MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Ms McBRIDE (Dobell—Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention and Assistant Minister for Rural and Regional Health) (15:17): Let's deal with the claim. Let's deal with the topic of this matter of public importance straight up. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I've been self-employed. I've worked in the private sector. My colleague has worked in the private sector.

So many here have worked in the private sector. On this side of the House, we understand the economy, we understand our society and we're working to protect all Australians. We believe in building an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top.

We believe in easing cost-of-living pressures so Australians can keep more of what they earn and afford more of what matters to them and their families. And, on this side of the House, we believe in fiscal responsibility. Good economic management is not measured by slogans or scare campaigns.

It's measured by whether jobs are being created, whether wages are growing, whether bulk-billing is growing, whether medicines are cheaper and whether a government is prepared to make decisions needed to secure Australia's future. On every one of those measures, the Albanese Labor government is delivering. Just five days ago, S&P Global reaffirmed Australia's triple A credit rating.

At a time when many countries are facing economic uncertainty and fiscal pressures, it's a recognition that Australia has a government managing the economy responsibly, making disciplined decisions and maintaining confidence in our nation's finances. Global economic pressures are real. The impacts of global inflation surge, international conflict, supply-chain disruptions and economic uncertainty have been felt right around the world, and it would be deceitful of those opposites to not acknowledge that Australian families have felt those pressures too.

The question is not whether those challenges exist; the question is how governments respond. Do you provide meaningful relief while maintaining fiscal discipline? We've managed the budget responsibly.

We've been able to provide real cost-of-living relief and another tax cut that those opposite opposed—another tax cut just now for Australian taxpayers. When the budget is managed responsibly, we can provide real cost-of-living relief while keeping the nation's finances strong. We've delivered, as I said, tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer, and Australians will receive another round of tax relief next year.

That's real relief for workers and families. As a pharmacist, I'm particularly proud of our cheaper medicines reforms. This is real reform.

In my electorate of Dobell alone, those reforms have saved local residents around $16.6 million. That's $16.6 million. The last time medicines cost $25 on the PBS was in 2004, more than 20 years ago, early in my career as a community pharmacist.

We've frozen the cost of PBS medicines at no more than $25 and $7.70 for concession card holders. We've already saved Australians around $2.9 billion in out-of-pocket costs because of that freeze, and we've added or expanded more than 400 medicines to the PBS. That's real cost-of-living relief.

As Diane from Noraville in my electorate said—and she's an aged pensioner—this really helps when you're a pensioner. This really helps. This is real cost-of-living relief.

This is money staying in the pockets of Australian families, pensioners and patients. We've expanded paid parental leave. We've increased the minimum wage.

We've strengthened Medicare. We've made urgent care clinics a permanent part of our health system. We've done all of this while reducing debt and helping bring inflation under control.

That is what responsible economic management looks like. It doesn't look like scare campaigns. This is what responsible economic management looks like.

Let's compare that with the record we inherited. Mr McCormack: You were going so well! Ms McBRIDE: I'll take that interjection.

Let's compare that with the record that we inherited. When Labor came to office real wages were falling, inflation was surging, housing approvals were going backwards, business investment was weak, and budget deficit stretched years into the future, despite those mugs. Did you have one of those?

Did you have one of those mugs, Michael? Did you have one of those mugs? Mr McCormack: It was the golden age of democracy.

Ms McBRIDE: 'The golden age of democracy,' I hear! Australians would say otherwise, and they did at the ballot box. Budget deficit stretched years into the future, and debt had doubled even before the pandemic.

That was the reality. Despite the mugs and the slogans and the scare campaigns, that was the reality. Mr Small interjecting— Ms McBRIDE: Since you asked, four years later, we've created 1.25 million jobs and—you'll be pleased to know—with around five out of every six of those jobs created in the private sector.

This is how we're going now. We've delivered the lowest average unemployment rate of any Australian government in half a century. This is how we're going now.

Real wages have grown in eight of the last 10 quarters. The national minimum wage has increased by more than 30 per cent, and I know, in communities right across the country, particularly for workers in aged care and in early childhood, the real difference that has made for parents and communities, including the early educators that I met at Glenning Valley early learning just on Friday, who are making a real and genuine difference to families.

Business investment is stronger, and housing investment is stronger, but responsible economic management is not only about dealing with today's challenges. It's about preparing Australia for tomorrow. Nowhere is that responsibility clearer than in housing.

We know that there is an intergenerational housing challenge facing this country. Too many Australians are working hard, doing everything right and still finding homeownership increasingly just out of reach. We could ignore that challenge.

We could leave it for somebody else, like those opposite did. We could pretend that the market will somehow fix itself, but that wouldn't be good economic management. That wouldn't be responsible leadership.

Leadership is addressing structural problems when they emerge and preparing for the future, and that is exactly what our government is doing. Before our reforms, when a first-time buyer turned up at an auction—and everyone has seen them in their communities across the country—they weren't just bidding against another buyer. Too often, they were bidding against a tax system that tilted the playing field against them.

That's why we're reforming negative gearing. The current system is not working well enough for Australians, not working well enough for young Australians and not working well enough in communities like mine on the Central Coast of New South Wales. Negative gearing concessions have done little to boost new housing supply, with around 83 per cent of investor lending flowing into existing homes rather than into new construction.

By limiting negative gearing incentives to new housing, we're making sure that tax concessions support the construction of additional homes, of new homes, rather than simply driving competition for existing stock. It means that investment is still supported but those incentives will help build the homes that Australia needs. That's a fairer approach.

That's good economic management. That's a smarter approach. These reforms are about building a stronger country, a fairer Australia and a more sustainable economy.

They sit alongside our efforts to boost housing supply, reduce barriers to construction and help more Australians, particularly young Australians, achieve the dream of homeownership. Real economic management is not about avoiding difficult decisions. It's not about blaming others.

It's not about mugs. It's about good economic management. It's about taking the difficult decisions.

It's about supporting Australians in communities like mine and right around the country. It means tackling challenges, not pretending they don't exist. It means delivering change, not making excuses.

And it means delivering real outcomes, not delaying decisions. It means delivering an economy where hard work is rewarded, where opportunity is shared and where every Australian, wherever they live and whatever their postcode, has the chance to get ahead. That is what this government is doing.

That is what Labor governments do. That is what responsible economic management looks like, and that is exactly what the Albanese Labor government will continue to deliver. I'll finish with Dorothy from Glenning Valley in my electorate, who wrote to me.

This is what she said: It has always been Labor governments who see this country through its roughest times and provided protections for those that need it most whilst building the foundations for all social benefits. That is what our government is doing. That is good economic management.