MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Ms CHESTERS (Bendigo) (15:35): I do find it extraordinary that the opposition have put forward this MPI this week, when the media is nicknaming this week the 'Festival of Josh'. Josh Frydenberg, the former treasurer, has put out his book acknowledging the mistakes he made when he was treasurer of this country. He has acknowledged that, when he was treasurer, he spent way too much money; that the stimulus they provided during the COVID pandemic and the payments they rushed out the door weren't targeted enough; that money went to businesses that weren't laying off workers and that, particularly in relation to JobKeeper, they spent too much money.
Those bills have come in. Josh Frydenberg's bills are what we inherited. That debt is what our government is addressing.
When we were in opposition, we raised these concerns. We stood in this parliament—or via the special ways in which we could participate in the parliament at the time—and warned the government of the day that money was going out the door to businesses that did not need it. It was going to workers who weren't properly entitled to it.
It wasn't targeted enough. Yet other sectors missed out, like universities and so on and so forth. Those bills are now in, and we are now looking for ways to pay down their debt.
That is why, in government, our treasurer and our government have found over $180 billion in savings since coming to government. That is how we are addressing the debt that we inherited from those opposite. And that is not all we are doing.
We recognise that times are tough in Australian households, which is why we have delivered targeted support to households through tax cuts for every worker this year and next, delivering real support to household budgets. We are delivering cheaper medicine that help everybody when they are sick. We are making sure that we have more bulk-billing and record hospital funding, because it is so critical to people that, when they are sick, they don't have to rely on what is in their bank account to get health care.
That is how we are delivering targeted support to those who need it. Those aren't costs that people in my electorate are saying they want us to cut. They want to know that when they are sick their government is there to help them through bulk-billing, through cheaper medicine and through properly funded hospitals.
We are supporting higher wages for workers and making sure that there is fairer pay for workers, particularly those in female dominated industries that were the heavy lifters during COVID that got overlooked. I'm talking about our aged-care workers, our early childhood educators and our disability workers, and, as we announced today, how we are backing the Fair Work Commission's decision to fund a wage increase for predominantly women working in our community not-for-profit charity sector: people who support others in crisis with housing, who are in crisis and need emergency food relief, or who are fleeing family and domestic violence.
These are people who do the work because of the care they have for the community, and we are now backing their pay increase. Yet those opposite are saying we're spending too much. We have the priorities right for the Australian people and are making sure we are backing those who back our community.
We are also making sure that we have extended paid parental leave to a full six months and that it is a shared opportunity for parents to access. We are building more social and affordable housing and helping first home buyers get into the market with not just our tax reforms, but our five per cent deposit scheme. Our free TAFE is skilling up the workers that we need for our future, giving people the opportunity to change careers or to start their career in a profession that they want without having to find the money for the fees.
It was $22,000 for an enrolled nursing diploma in Bendigo prior to our government's free TAFE commitments. We are now seeing people going into nursing because they want to nurse, not because they have the money in their bank account. We've slashed student debt and we're expanding paid prac.
These are the changes that we are making to support households with targeted support that is needed, not more rhetoric from those who created the problem that we are now addressing in government.