Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2025-2026 and related bills. It gives me great pleasure to be speaking on this bill, because this bill is the next bill to actually focus on our government's agenda of delivery. Our government has been delivering and delivering, and I'm really very proud of that. I want to start by speaking about delivery in my local electorate in the southern suburbs of Adelaide. I'm going to have to disagree with the minister for infrastructure. I think the southern suburbs of Adelaide is the most beautiful place in Australia and, indeed, probably the world. It is the gateway to the Fleurieu Peninsula, with an incredible coastline and beaches that run from Hallett Cove all the way down to Maslin Beach. It's a wonderful community to live, work and raise a family in. It has had its challenges over the last little while with the unprecedented algae bloom that has been persistent on our beaches. But I have to say, being down on our coastline, it is magnificent. I'd encourage anyone to get down and enjoy the South Australian coastline. There are businesses that are ready to take your order, ready to sell you something, ready to give you an experience that you will enjoy.

Of course, in my local electorate, we continue to see really significant investment. I did want to talk a little bit first about the investment in health that our government has made, particularly when it comes to the cost of medicines. We know that if the cost of medicine is too high then people will choose not to refill their script or will not actually do what they are directed to, so I am proud to be part of a government that has lowered the cost of scripts on the PBS for everyone with a Medicare card. The maximum co-payment is now the lowest it has been in 20 years, just $25 per script, and it has stayed frozen at $7.70 for concession card holders. This is making a real difference. It builds on our investment and our reform, quite frankly—for example, our quite important reform of 60-day dispensing. These are really important measures making a real difference to people in my electorate.

We have also seen the investment in bulk-billing in the electorate, and I'm proud that our investment is starting to turn around the really concerning numbers that happened under the coalition when they were in government with their complete neglect of Medicare and bulk-billing. I'm pleased to see that the rate of bulk-billing has jumped to 81.4 per cent nationwide. This is the largest quarterly jump in bulk-billing in 20 years outside of COVID. We as a government promised more bulk-billing, and that is exactly what we're delivering. I want to share a story from John from Christie Downs, who messaged me to say that he was so pleased to find out his local clinic had started bulk-billing again, taking his $80 consult fee down to zero. That is really good news for John but good news for so many residents across the southern suburbs. Since our new bulk-billing practice incentive payment was introduced, 10 medical practices in the southern suburbs have become fully bulk-billed, helping to ease the cost-of-living pressures for patients.

We also have invested in the Morphett Vale urgent care clinic in the south, and this is a very popular addition to medical infrastructure in the south. We see many people using the urgent care clinic for things that you can't see a GP for or they're not able to treat but that are not quite serious enough to get to the emergency department, and so we're really pleased. I want to share some stories. Keith from Hallett Cove wrote to me to let me know the service at Morphett Vale urgent care clinic was superb, avoiding the inevitable trip to the local emergency department. I'm really pleased that additional funding has been made for this very popular urgent care clinic and is now going to be able to stay open longer on weekends and public holidays with boosted capacity during peak periods. This is really important and shows how important these facilities are.

Infrastructure is so critically important. As my electorate is an outer metropolitan electorate, we need to make sure we have the infrastructure so people can get to where they need to go faster. Just recently, it was a great pleasure to be at the final opening of the duplication between Seaford and Sellicks. In particular, I was there to open the duplication between Aldinga and Sellicks. This is a really proud investment by both the state government and the Commonwealth, making that piece of road safer. It was great to be joined with some of the action group members at the opening, hearing about how that would not only save time on commute times but also, importantly, potentially save lives, because that piece of road is so much safer.

Work continues on the Torrens to Darlington, or T2D, piece of infrastructure. This is so critically important to connect our city and is funded by both the state and the Commonwealth. The Torrens to Darlington non-stop north-south corridor is 78 kilometres of traffic-light-free motorway. This will be so critically important. The down payment of that is the Majors Road interchange, which is now connecting the people of Sheidow Park and Trott Park and Flagstaff Hill and Aberfoyle Park much quicker to South Road. I would like to assure Natalia from Flagstaff Hill, who says she loves the new interchange—as a twice daily user, it cuts her work commute by 20 minutes every single day—that the investment we've made is already making a difference. But I can tell you, Natalia, that once that interchange gets connected to that non-stop north-south corridor, it is going to be such an important piece of infrastructure. I'd like to acknowledge everyone working on that piece of infrastructure. It is really important, and we know that investment in this type of infrastructure is nation-building.

Labor is really investing in both ensuring that there's more construction of housing and also making it easier for people to get into their first home. The new Help to Buy scheme is having a big impact, including in my electorate. Just under 900 people in the southern suburbs have been able to purchase their first home with a five per cent deposit or less. This is really important good news for those people, and that support is really, really important.

There is a lot happening, including investment in our local sporting facilities. Work continues to be underway on the Noarlunga aquatic centre. That will be super exciting when it's ready. It has not been updated for decades. That investment from the Commonwealth government, under this Albanese Labor government, is really critical to ensuring people can stay fit and involved in their local community.

We're also investing in other facilities, including the Cove Sports and Community Club. We made a commitment at the election to invest $5 million, which will go towards stage 2. I am really pleased about and welcome the commitment by the state Labor member. If he and Labor are re-elected in South Australia, they will also contribute $5 million to that project, which, along with a council contribution, will allow a very important update to that sporting facility to be made. We also made a commitment of $5 million for a new important investment in the South Adelaide Football Club, and I am continuing to work with the South Adelaide Football Club to ensure that we get a really, really good upgrade there.

In addition to the investments in my local electorate, we continue to make progress in my portfolio of employment and workplace relations. We are starting to see the really significant benefits flowing from our agenda when it comes to making our workplace relations system fairer. When we look, we see the increases in wages and in enterprise bargaining. We are also closing the gender pay gap, which is at an equal record low of 11.5 per cent. This, of course doesn't happen by accident, and I did want to highlight the investment we are making in breaking down gender segregation in workplaces. In the MYEFO, we were able to continue to support the work done by both employer organisations and trade unions to look at practical ways in which we can break down some of the systemic barriers, as well as the individual supports that can be given to support the breaking down of gender segregation. As I've said to many of those industries with male dominated workplaces, 'You're missing out on talent.' The construction industry and many of the trades are missing out on talent because we still have some structural barriers for women to participate. So there is still work to be done, and we will continue to do that work.

We are really starting to see enterprise agreement-making increase. Of course, enterprise agreements are really important. Workers and their unions can sit down with their employers and negotiate what the right wages and conditions to have are to meet those workplaces' needs. We are now seeing 2.65 million Australian workers covered by enterprise agreements. This is good news. Our changes that allowed for or improved multi-employer bargaining have led to early educators getting a 15 per cent pay increase. I just want to highlight again—I've said this many, many times in this place—that educating our youngest Australians is critically essential work. This pay increase is a real recognition of the work that they do, and I want to pay tribute to them.

Our same job, same pay reforms are benefiting more than 8,000 workers. This includes workers at a Queensland mine who had pay increases of up to $60,000 a year, and domestic flight attendants who secured pay increases of up to $20,000 a year. That was by enforcing a pretty simple concept: two people doing the same work should get paid the same amount, and temporary labour hire shouldn't be used to undercut the negotiated pay and conditions of workers. Those pay increases, while they're very good for those workers when it comes to the cost of living, are essential in recognising the dignity of the work that those workers are doing and the value of that work. I've spoken to many workers who said that the same job, same pay laws were critical in feeling valued. We continue to do the work in the portfolio of employment and workplace relations.

I also want to note that we have now seen 1.2 million jobs created under this government's watch. That is really significant and, despite so many naysayers on the opposite side, these jobs are so important. The dignity of work is so important. Having a well-paid, secure job is very, very important. I look forward to continuing to work with stakeholders and with the community for the Australian people to deliver better pay and secure work so that we can all live productively.

See this speech in context