Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yesterday marked six months since the re-election of the Albanese Labor government. We went to the election with a suite of policies and proposals, and already we've hit the ground running. In just six months we've set an ambitious and achievable climate target of 62 to 70 per cent emissions reduction by 2035, helping us deliver net zero by 2050. Over 111 large-scale renewable projects have already been approved—enough to power 13 million homes—and a further 29 projects are in the pipeline for approval.

We've made it easier for first home buyers to purchase a home by expanding the Home Guarantee Scheme. This means first home buyers need only a five per cent deposit to get out of the rental market and into the property market, starting to build their own equity instead of paying someone else's mortgage. We've cut HECS debts by 20 per cent, and over the next couple of weeks those with HECS debts will start getting messages from the ATO telling them the 20 per cent reduction has been applied to their debt.

We passed Baby Priya's bill, which enables parents experiencing the worst moment of their life—the stillbirth or death of a baby—to have the time and space to grieve before returning to work. We legislated to protect penalty and overtime rates—hard to believe this was necessary, but apparently it was. If you work irregular, unsociable or long hours, you should be paid for the inconvenience and impact it has on your life. This is the Australian way of fair work.

We introduced the home battery subsidy scheme, and, to date, in the less than four months since it has become operational, over 110,000 home batteries have been installed. That's over 110,000 Australian homes now enjoying cheap or free electricity.

Today we announced the Solar Sharer scheme. Because of the amazing uptake of solar panels and batteries and renewables generally, electricity has a negative price in the middle of the day. The Solar Sharer scheme will enable people in my home state of South Australia, New South Wales and South-East Queensland to enjoy three hours of free electricity in the middle of the day, starting 1 July next year. Whether you have solar panels or not, you can also benefit from the cheapest form of electricity—renewables.

We've delivered reform to our aged-care system, ensuring dignity for older Australians. We know the aged-care system has not been fit for purpose for a long time. We have an ageing population, with more and more demand on aged-care and home supports, yet no new beds have been built in years. The new Aged Care Act puts the older person at the centre of the system with a rights based system and ensures aged care will be sustainable in the future.

We strengthened Medicare with the largest-ever investment of $8.5 billion to ensure nine out of 10 GP visits are bulk-billed by 2030. This started on 1 November, and over a thousand GP practices across the country have signed up already to be fully bulk-billing. I'm aware of at least four in Boothby, and that's in addition to those who were previously bulk-billing.

We passed legislation to ensure that, from 1 January, people will only pay $25 for a prescription on the PBS. There's not much point in getting a prescription if you can't afford to fill it and take the medicine regularly. We've listed more contraceptives on the PBS so women have more choice.

Today we've been debating our reforms to the EPBC Act—groundbreaking reforms that deliver on all the recommendations of the 2020 Samuel review. They establish a national environmental protection agency and reform the broken offsets mechanism, which I know so many of my local constituents in Boothby have raised concerns with me about. These bills will deliver protection for the environment, fast decisions and certainty for business, industry, developers and investors. It's received the approval of Professor Samuel and former secretary of the Treasury Ken Henry.

Locally we've opened the redeveloped Marino Community Hall—fantastic. We've opened the on-off ramp at Majors Road, and the tram overpasses are progressing at pace. A couple of weeks ago the tunnel borer for the North-South Corridor arrived.

Australians voted for a government with vision and purpose, a government with a proven track record of delivering for the Australian people. Australians voted for a government that would listen and deliver, and, six months on, that's exactly what we're doing.

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