Jess Teesdale (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to respond to this matter of public importance as raised by the member for Fairfax. His MPI claims that the Albanese Labor government's so-called spending spree is harming households. Honestly, it baffles my mind. The truth could not be further from this claim.

When we came to office in 2022, we had inherited, from those opposite, a trillion dollars of Liberal debt, deficits as far as the eye could see and a budget weighted down with waste, rorts and mismanagement. Since then, the Albanese Labor government, our government, has turned the nation's finances around, doing so while putting cost-of-living relief at the centre of its agenda. In only three budgets we have delivered two surpluses, which would be unknown to those opposite. We turned around more than $207 billion of budget deficit, reduced the projected debt by $177 billion, saving Australians $60 billion in interest payments that would otherwise have gone to the banks. It's amazing what you can do with that extra $60 billion when you're not giving it to banks. Our Labor government has achieved this while carefully restraining its spending. Real payments have grown under Labor. We're doing it at 1.7 per cent a year, less than half the average of what it was under the coalition. In contrast, those opposite had not found a single dollar to save in their last budgets.

But numbers on a balance sheet are not the measure that matters the most. What matters to us, to Labor, is the impact on families, workers, pensioners and young people—particularly, for me, those in communities like Bass. In Bass, households were under severe pressure from global and other factors beyond the government's direct control. But the question for Bass households that I get asked is simple: is our government helping to ease this burden or is it leaving them to fend for themselves? I'm very proud to say that we are helping.

How are we doing it? Well, since 1 July this year, eight new measures have come into effect that have put real dollars back into household budgets. Minimum and award wages have been increased. The superannuation guarantee has gone up again, building stronger retirements. Energy bill relief is flowing to households across the country, building again on the work that Labor has been doing since 2022. We have cut the cost of medicines twice. We've introduced 60-day prescriptions and boosted bulk-billing incentives and are freezing PBS co-payments.

For families in Bass, these changes are not abstract. They've saved them real money at the pharmacy counter. Since 2022, cheaper medicines reforms have saved people in Bass more than $9 million. Across Tasmania, more than $32 million has been saved. That's money that would have otherwise come out of family budgets every single time a script was filled. You can't tell me that that doesn't make a difference. You can't tell me that that doesn't matter.

We've also delivered cheaper child care, free TAFE and expanded paid parental leave. These are not luxuries; they're essential supports that help families get ahead and keep our economy strong. This is not wasted money. It is planned for, and it is important.

While helping with those costs today, we're also focusing on the future in energy, skills, health care and infrastructure, the building blocks of long-term productivity and prosperity. Those opposite may want to talk about a so-called spending spree, but we wouldn't have to be spending this much money if they had done their job. What they don't want to talk about is their record: the trillion dollars of debt with nothing to show for it; nine years of stagnant wages, and missed opportunities on energy, skills and health. The economy was weaker and more vulnerable, with fewer tools to actually help households. In contrast, the Albanese Labor government, has delivered responsible economic management and real help with the cost of living. Inflation is in the target band. Wages have been growing. More than 1.1 million jobs have been created. You cannot tell me that that does not make a difference.

People in Bass didn't vote for more of the same old cuts and excuses. They voted for action on cost of living. They voted for a government that backs them in, and that is exactly what Labor is delivering.

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