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

I thank the member for Canberra for her question, and I note that this is her last question time before she takes a bit of leave, for obvious reasons, and I wish her all the very best—I'm sure, on behalf of the parliament—for the youngest addition to her family when they come along in coming weeks.

This week marks four months since the Australian people put their trust in our government to keep building Australia's future, and every day since then has been all about delivering. We're cutting student debt by 20 per cent, benefiting some three million Australian students and apprentices to the tune of an average of $5½ thousand each. We're enshrining penalty rates into law to protect weekend and overtime pay, and fast-tracking five per cent deposits, making it easier for young Australians to get into their first home. Australians are about strengthening Medicare; if you know, you know. There have been over 1.8 million visits to the 90 Medicare urgent care clinics we have opened. The only thing they've needed was their Medicare card. We've made an $8½ billion investment into bulk-billing, tripling the bulk-billing incentive for 11 million pensioners and concession card holders last term, extending that to all 27 million Australians this term. We're making medicines even cheaper, and then cheaper again—the bill passed through parliament just this week—from $42 down to $30 and then down to $25, but freezing it for concession card holders for the entire decade at just $7.70.

At the election, Australians voted for a government with the plans and policies to build Australia's future. Our government has been focused on that in the first four months since that election—going through commitment by commitment, passing legislation to deliver and providing funding to deliver on the commitments so that we restore faith in the political system in this country. We will continue, over coming months, to make sure that we tick off those commitments one by one, and it will certainly be a year of delivery. That's our focus as we go forward.

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