Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I'm going to start with three good things. Firstly, this week we've seen new data which confirms the biggest jump in quarterly bulk-billing statistics in over 20 years. In just the last three months we've seen a recovery of the bulk-billing rate—GP visits that are bulk-billed—to 81.4 per cent. There are now more than 3,400 bulk-billing practices in Australia—and that's growing every week. The maths says that's a more than 50 per cent increase in the number of bulk-billing practices because of Labor's investments in strengthening Medicare. This growth has been seen in every state and territory right across the country, and it means that more than 96 per cent of Australians now live within a 20-minute drive of a fully bulk-billed practice. We promised at the election that we would take real action to turn around the decline in bulk-billing rates that we inherited from the former government, who froze the rebate for nearly their whole decade of dysfunction, decay and division in office, and that is the promise that we are delivering.

The second bit of good news is that free TAFE celebrates its third birthday this month. More than 725,000 enrolments in free TAFE have seen more than 210,000 course completions already. Hundreds of thousands of Australians have been trained and are now workers in essential areas, building Australia's future in nursing, in construction, in aged care, in early childhood education and in the tech sector. Don't forget that those opposite, including today's Leader of the Opposition, said it was a waste of money. If you don't pay for something, you don't value it, apparently. Well, hundreds of thousands of Australians say otherwise. They valued the opportunity to upgrade their skills, whether they're school leavers or people retraining to re-enter the workforce or make a career transition in areas of skills shortage.

The other bit of good news is that cost-of-living delivery remains the government's No. 1 focus, with tax cuts for every taxpayer, including another top-up tax cut this July, which those opposite opposed, and another top-up tax cut next year. The genius, the then shadow Treasurer, now the putative soon-to-be Leader of the Opposition, maybe, if he's got the numbers—maybe he hasn't; we'll find out in the next few days—went to the election promising to increase taxes.

There have been pay rises for minimum and award wages—because cost of living is both money in and money out—taking the total increase under Labor to over $9,000 for lower-paid workers. Paid parental leave has been expanded to 24 weeks. Super is now being paid on all government paid parental leave, something that they said could never be done.

There is more energy bill relief, with $150 off power bills for every household and around one million small businesses nationwide. There is the $10,000 bonus for housing apprentices, which is paid on top of their wages to help with those costs, and the payments are staggered now to help with retention and help support apprentices to complete and get into the construction industry. There is 30 per cent off home batteries to permanently cut power bills with Labor's Cheaper Home Batteries Program.

There is paid prac, transformative for nursing students, teaching students, social work students and midwifery students, who previously were basically pushed into poverty, being forced to complete these compulsory hours as part of their qualification but not being able to be paid for them. It's alright if you're from a wealthy family, but, for millions of Australians, that would not be an option given their economic circumstances.

There is the boost to Medicare—$1.8 billion in extra hospital funding, helping Australians get the quality, affordable health care that they deserve—and the news—I think last week—of a record increase in hospital funding to the states and territories over the next five years. We are providing more choice, lower costs and high-quality care for Australian women. The focus on women's health under this government—the first government in Australia's history in which a majority of the members are women, reflecting the population—has seen a focus on issues that matter for women and have been too long neglected.

We are expanding the five per cent deposits for all first home buyers, delivering another pay rise to aged-care nurses following the first instalment in March and freezing the draft beer excise indexation for two years—a small cost-of-living measure but particularly aimed at helping small independent breweries in the hospitality sector. We are cutting student debt by 20 per cent. Wiping that student debt means repayments are made earlier, and we are raising the income thresholds at which people are being forced to repay their student loans. The average saving is $5½ thousand. There are also more Medicare urgent care clinics. So those are three bits of good news, relating to Medicare, free TAFE and cost of living.

It's a bit of a contrast, though, and the contrast has never been sharper or starker with the collapsing coalition clown show—the chaos and the circus that those on that side of the chamber have become. The meltdown has reached new proportions. As I speak, there's a conga line of them still lining up to quit the frontbench. We haven't seen too many House members—presumably they'll do that after question time today—but the senators have been lining up to rip down the first woman elected to lead the Liberal Party in Australia's history. The truth is that she was never given a chance. From day one, when the member for Hume lost the ballot, they were split in two. She won by a couple of votes. From day one, he's been out there undermining, making sure that she could never succeed. The truth is that Liberal Party members, mainly men who mainly wear the same blue suit—sometimes it's hard to tell them apart—have never accepted the fact that a woman was elected to lead their political party.

Well, under standing order 76(c), on debating public affairs, it's very relevant to what's happening today. They are ripping down the first woman to lead the Liberal Party. They've never accepted that a woman could lead the Liberal Party. I've said, on many occasions, that the opposition leader, many days, looks utterly hopeless, but, honestly, what chance did she ever have? What chance was she given? To be fair to her, all the alternatives are worse. At least she looks somewhat normal some days, but she's always been at her worst. Her worst days in the job of less than a year have been when she's been forced to do things by the conservative men on the backbench.

The real mystery in this—watching it unfold, unedifying, over the last few weeks and months—is for what? For why? Why are they trying to rip down a centrist woman who's leading their political party? There's no policy. There are no ideas. There's no vision. There's no articulation of values, just an assertion they have some. The guy who's apparently going to challenge—he's just 'born to rule' entitlement. Apparently, it was his destiny to lead the Liberal Party from when he moved from Sydney, from his mansion, to Goulburn—was it?—to stand for the vacancy in the electorate of Hume. And it was going to be his destiny to lead the Liberal Party—just 'born to rule' entitlement.

This woman has been doing the best that she can. She's been trying to govern from the centre.

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