Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Dickson for raising this matter and I will speak against his motion. The member raises the question of the issues that concern Australians. What are the issues that concern Australians? Perhaps they include the cost of living, the Voice to Parliament, closing the gap, robodebt, the needs of veterans and their families, aged care and housing. Moreover, the issue that I believe concerns Australians more than any other, which was severely lacking under the previous government and which we are now delivering, is serious leadership.

On the issue of cost-of-living challenges that face Australians today partly due to global issues and partly due to nine years of Liberal and National torpor, this government has acted. We are making child care and medicines cheaper. We created over half-a-million new jobs in our first 13 months and have more than 224,000 people enrolled in TAFE training. We are strengthening the Medicare system, making it more affordable for the young and the old to see a GP. We are strengthening the social safety net, increasing JobSeeker and rent assistance and providing energy bill relief on top of capping gas prices to reel in the cost-of-living challenges that started to run away under the former government. The government's actions, as has been recognised, have been effectual in starting to bring inflation down. We are also getting wages moving, supporting the Fair Work Commission's minimum wage rise, fixing a broken bargaining system and closing the loopholes used by unscrupulous employers that undermine and undercut wages and conditions.

The Liberal and National parties voted against cheaper child care, cheaper medicines, cheaper energy and more housing. They even opposed pay rises. They voted against all of these things. If the opposition leader wants to know who is failing to deal with the issues facing Australians, he can look to his left and to his right and over his shoulder, which he should start doing more often, and then he can go and find a mirror.

On the issue of the referendum, perhaps the Voice to Parliament means little else to some of those opposite than a way to divide, but for many people around this country, including many people with a real interest in closing the gap and making a real difference across health, education and justice for Indigenous Australians, the invitation of the Uluru statement is a real chance to make a difference. I look forward to voting 'yes' on 14 October, and I will be proud if Western Australia also votes 'yes'.

On the issue of government treating ordinary Australians with respect, the report of the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme is an indictment of the former government. Perhaps 'indictment' is a too strong a word, but perhaps it isn't.

On the issue of the needs of veterans and their families, our changes mean that finally they can access the services and support that they deserve in a timely way.

On the many issues we inherited from the previous government in aged care, this government has been implementing the recommendations of the aged-care royal commission and has supported aged-care workers with significant pay increases.

On the issue of housing, today every member can be proud that the government's program and common sense has at last prevailed under the steady hand of the Minister for Housing with the passing of the legislation for the Housing Australia Future Fund, which I believe will become a legacy program.

But the issue that Australians care about above all others is simply leadership. We now have a stable government led by a respected Prime Minister. We once again are a serious country that is taken seriously around the world. There is hardly any issue, portfolio or area of government where the performance of the Albanese government over the short span of less than 18 months has not already eclipsed that of the coalition over its many unfulfilled years.

The issue of climate change, for example, for some of those opposite is one to avoided, to be ducked around, to be met with nothing but mealy-mouthed words and a nod and a wink to other climate deniers. I'm sorry to those opposite who can read science news and do accept it, but they know the problem they have over there. The Australian public are simply unable to depend on climate action from those opposite and there are decades of evidence of that, lost decades that we can't get back.

This strange, indefinite motion sits firmly in the shade cast by the ministers of this worthy government whose work I have reflected on here and very much in the shade of this Prime Minister. I thank the opposition leader for the chance to reflect on many of the achievements of the Albanese government. I oppose this tragic motion.

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