PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS
Ms CAMPBELL (Moreton) (11:43): The member for Durack paints a pretty broad fantasy in her words today. I will tell you what is 'callous' and I will tell you what is 'uncaring': the fact that the member for Durack is part of a party that wanted to see something that more than a thousand people in my local electorate on Brisbane's south side benefit from—five per cent deposits, to get them into their very first home—cut.
They wanted to cut that. It is the fact that 16,416 visits to my local urgent care clinic in Oxley wouldn't have happened under the member for Durack. And it is the fact that students and people going to TAFE would have been 20 per cent poorer if the member for Durack and her political party were in government.
This is the stark reality. When you talk about what is important to the cost of living, it's not just about talking in this place. It's about doing something about it, and this is a government that has been hard at work doing something about it while the coalition seeks to block at every opportunity, while the coalition tries to unpick critical services like Medicare and while the coalition stands in this place and talks about young people without ever backing it up—and not only not backing it up but sitting there and voting against a budget designed to rebalance our taxation system so that young people can get a fair shot.
The other day I was at the Yeronga Park Swimming Club awards. I was there with a young person, a very young person—a toddler, in fact. She was barefoot, she had face paint of a tiger that was melting off her face and she had taken off her shirt.
That was my toddler, Margaret. When I looked at Margaret and saw the pity but also the shared understanding from the parents who were around me, I think that we shared more than just that kind of experience. I think that what parents share right now is concern and worry.
I think what people wonder is: will my child be able to afford a home, will my child be able to have the same opportunities that I had and what is the world that they will grow up in? I think that, when we talk about what people are feeling in our local community, it's that. They don't need discussion in this place.
They need action because it's really tough out there. People are feeling cost-of-living pressures. They're feeling it at the bowser.
They're feeling it when they pay their bills. They're feeling it when they pay their rent. Young people feel like they won't be able to buy a home in their lifetime.
That's why this is a government that has introduced five per cent deposits. It's why this is a government that has introduced the help to buy scheme. It's why this is a government that is making sure that the relationship between our taxation system and our housing system is fair for young people.
People in my community are worried about the cost when they pick up the pump. That's why this is a government that has been driving more supply. This is a government that has been underwriting shiploads of fuel being brought into this country so that we have more fuel right here at home.
That's why this is a government that has brought our fuel reserves home. People are worried, because they want affordable health care, and that's why this is a government that has introduced urgent care clinics and has made them permanent in the budget. It's why we have $25 scripts.
I was out at a pharmacy just a couple of days ago in Eight Mile Plains talking about the impact that that has made to people, particularly those who have chronic illness. It's why we've increased bulk-billing rates. In my electorate, we've almost doubled the number of places where people can go where there is only bulk-billing.
It is tough out there, and the Australian people need the action of a Labor government.