Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We know that Australians are doing it tough. The cost-of-living pressures have been mounting for years, and this is not a crisis that has suddenly emerged. It didn't just erupt in the last five minutes, in the last year or even in the last two years. This is something that has been building, and our government's No. 1 priority is easing the cost-of-living pressures. The coalition's so-called policies to address the cost-of-living crisis fall short. The report released by Senator Hume as part of the Cost of Living Select Committee was woefully disappointing. At best, it was tinkering around the edges but had nothing brave or bold contained in it. Our budget, handed down last night, does.

First, let's talk about tax cuts. From 1 July, every Australian taxpayer will get a tax cut. Now, that is going to actually make a fundamental, meaningful difference to the cost-of-living pressures that people are facing. When global energy prices soared, we took urgent action. We had our energy price relief plan which targeted relief to households and small businesses, placed a cap on coal and gas—directly lowering the wholesale energy prices—while consumer rebates helped more than five million households and one million small businesses. We're continuing this relief, and our announcement last night was that every Australian household will get $300 off their energy bill this year. Our transition to renewable energy is also lowering power prices, with record generation from grid-scale renewables and rooftop solar, contributing to this really positive trend.

In the realm of housing, we're working to relieve the current pressure Australians are under, while also putting in place measures that are going to set us up for the future. Last night we announced the first consecutive increase to rent assistance in more than 30 years—more help for more Australians struggling to pay the bills. Our Help to Buy Scheme is levelling up the playing field for first home buyers. The fact is, we need more homes, more quickly and in more parts of the country. This is, without a doubt, connected deeply to the neglect—the wilful and disgraceful neglect—from the previous coalition government when it came to the future of housing in this country. We have an ambitious goal to build 1.2 million homes by the end of the decade, and we are putting in place the things we need to achieve that right now. We are delivering the biggest investment in social housing in more than a decade, to help us reduce homelessness. We're investing in fee-free TAFE and in VET places to ensure that we have the workforce to deliver these homes, because we've seen our education systems decline significantly over a disgraceful decade of the previous government. We're also boosting construction of rental housing through tax incentives and the build-to-rent sector.

A major focus of our government has been on strengthening Medicare, reversing another area where there has been—you guessed it—a decade of neglect. Last year we tripled the bulk-billing incentive—the largest single investment into Medicare, ever—and since November there have a been over 954,000 additional bulk-billed GP visits. Australians now benefit from cheaper medicines through changes to the PBS, and 60-day dispensing. More than 27 million cheaper scripts have now been dispensed, saving Australians over $342 million. Now, we are freezing the maximum cost of the PBS medicines and adding more medicines to the PBS. This year and next year, no Australian will pay more than $31.60 for a prescription on the PBS, and no pensioner or concession card holder will pay more than $7.70 for the next five years. These are all areas where we've seen disgraceful neglect over a decade. These systems do not crumble overnight. They have crumbled over a decade of neglect, and those opposite should be ashamed. I commend the budget from last night, which is giving spectacular progress— (Time expired)