Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I rise in favour of the member for Lalor's motion regarding the very successful first 10 months of the Albanese Labor government. This is not to say that Australians and people in Boothby aren't doing it tough right now. When I'm out and about in Boothby, running mobile offices or doing shopping centre visits in Edwardstown, Marino, Colonel Light Gardens or Mitcham, as I did over the weekend, the message is much the same, and we understand people are struggling with the cost of living. But there is another message that comes through, and that's one of relief. There's relief that after 10 wasted years the adults are finally back in charge. Despite the very real challenges, there is a sense of optimism in our communities and a sense that, while things are tough, we're on the right track. Things are finally happening. We have a leader who gets it, who has empathy for what Australians are going through and who leads from a place of passion and principle. Australians have a government that is working every day to take pressure off them and to help them reach their full potential.

What do we hear from those opposite? From those opposite, who continue to be dealt resounding election defeat after resounding election defeat around the country, we hear one response to every idea or opportunity put forward: no. They have dealt themselves out of relevance time and time again. They are telling Australians that they do not take their problems seriously. They vacate the negotiating table to the crossbench and the Greens. The LNP basically have nothing to say and no positive contributions to make, and so they say no.

Those opposite have recently taken to asking for more detail from the government. It's funny because they weren't interested in so much detail when they were in charge and had a chance to actually do something about many of the challenges we face. But, if they want more detail, who am I to deny them? Here's a quick list of just some of our highlights from the first 10 months. We delivered Australia's first real climate change policy in a decade with a commitment to a 43 per cent reduction on 2005 levels by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050. We've advanced the safeguard mechanism bill, fixing the disaster left by those opposite. We've made more than 20,000 prescriptions cheaper in Boothby alone and more than 2½ million Australia wide. We have delivered transparency, honesty, accountability through a National Anti-Corruption Commission. We'll be delivering cheaper child care from 1 July and delivering the biggest boost to parental leave by adding an additional six weeks of paid parental leave. We've made the Commonwealth seniors health card available to more Australians and unveiled the path to delivering AUKUS jobs in South Australia. We have record investment to improve women's safety. We've improved foreign relations with key partners, including countries of the Asia-Pacific, the US, France and New Zealand. We've committed to the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full and just last week announced the proposed wording to be inserted in the Constitution should the referendum get up. We've passed the Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response No. 1) Act, delivering on the election promise to reform aged care on the recommendations of the royal commission. We've delivered 37 of those recommendations already. We've passed the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Act, implementing the recommendations of the Respect@Work national inquiry into sexual harassment in the workplace. And we're only just getting started.

We know that Australians are doing it tough in what the shadow Treasurer has previously referred to as a global environment of rising inflation. But at street corner meetings on the weekend a number of Boothby residents commented on how the government had hit the ground running, how impressed they were with the amount of legislation and the number of promises we've delivered on, how relieved they are to have the adults back in charge and not to have to bear one scandal after another and how good it is to have a government they can actually be proud of. Given the Victorian election result and the New South Wales election result over the weekend, it seems the Australian public have an appetite for more.

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