Senate debates

Tuesday, 25 March 2025

Statements by Senators

Cost of Living, Rural and Regional Health Services

1:38 pm

Photo of Deborah O'NeillDeborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Tonight, our good friend the Treasurer, Mr Jim Chalmers, will hand down Labor's fourth budget and will reaffirm this government's commitment to responsible economic management and a fair go for all Australians. In stark contrast, this morning the shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor, showed he has no answer to Australia's concerns about cost of living. The only policies he's offered up are his free lunches for bosses and secret cuts that he believes Australians do not deserve to know about till after the election.

Peter Dutton and his secret cuts for Medicare, aged care, education and health do not deliver for the people of Australia. Particularly for the resilient and hardworking people who live in the communities of Parkes, Hume, Riverina, Farrer, Lyne and Calare, he's really got nothing to offer. Joining me in the chamber today is Dr Julie Cunningham, Labor's candidate for Calare, who I hope will be sitting on the Greens benches in a re-elected Labor government after the election.

In less than three years, Labor has delivered historic investment in regional New South Wales. In my duty electorates, that means an urgent care clinic in Albury—and one for Bathurst too if we are re-elected—and Medicare mental health centres in Wagga, and there's almost certainly one opening very soon in Young. It means $29.9 million for the Wagga Wagga mental health hub. It means $10.6 million for the Brewarrina PCYC Youth Hub and Indoor Sports Centre, $6.5 million towards the Emmaus dementia village in Port Macquarie and $4.1 million for the John Houston Memorial Olympic Pool in Hay. It means $1 million for Moree Secondary College, almost $1 million for new multipurpose courts at Wallamba Netball Club at Nabiac, $900,000 for Boggabilla Central School, $25,000 for Yandelora School in Narellan and $450,000 for Gilgandra High School. It means $2.5 million for dementia beds at the Apollo care centre in Wauchope, $5 million for Glenroi Heights Public School in Orange and $500,000 for Macarthur—

Photo of Helen PolleyHelen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator; your time has expired.

Photo of Deborah O'NeillDeborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

But I have—

Photo of Helen PolleyHelen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Senator O'Neill, your time has expired.

Opposition senators interjecting

Can I remind senators that interjections are disorderly.