Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks very much, Mr Speaker. I'll go directly to cost of living and what we have done and what the alternative would have been. Had we not acted, 84 per cent of taxpayers would be worse off if you compare what we put in place with what they supported. If those opposite had it their way, 2.9 million taxpayers would have not got one cent. Australians who rely upon PBS medicines would be $1 billion worse off because those opposite said no to cheaper medicines. Families would have missed out on more than 900,000 free doctor appointments—sorry to mention the word 'free' because we know what their approach is there—because those opposite said no to Medicare urgent care clinics, not to mention 5.4 million extra bulk-billed appointments thanks to our tripling of the bulk-billing incentive. We'd have 2.6 million award wage workers worse off because those opposite said no to minimum wage increases that we supported.

Millions of households would be $800 worse off because those opposite said no to energy rebates, as would every small business who got those energy rebates as well. Some one million of them would be $650 worse off. More than one million families would be worse off on childcare fees because those opposite said no to cheaper child care. And three million Australians would have worse HECS debts because those opposite said no to HECS relief and have been opposed to it even this week. Half a million Australians would have missed out on free TAFE. They would not just have had to pay if they enrolled in free TAFE but would have missed out on the opportunity of betterment for themselves and their families. And thousands of workers, including Nicole, who I met, would be $34,000—that's for one worker—worse off if we didn't have same job, same pay because those opposite said no to that.

These have been difficult times and we understand that people have been doing it tough. The difference between the government and the opposition is that we've taken measures to assist people. Those opposite have just said no to everything.

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