell the truth.

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I just want to put on the record the 11 government actions on the cost of living. To tell the truth I think there was a bit of misrepresentation in the last comment by Senator Slade Brockman of the contribution from my colleague Senator Glenn Sterle. The Australian people will be making up their minds about whether they are getting support for the cost of living. There are millions of Australians who are getting that support. I want to put this on the record.

Since coming to government, to take action in response to the very real and challenging cost-of-living reality that is facing Australians, this government has successfully advocated for wage increases for minimum and award wage workers. We're funding pay rises for aged-care workers. We're delivering cheaper child care. We're delivering cheaper medicines. We're tripling the bulk-billing incentives to support 11.6 million Australians, including children, pensioners and other concession cardholders, to access a GP with no out-of-pocket costs. We're delivering fee-free TAFE and more university places to hundreds of thousands of Australians. We're expanding paid parental leave. We're building more affordable homes, including through the National Housing Accord—but we could do even more if we could get the Greens, Liberals and Nationals out of a terrible anti-housing coalition, to allow us to get on with that job further. We've brought in the new pensioner work bonus so older Australians can keep more of what they earn without it affecting their pension. We're increasing the base rate for eligible recipients of JobSeeker, Austudy, youth allowance and other working-age payments. We're increasing the maximum rate of Commonwealth rent assistance by 15 per cent—its biggest increase in over three decades. We're providing electricity bill rebates to more than five million households and one million small businesses, in partnership with the state and territory governments—and those opposite, the former government who now sit on the opposition benches, opposed that measure at every single turn, and they continue to come in here and try to stitch together a narrative of failure, hopelessness and fear which so characterised their time in office.

I want to draw the chamber's attention to the fact that behind Senator Ruston's blatant falsehoods in her motion there lies a deep misunderstanding of economic fundamentals and the improvements that have already become evident from the Albanese government's prudent policymaking. With such economic ignorance, it's no wonder the LNP were unable to achieve a surplus in their nine torrid years of government. There is a war in the Ukraine, a slowing world economy and a profiteering cartel of fossil fuel producers. In the face of these global headwinds, the Albanese government is delivering on a very clear, well calibrated, carefully considered and carefully implemented three-point plan—no panic, no drama, just doing the job of government properly, which is something so many Australians have not seen in over a decade.

Firstly, this government has recorded a budget surplus of $20 billion, and we've banked those savings, for Australians, to take pressure off inflation. This triumph is evidence of sound economic judgement. It's a sign of prudent decision-making and a stop to the waste and rorts that plagued the previous LNP government.

Secondly, we've targeted cost of living. As I indicated, it was promised and it's been delivered by the Albanese government, despite the whingeing and complaining and deriding that we see in speech after speech by those who would propagate continued fear about the future of this country. Single parents all over Australia are struggling, and increasing the cut-off for the age of the youngest child for the single parenting payment shows that this government cares.

Thirdly, we are investing in the capacity of the economy to ensure our prosperity is safeguarded for posterity. The Albanese government's investment into cheaper child care allows more mothers to rejoin the workforce quicker, boosts family incomes and levels the gender disparity which still exists in this nation, while taking pressure off the cost of living for young families. Speaking as a mother of three—and I know there are parents here in the chamber with me—the challenges of those early years are very significant both financially and emotionally. Any support we can give to young families is going to make a difference for the better for this nation.

But the Albanese government is not stopping there. Later, in September, there will also be the biggest increase to Commonwealth rent assistance in 30 years and a $40 per fortnight increase for those on JobSeeker, youth allowance and other payments, on top of the regular twice-yearly indexation. That is cost-of-living assistance for Australians who need it. More than five million eligible households and one million eligible small businesses are going to receive that energy bill relief. With those two elements alone, we're talking about help for millions of Australians. And we will be making medicines even cheaper for many more millions of Australians on 1 September by introducing changes which will require fewer visits to the GP and pharmacist. These things are a result of careful economic management, and the capacity to do them gives evidence of the Albanese government's sound economic management skills and clear eye to addressing the cost-of-living pressures that are being felt by Australians now. We're doing it in a responsible way.

The latest consumer price index, which was released on 26 July, indicated an increase of six per cent over the year to the June quarter. We don't want the numbers to stay that high, but they are on their way down. You'd think there'd be some joy about that for others in this chamber. But, no, they come in and they think it's a cause for constant comment in the most negative way. The reality is that the CPI is on its way down from a peak of 7.8 per cent over the year to the December quarter last year. We know that inflation increased by 0.8 per cent over the most recent quarter, and that's less than half the quarterly peak of 2.1 per cent that was posted in the March quarter of 2022 before the election.

Even with the welcome easing of inflation, we know that households and small businesses remain under the pump. There was relief when the independent determiner of interest rates, the RBA, kept those rates on hold. People took a deep breath and gave a sigh of relief. That's only going to be able to continue to hold and then decrease if this government acts in an economically responsible way with targeted, careful cost-of-living support for people.

I think it would be an edifying exercise for Senator Ruston and those on the opposite side if I have a bit of a look for you at some of the global comparisons. In the G7, headline inflation in Germany is higher than Australia's, at 6.4 per cent. In Italy it's 6.4 per cent and in the United Kingdom it's 7.9 per cent. In Australia it's six per cent, which is still too high, but it's on its way down. We should be building confidence in our country, not listening to the soul-destroying, nation-smashing tirades from those opposite. For core inflation, the UK is higher than Australia, at 6.9 per cent, and Germany is equal to Australia at 5.8 per cent. Australia's headline inflation peaked lower and later than most of the major advanced economies. Given it peaked later, it may take a little bit more time to moderate it back to target. We are currently around the middle for inflation, compared to the major advanced economies.

I'd like to remind the chamber that the unemployment rate is at historically low levels not seen in this country for decades. That means more Australians are working now and fewer are unemployed. It's a great thing to have a job. It's no small feat for the government to tackle inflation and bank a budget surplus, all while making sure that employment in Australia remains strong and that the country's employment opportunities continue to grow through investment in education. Critically, those fee-free TAFE places are giving people who couldn't get any training or afford any training the chance to retrain and rejoin the workforce.

The Liberals and Nationals don't even attempt to care about the plight of the workers in this country. Not engaging meaningfully in this debate is evident in so many of the contributions that we hear. And why should we expect anything else? If the chamber were to cast its mind back just a few short years ago, it was the Morrison government's stated policy to ensure that real wage growth was intentionally depressed. It was the Morrison government's policy to ensure that no new homes were built in this country. That's what they did. They kept wages low and stopped building and investing in any housing.

That has changed, with the good decision of the Australian people to change the government and bring in the Albanese government. The Albanese government has a strong agenda and has already hit the ground running. Those opposite seek to stifle that clear election mandate—and that's apparent, sadly, too often here in this chamber—frustrating the will of the Australian people who made it very clear they want change, they need change and they want vision, hope and opportunity, not miserly whingeing and negativity. The Housing Australia Future Fund is smart. It's a responsible and meaningful proposal that will make a dramatic impact on the lives of many Australians, and I urge senators in this place to get on board and get on with the vision for building in this country—building consensus, building hope and building houses.

The government should be building homes for those most in need, increasing supply in the market and making housing in this country more affordable. The market has failed, and it couldn't have failed any worse than how it's failed in regional, rural and remote Australia. It's an absolute disaster there. If you go to places like Elcho Island, you see children who have rheumatic fever because there's insufficient housing and they are living in appalling conditions that are worse than some in the Third World. That is what's going on. We need investment in housing, and the Albanese government is doing it. The independence brought by the security and pride of being able to call a home yours is something that the government believes more Australians should experience.

When a green-blue 'no-alition' of the Liberal and National parties and the Greens join together to try and block sensible housing policy, everybody knows this means trouble. Both the coalition and the Greens understand that if the Housing Australia Future Fund were to become law then they would lose one more thing to pointlessly attack the government on. The green-blue 'no-alition' are going to try and attack the Albanese government on not building enough homes, all the while attempting to block the government from doing that very thing. You can't have your cake and eat it too. We need homes. We need to build them. Get on board.

Further, on the cost of living, I want to talk about who this economy is built for. For too long we've allowed the narrative to dominate in public places that the economy must only work for consumers and investors. I think it should be an economy that delivers for workers, not the other way around. That's why this latest tranche of industrial relations reforms is so important. Casual workers who work the same job—the same shift for the same boss—for long periods of time deserve security. Great small businesses know this. They deeply understand this, and they make sure they look after the powerful asset which is their workforce. But, sadly, there are some malign players, and that's why we need legislation to make sure that Australians who work the same shifts in the same jobs for the same bosses have some protection. Flexibility is a two-way street. Businesses do deserve flexibility, but so do workers. Long-term casual workers deserve to be able to become permanent so they can take a day off when their child is sick and not worry about the rent. They deserve to be able to take some time off when, God forbid, they need to attend a funeral, without worrying if they can still buy their own medicines.

The cost of living in Australia is a challenge. The Albanese Labor government absolutely understands that. We're focused. We're working hard to solve the complex problems the Australian public face, and we're not afraid to introduce new ideas, innovative methods and problem-solving to deliver that. We are delivering on our promises. We will stand with the Australian people.

Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unfortunately, I don't have the full 15 minutes after ceding some ground to Senator O'Neill, but, listening to both Senator O'Neill and Senator Sterle, I'd suggest that Australians should be thanking the ALP. If you listen to them, apparently Australians have never had it so good. 'Cost-of-living crisis? What are you talking about? We've fixed it! It's all done! Everyone is better off.' I put the call out again—I've done it before; I'm still waiting to hear from someone—can anyone who is better off, who can, hand on heart, say, 'I'm better off than I was 15 months ago,' please tell me. I want to know someone whose mortgage has gone down. I want to know someone whose power price has gone down. I want to know someone whose grocery bills have gone down. I want to know someone whose wages have kept up with the increased cost-of-living pressures. But, of course, those people don't exist.

I really don't have a lot of time, and I'm not one to do this, but I want to go through some of the points that Senator O'Neill made, because they are just farcical. On rent assistance, she mentioned 'the biggest increase in 30 years'. I'll tell you why: it was the biggest increase, in line with inflation. That's why it's a big increase—it's directly linked to inflation.

On cheaper child care, go and talk to someone who is trying to get a child into child care. There are no spots. You can't say it's cheaper child care if you can't get your kid in. And then what has happened is childcare centres have just put their fees up. So cheaper child care is just a complete and utter fallacy. All that's happened is that taxpayers are funding out more to childcare providers. There are no extra spots and parents are still paying the exact same price, if not more.

After announced increases in bulk-billing, the next day doctors across the country were in a series of newspaper saying, 'We welcome the increase in the Medicare rebate, but we are certainly not going to accept that as our entire fee; we still will not be bulk-billing.' So that was a furphy.

What about cheaper medicines? If you can go and get two months worth of medicines the medicines actually cost the same. So if you have a script that is $20 a month and all of a sudden you can access two months it's still $20 a month. What changes is the dispensing fee that impacts the pharmacy. So when they say, 'Isn't it good that you don't have to go the pharmacy so often?' the hilarious thing about that is that that's going to close down a heap of pharmacies and so people will probably have to go further when they do have to go to the pharmacy. We know that some of the doctors operate as a pseudo union. They're not writing the scripts for longer. So you can have the medicines apparently because your condition is stable for a longer period, but the GPs won't write the script for longer periods, even though they are saying you are stable, because they want to click that Medicare ticket but won't bulk-bill those people who are having to still go to the doctor.

On mental health, the government has cut the services in half. The government cut the 20 services that could be accessed per year to 10 in record speed as we came out of a pandemic that is internationally recognised to have caused significant mental health harm across the world to many, many societies but particularly to our younger members. So what did this government do? As soon as they get in, they absolutely decimated mental health.

I also just listened to Senator O'Neill speaking to us about young families. I have children. I don't know; would you call them middle-aged now they are teenagers? They are at that midway point. They are not superyoung anymore. I had lunch with another autism mum this week. We quite often talk about the challenges we face and, as our boys are growing up, how it looks. The new IR laws that are being proposed are actually going to decimate an already superthin disability market by making it absolutely impossible to navigate for a number of platforms, a number of providers, but particularly families of a child with a disability. These are going to affect how they can negotiate with their own therapist on how it's going work. Now they are going to be told that they have to pay at the top, possibly, of the NDIS price guide, removing the flexibility, removing the choice and control principles of the NDIS and, in fact, adding to increased pressures on the NDIS funding. So if you are a young family with a kid with a disability, the IR reforms are about to make your life a whole lot harder.

Then we keep hearing references to a 'surplus'. You know what the surplus is due to? It is due to the resources sector. So the government might want to say a big old thankyou to coal and those coalminers that generate jobs and economic activity and actually form a big part of those free trade agreements that Senator Farrell was so keen to talk about. People love our coal. They also love our gas. The resources sector is doing so well it has delivered a surplus. Again, it's not due to anything the government did.

It's like the Great Barrier Reef. We were told by those opposite when they were in opposition that the Barrier Reef would never come to again, that it was dead, decimated, being destroyed and all finished. Then we spent $1.2 billion and actually invested in the reef over the nine years we were in government and now it's regenerated. Coral takes a little bit longer than 15 months to grow. You wouldn't know that if you listened to those on the other side.

We know that $275 is the number that shall not speak its name. It was promised 97 times by the Prime Minister. But the new word that shall not be spoken is 'treaty'. Is this just another broken promise by this government to the people that it said it was all about? It was about the Voice, treaty and truth-telling—but now the Prime Minister's using code and sneaking his way out of it and no-one will say the word. It's absolutely disgusting behaviour by a disgusting government.

Senator O'Neill just said that they hit the ground running. I'm sure there are plenty of Australians that own businesses that can't pay their bills and can't pay their mortgages that are looking at increasing costs everywhere they go and having problems every day while being lectured by this government that they have never had it so good are hoping not only that they hit the ground running next election but that they run right back out the door so the grown-ups can get back in charge and stop this absolute destruction of the Australian economy and Australian community from absolutely appalling and pathetic behaviour.

Debate interrupted.