Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last night's budget is a responsible budget that will help with the cost-of-living pressures on Australian families. It is about building Australia's future. Our budget builds on the progress we've made in the last three years in cleaning up the mess, reducing the debt and bringing inflation down. Incomes are rising, unemployment is low, interest rates are coming down, debt is down and growth is picking up. Under Labor, we have turned the corner.

We are delivering cost-of-living relief. They voted against it. We're strengthening and investing in Medicare. They opposed it. We're making it easier to buy or rent a home. They opposed it. We are investing in every stage of education because we believe in skilling up and educating our people. We are building a stronger economy, cleaning up the amazing amount of mess that we found when we took over the government benches. We know the biggest risk to having a secure job, to needing only a Medicare card to access a GP, to being able to go to TAFE and upskill. Those things and so much more will be put at risk if people elect Peter Dutton. The opposition say, 'We will cut, but we're not going to tell you what we'll cut until after the election, so just trust us.' The reality is that he will cut and the Australian people will pay.

We will not allow the Australian people to be brought down again by those opposite, who don't believe in Medicare and don't believe in skilling up the workforce, and who really aren't the managers of the economy they would have you believe. You need safe hands. You need the Albanese Labor government re-elected. (Time expired)