MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Senator DOLEGA (Tasmania) (17:02): I'd like to thank Senator O'Sullivan for the opportunity to rise and talk about our promises as well as about transparency. The Labor government are really proud of our achievements and delivering on the promises that we made to the Australian people and that we took to the election. We're delivering on our promises with unprecedented speed, dedication and, might I say, a great sense of enthusiasm to deliver for the Australian people.

Instead of fighting with each other, we're fighting for all Australians and ensuring that they have an honest, reliable government that shows up for its people, not just today but every day. Let's have a look at what we've been delivering as far as what we promised to the Australian people. We promised that we'd introduce game-changing legislation ensuring that a PBS prescription will cost no more than $25 from January next year.

Building on that, we have introduced world-leading legislation to improve women's health, underpinned by a massive $790 million investment, and, since the beginning of the year, this has benefited over 500,000 Australian women and saved women $41 million. That's because, unlike those opposite, we actually have women at the table, shaping and driving our legislative agenda.

We're delivering a record investment in Medicare, including tripling the bulk-billing incentive from this Saturday 1 November, which happens to be my dad's birthday. We're also delivering more Medicare urgent care clinics, as we promised the people of Australia, particularly the three new ones in Tassie—in Burnie, Sorell and Kingston. We're delivering on our promise of tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer, unlike those opposite, who went to the last election promising higher taxes.

We're delivering on our promise to achieve net zero with real climate action. We've got an ambitious and achievable emissions reduction target, and I'm so proud that Tassie can lead the way to power the nation through innovations like Marinus Link. We're delivering on our promise of growing real wages.

We're putting downward pressure on inflation and putting more money into Australian workers' pockets, which is in stark contrast to those opposite, who had wage suppression as a deliberate function of their economic policy. We're delivering on our promises of improved workplace relations and workers rights, including our recent delivery of our promise to secure penalty rates.

What do those opposite do when they are in power? They actively seek to erode workers rights, to satisfy their mates in big business and to help line their pockets. We're delivering on the benefits of a fibre based national broadband network, fixing the copper mess left behind by those opposite.

Households and businesses can now harness the speeds of up to two gigabits per second, creating massive opportunities. We're delivering on this at record pace, and we're doing it because Australians can't afford delays because they're still paying for nine years of delays from a coalition government defined by broken promises, rorts, instability, waste and self-interest.

Let's also not forget that, under the coalition, Australia was rapidly sliding down Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index. The Morrison government was quite literally the most corrupt government in history, and already the Albanese government has lifted Australia's standing from 18th up to 10th. Australians deserve a transparent, accountable and honest government, and it may be a shock to those opposite, but freedom and transparency are vital features of our democracy.

That's why we have delivered the National Anti-Corruption Commission. We've strengthened the ministerial code of conduct. We're strengthening protection for whistleblowers.

We've increased funding for the ANAO, which has obviously been talked about quite a bit today in the chamber. We've restored transparency to the AAT appointments and established the ART. We've reinstated the standalone Privacy Commissioner and FOI Commissioner.

The former coalition government couldn't have been more dishonest if they had tried. They completely disregarded our democracy when Scott Morrison had himself secretly appointed to five ministerial positions. They were warned more than 76 times by the AAT about robodebt being unlawful, but they concealed and ignored those warnings for more than four years, which resulted in the unnecessary loss of life.

They suppressed the state of the environment report before the 2022 election. On this side, we are committed to a high standard of integrity, transparency and accountability in government, and we're upholding the standards that they never did. I'd like to echo the words of my colleague the member for Bruce, who described the pronouns of those opposite as 'clowns' and 'circus'.