Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Hansard source

He talked about that great Labor leader Bill Hayden and spoke about how Bill Hayden said that, in government, actions speak louder than words. So I really want to thank those opposite for bringing this matter of public importance to parliament today, because it gives us all on this side the opportunity to talk about the actions that our government has taken. As we wind up the year and as we come to the halfway point of our first term in government, we can look at our track record and talk about the actions that our government has taken that have made a real difference to Australians' lives during some really difficult times and which are helping us to navigate the country through some tough economic times, with some tough global headwinds.

When we took office, we hit the ground running and went straight to work to implement the policies that we took to the election, with an understanding that those policies would make a tangible difference to the lives of Australians. We know that a lot of people are doing it tough. I've been here since 2016 and have stood up time and time again and talked about the people in my electorate—people who live in Balga, Mirrabooka, Girrawheen, Marangaroo, Koondoola, Lockridge, Kiara—who have been doing it tough. I've listened to my colleagues on this side of the House. In the time that I've been in here, we have not stopped standing up on behalf of the people in our electorates who we know have been doing it tough.

That's why we've had sensible and targeted measures to ensure that the most vulnerable people in our communities right across Australia are getting the support that they need.

I want to talk about the portfolio that I represent in early childhood education and care. As just one example of a commitment that we took to the election and something that we've delivered on that actually has made a tangible difference, putting real money back into the pockets of Australians, when we increased the childcare subsidy the effect was to slash the cost of early childhood education and care for around 1.2 million families right across the nation. This was, as I mentioned, a commitment that we took to the election.

The latest ABS consumer price index report showed that that policy, our cheaper childcare legislation, improved the costs of early learning by around 13.2 per cent. That's on average. In fact, the ABS estimates that without the changes to the childcare subsidy—changes that we took to the election and that we delivered on in our first year in government—childcare costs for families would have increased by 6.7 per cent. Now, all major cities across Australia have seen childcare costs for families drop by at least 10 per cent, with some having seen a reduction of more than 17 per cent. So there have been reductions of between 10 and 17 per cent—on average, 13.2 per cent. Compare that to if we had done nothing, as those opposite wanted us to. Remember that they said that an increase to the childcare subsidy was unnecessary. If we had done what they wanted us to do, which was nothing, the out-of-pocket costs of early childhood education and care for families across Australia would have increased by 6.7 per cent.

It's not just the ABS data that shows how those opposite completely failed when it comes to the cost of living and the impact of the cost of early childhood education on that. The latest ACCC report, an interim report that we commissioned, showed that under the former government early childhood education and care costs went up by twice as much as the OECD average. If you think that that is not a cost-of-living issue, think again. Those of us in the House here, as well as people up in the gallery and people watching from home who have sat around the family table and talked about their budget, know that the first thing you factor in is the cost of early childhood education and care. That's the first thing you factor in. Then you start to look at what else you can fit around that when you're deciding who's going to work, how many hours they're going to work and what you're going to be able to afford.

Make no mistake, these are changes that are possible only when Australia has a Labor government. A Labor government is a government where actions speak louder than words, a government that is dedicated to more than just media announcements and a government that is dedicated to actually delivering on the things that we take to elections and the promises that we make to Australians to look after their best interests. The great legacy of Labor governments past includes the introduction of Medicare, the protection of Medicare and the introduction of the single mothers pension, which, as the Prime Minister mentioned earlier today, was a legacy of Bill Hayden. It's something that I've benefited from as a single mum trying to raise two children on her own. These are reforms that are always brought in by Labor governments and that always help the most vulnerable in our country, and this government builds on those reforms.

Since we took office, we have seen policies to reduce the pressure of the cost of living on families, including: providing electricity bill relief; making medicines cheaper; making it easier and cheaper to see a doctor; building more social and affordable homes; increasing rent assistance; introducing the Help to Buy Scheme, which will support 40,000 Australians into homeownership; providing fee-free TAFE; and seeing real wages rising at the fastest rate in a decade, including the minimum wage and the wages of aged-care workers.

And when we increased the minimum wage, when we changed the industrial relations legislation to see the poorest-paid workers in Australia get a lift in their wages, did the sky fall down, as those opposite said it would? Did the weekend end? I don't know about you all, but I think the weekend is still here. We've done all this in the face of and despite the naysayers opposite, who argued that every step we took to reduce cost-of-living pressures on families was going to ruin the nation somehow or other.

But the results are real and tangible: real wages up, gender pay gap down, women's workforce participation up, unemployment down, cost of early childhood education and care down, cost of seeing a doctor down, business investment up, minimum wage up—all these in our first 18 months, all these because we delivered on the key commitments that we took to an election and that Australians voted for, all this despite an opposition that says no to everything and despite the fact that we inherited a mess and had a lot to fix up.

We have not wavered from our primary focus on cost of living, on wages, on jobs, on building a stronger economy for all Australians, and we will not waver from that primary focus. We've already achieved a lot in our first 18 months, but we acknowledge that there is a lot more to do. And the Albanese government isn't wasting a day in moving on cost of living and those things we see as important to our economy and to the everyday Australians we represent. Our government is ambitious. Our government is laying the foundations for a stronger Australia, not just now but into the future.

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