Anne Urquhart (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026, cognate with Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2025-2026 and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026. I'm very proud to represent the people of the federal seat of Braddon in this place. As you know, Deputy Speaker Claydon, I also served as a senator for Tasmania in the other place between 2011 and 2025. I'm a strong advocate for all things Tasmanian and particularly for the north-west, the West Coast and King Island.

It's worth reminding everyone from metropolitan and regional electorates that my electorate is rural, it's remote and it's very remote. Braddon is a large electorate, and the population is geographically dispersed. Circular Head, one of eight local government areas in the electorate, boasts a location called 'the edge of the world'. At this location, looking out to the sea, the next closest piece of land in a straight line is Argentina, more than 15,000 kilometres away. I'm told it's the longest uninterrupted expanse of ocean on Earth. I'm yet to swim it! The electorate boasts extensive areas of wilderness, and it's no surprise that the West Coast was chosen not once but twice as the location for the SBS series Alone Australiaa wild place indeed.

In Braddon, people commute long distances to work, to study, to see loved ones and to access services that, for many other people, are available just around the corner. On average, the electorate has an older population and has poorer health outcomes than other parts of Australia. These are issues in the electorate that are attributed to remoteness, but, for some issues, this is a poor excuse from service agencies who should work harder—and this is not good enough. For example, there are areas of my electorate that have persistently poor digital connectivity. This is a handbrake on businesses, it disadvantages students, and it isolates people and their communities. Consumers in my electorate are signing the same standard price contracts with telcos, but they receive far poorer services than the mainland and even some other parts of Tasmania. But I'm pleased to say that the federal government is funding incentives that will bring more competition to the market and better investment on behalf of their customers.

The electorate isn't a squeaky wheel and often flies below the radar. It is home to many quiet achievers, boasts innovative industries and advanced manufacturers, is an emerging renewable-energy powerhouse and is a fantastic place to live. It is important that Braddon is not relegated to the edge of the world or left behind when it comes to federal government policy, programs and priorities. The Albanese Labor government has shown that it is a government for all Australians, including residents of Braddon.

The electorate delivered the biggest swing in the country—over 15 per cent—to elect me as its representative. And there is a reason for this. The electorate saw that the Albanese Labor government doesn't leave people behind. We don't forget small communities like our agricultural and mining communities, and we know the challenges that face people who live outside metropolitan and regional Australia. The electorate saw Labor committing more funding to public hospitals. In 2025-26, we will deliver a 14 per cent increase in funding to Tasmanian state-run hospitals. Up from $660 million last year, the state will receive $750 million in Commonwealth funding this financial year. We will also invest $120 million to establish a heart centre in Launceston, making it easier for patients with heart disease from the north and north-west to get better health care.

The people of Braddon also backed Labor's plan to strengthen Medicare, to make medicines cheaper and more accessible, to increase bulk-billing incentives for medical practices and to increase the number of doctors, nurses and midwives. The estimated savings to patients in Braddon from our cheaper medicines policy is so far almost $8.5 million, and, across Tasmania, more than $40 million has been saved. Our policy is putting money back in the pockets of patients when buying their medicines. We've also prioritised women's health, with over $790 million in funding to deliver more choice, lower costs and better health care for women, including new rebates for longer consultations.

Braddon voters have seen the great outcomes of Labor's first round of funding for Medicare urgent care centres. They supported our commitment to extending the number of urgent care clinics. A total of 87 Medicare urgent care clinics are currently operating across Australia. This number will expand to 137 clinics as part of the 2025-26 federal budget and Labor's plan. These are the things that make a difference to people in regional, rural and remote Tasmania and right across the country. The Devonport Urgent Care Clinic has delivered over 25,000 bulk-billed walk-in consultations since it opened at the end of 2023. I'm really pleased to say that a tender process is now underway to select a provider for our second urgent care clinic in Burnie. These initiatives help take numbers out of the emergency departments within our hospitals, which are always chock-a-block full. When people can go to an urgent care clinic, they can get seen within a very short period, get the treatment they need and not have to pay a cent for that. Across Tasmania, urgent care clinics have delivered over 100,000 bulk-billed appointments.

Braddon will benefit from two Medicare mental health centres. One is currently being fitted out in Devonport and will open soon, and a second clinic will be located right in Burnie. Again, these centres provide free walk-in mental health services for people of all ages. They will be an important link between hospital services and people in the community with mental health issues and will provide services at a time when and at a place where people need them—no waiting. Walk in and be seen. The centres will be staffed by social workers, nurses, peer support workers and mental health workers, and they will have access to psychiatry services.

We know that the dream of homeownership has been out of reach for many people. The Albanese Labor government is helping all first home buyers purchase their first home through the Home Guarantee Scheme. We're implementing the program early, on 1 October 2025, instead of waiting until next year. Under Labor, all first home buyers will be able to borrow for their first home with a five per cent deposit, with no caps in place and no income limits. For single parents, the deposit requirement will be just two per cent of the purchase price. Labor's scheme will save first home buyers tens of thousands of dollars in lenders mortgage insurance. In the first year alone, first home buyers are expected to avoid around $1.5 billion in mortgage insurance costs.

Since we came to government, more than 560 people in Braddon have been able to buy their first home with a five per cent deposit or less thanks to Labor's Home Guarantee Scheme. That's 560 people for whom it would otherwise have been out of reach. For renters, we've delivered a 45 per cent increase in Commonwealth rent assistance—the biggest back-to-back increase in more than 30 years—helping over one million low-income Australian households pay their rent. In Braddon, there are 9,000 people who have benefited directly from this assistance. We've made strong progress in delivering 55,000 social and affordable rental homes for the Australians who need it most. We've invested a record $1.2 billion into building new crisis and transitional accommodation to ensure that at-risk groups, including older women, younger Australians and those fleeing from family and domestic violence, will have access to safe and stable housing.

We've facilitated the training of more tradies through Labor's fee-free TAFE. More than 365 construction trade apprentices in Braddon, who are building new houses, are benefiting from $5,000 incentive payments. From 1 July this year, Labor's Key Apprenticeship Program has offered up to $10,000 in financial support to apprentices commencing or recommencing their careers in the clean energy or housing construction sectors. If you go along to a TAFE and talk to the students who are involved in that, they are absolutely stoked about it. They are coming through the door. It is helping to train those we need to build the homes.

Following tax cuts and energy bill relief in our first term, we will deliver new tax cuts for every taxpayer, and we will deliver more energy bill relief. We've wiped 20 per cent off student debt so that three million students and apprentices will save an average of $5½ thousand each. Almost 8,000 people in Braddon will benefit from this. We're making free TAFE permanent, so young Australians can get the skills that they need for the jobs that they want, and we are delivering affordable child care closer to home.

Last week, legislation passed both houses to put penalty rates into law, to protect weekend and overtime pay. Penalty rates make a big difference for many people. If you're working on a Saturday night, on a Sunday or on a public holiday, you should be compensated for what you are giving up, and that is what our legislation will ensure. There are many, many workers across this country who rely on penalty rates but also work unsavoury hours and shifts that keep them away from their families. They really deserve to have those penalty rates. We have looked after those workers, and we have now enshrined that in legislation.

Labor governs for all. That's no more apparent than in electorates like mine. We also know that there is more to do. We are playing catch-up on a long period of neglect from those opposite: inconsistent investment, lack of certainty for business and renewables, and lack of concern for the people and places in rural and remote Australia. Our priorities, policies and programs will support and include those who live outside metropolitan and regional Australia—people like the people that I represent in the electorate of Braddon, which is remote, rural and very remote. I commend the bill to the House.

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