Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The bills before us, as other speakers have established, are Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2025-2026, Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2025-2026 and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 2) 2025-2026. These bills underpin the government's expenditure decisions that have been made since the last budget. They are related to the financial year and include the changes that have been made and were announced in the midyear update at the end of last year.

Appropriations Bill (No. 3) seeks to approve, for all appropriations in consolidated revenue, up to $9.2 billion, funding that will go towards a number of key measures and to strengthen other measures that were announced in the budget—for example, the cost of demand-driven programs and how that has increased; this funding helps to bridge that gap.

The bill also provides funding to support a number of significant programs. A key one that many on this side have highlighted and that I also wish to highlight is a funding increase of $2.9 billion to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, predominantly to support the Cheaper Home Batteries Program. We know this program has been popular in electorates all over the country, particularly in regional electorates. In my own electorate, more than a thousand homeowners and small businesses have already tapped into Labor's Cheaper Home Battery Program.

Recently Minister Chris Bowen and I visited Christopher at his home in Cal Gully. Christopher is an NDIS worker, and his partner is an early childhood educator—people working hard in our community but not millionaires. They have tapped into the Cheaper Home Battery Program to install a battery and expand their solar system. They say it has literally wiped out their energy bills. They are looking forward to a winter where they will not get that bill shock that they got when they were still reliant on the grid. So, a thousand people so far, and that number is set to climb.

I want to use this as an opportunity to remind people in my electorate to not believe the mis- and disinformation you might read on social media or here through the community. Batteries are safe. If you're unsure or want to know how they work, engage one of the local installers. Find out from companies like ProSolar whether a solar and battery system would suit your home. Every person like Christopher and the thousand other people who have tapped in are helping others who aren't yet signed up. Having fewer customers relying upon the grid means we will have less demand on the grid, meaning more supply to go around. Christopher is helping his neighbours purely by powering himself.

What is unique about this program is that it gives those who have the capacity to help power themselves, and that helps others who may not be in the same situation. I acknowledge that not everybody can tap into the program, such as if their roof isn't strong enough to support solar, if they're renters or if they're in an apartment block. There are lots of reasons why people can't access the program, and we need to look for alternative ways to support people in those situations. But I encourage those who can to think about investing in Labor's Cheaper Home Batteries Program because it will help lower your energy bills. It will make you more energy efficient and secure going forward. People talk about the apps they get, where they check to see how much solar energy they have in their battery and find out when best to use it—when to turn the washing or the dishwasher on. They are becoming more energy aware and energy efficient and taking back control of their energy use. This is a good thing for all of us.

Also in this bill is increased funding for various programs in the health, disability and aging portfolio. We've heard other speakers talk about the transformational changes to aged care, in particular the boost to aged-care workers' wages. These are quite often the unsung heroes not just of the pandemic but of people caring for our older Australians and making sure that their final years in life are lived with dignity and respect. If you meet an aged-care worker, they tell you they do it for the love of it. They love the work that they do caring for the residents and making sure they've got the support they need. It is so important for us to continue to support the sector, lifting their wages and ensuring that they have training opportunities to progress through the system. Thinking of all the aged-care services that I've visited locally, you meet lots of people who've worked in the same place for the same home for many, many years. Every year I'm invited out to Bendigo Bupa to award their service certificates. Quite often people spend five, 10, 15 or 25 years working in the same home, supporting different residents and ensuring they have the dignity and the care they deserve. These people are angels, and making sure they are paid a decent wage is core business to this government.

At the other end of life, we've also boosted the wages of early childhood educators. We've supported changes to the award to see all educators now receive a pay increase, and wages will continue to go up. This acknowledges for the first time that their pay should reflect the skills and the work that they do. Early childhood educators long ago won the debate that they are not babysitters but educating our youngest Australians and giving them the foundations to succeed at primary school and secondary school. It took the election of our government to change the system and boost the wages of these critical workers and educators in our community. These changes have seen a stabilisation of the workforce and people coming back into the sector because they're now able to earn a decent wage to pay the bills. I recently visited Goodstart Early Learning Bendigo as well as the Goodstart Early Learning Strathfieldsaye. In both visits I met educators and teachers who were able to buy a home because their wages now allowed them the opportunity to pay a mortgage and to secure their future. Homeownership is now possible for so many people in the sector where previously, because of low pay, they felt locked out.

Another key part of the bills before us is extra funding to help secure and support our strengthening Medicare reforms. This is core Labor business and has been for many decades and generations of Labor parliamentarians. The investment into bulk-billing incentives has seen a turnaround in many areas, including my own electorate of Bendigo, where we are now seeing more and more doctors and clinics become 100 per cent bulk-billing clinics. Three-out-of-five clinics in my electorate are now 100 per cent bulk-billing clinics, from those in Kyneton in the south all the way up to Rochester and Heathcote and for so many other services in between. We now have more bulk-billing clinics and more doctors bulk-billing, and that is because of the investment from our government. And why? It's because we believe it should be your Medicare card and not your credit card that you use when accessing health care. We don't want cost being a barrier to you accessing or seeing a GP. It is helping and changing lives. For the clinics not yet signed up, I encourage you to do so. For the GPS who've not yet gone to bulk-billing, I encourage you to do so. Think about the difference it will make to the patients and to the health of our community if you sign up and join us on lifting bulk-billing rates.

Also in my electorate is the Bendigo Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, which is hosted by the Bendigo Primary Care service. It's a good old-fashioned GP superclinic funded by the previous Labor government to be built just around the corner from our hospital. Since the funding from our government has invested in the Medicare urgent care clinic, we are seeing a drop in presentations at Emergency. They are supporting what are known as category 4 and category 5 patients. People are able to call and book an appointment, or there is a walk in service, so they're able to get the support that they need. After hours and on weekends, this service is helping. It is staffed by doctors from around the region, who take on the shifts as well as the nurses to make sure that people get the urgent care that they require. This measure, working hand in hand with bulk-billing changes, is seeing people being able to access the care that they need, taking pressure off our hospitals.

Cheaper medicines—that is a fundamental change which kicked in on 1 January and is really helping people with cost-of-living pressures if they have to take regular medication. The last time that $25 was the most you would pay for a PBS prescription medication was in 2004. I had literally just finished my university studies and moved to Victoria. That's how long ago it was since medicines were capped at $25. But we didn't just cap them at $25; we've also locked in that people on concession cards, including our pensioners, will pay no more than $7.70 for their prescriptions. These are the practical ways in which our government is helping people make ends meet and meet the cost of living. They are practical changes that are really helping people.

I can also report back to the House that, since the last election, one of the key things that we've been working on locally is ensuring that all of the recipients of our election commitments have completed their paperwork so that funding can soon flow for key projects, including funding for the upgrade of Bendigo Heritage attractions to restore and redevelop this very important tourist aspect that we have at the Deborah goldfields triangle. We've updated the funding for the Truscott Reserve changerooms, which is home to the Eaglehawk Soccer Club. That funding has been secured along with the final bit of funding required for the Football Netball Club changerooms.

This is a project that I'm particularly proud of. In the 2022 election, I was the first level of government, the first person, to make a commitment to the redevelopment of the North Bendigo Recreation Reserve upgrades. That million dollars that I committed back in 2022 triggered the increased funding that would flow from state and local governments towards the redevelopment of the entire precinct. I was incredibly proud to commit the final component of funding required to complete stage 2. As I stand here today, the council is well underway with developing and delivering stage 1 and stage 2 of the North Bendigo rec reserve upgrades.

The Bendigo Creek funding has been secured—$7 million to revitalise and restore the Bendigo Creek, devastated by a legacy of gold mining and development. We are starting to see natural wildlife return to the Bendigo Creek through the work that is being done in partnership between the City of Greater Bendigo, local Landcare groups, our First Nations group and the Loddon-Campaspe catchment management authority. Finally, the funding has now been confirmed for the Kyneton and the Kangaroo Flat skate parks. I know that there are lots of young people in Kyneton and Kangaroo Flat, particularly at Crusoe College, who will really welcome that we've passed another milestone for these two projects.

These are just some of the many projects that we're working on in my electorate and that I am delivering. I'm part of a government that listens to the community and delivers what is needed locally, whether it be in aged care or early childhood education or whether it be through cheaper batteries, energy security, Medicare, health care, school funding or the many community based projects that I've outlined. We are a government that listens to and works with the community to make sure that they get what they need.

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