Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak about the Albanese Labor government governing and delivering for all Australians. We are continuing to build on delivering cost-of-living relief for Australians as our No. 1 priority, while working to set Australia up for the long term. It is powerful, I think, to list just some of the measures the Albanese Labor government is delivering for cost-of-living relief for Territorians and Australians.

There are tax cuts for every taxpayer, including another tax cut in July this year, and pay rises for all minimum and award wage workers—there are those words 'every' and 'all'. Paid parental leave has been expanded to 24 weeks, on the way to 26 weeks, with super now paid on all government paid parental leave. There are $10,000 bonuses for housing apprentices; 30 per cent off home batteries to permanently cut power bills; and paid pracs for all nursing, teaching, social work and midwifery students—helping with the cost of living.

There's record hospital funding for Territory hospitals. We've expanded five per cent deposits to all first home buyers, there are pay rises for child-care and aged-care workers and we've expanded bulk-billing. For Territorians, people in my electorate of Darwin and Palmerston, 70 per cent of GP practices are now registered as Medicare bulk- billing practices. We're cutting student debt by 20 per cent. There's free urgent care in the Medicare clinics. For Territorians, that means that no appointment is necessary at Palmerston and the soon-to-be-open urgent care clinic in Darwin, as well as the other urgent care clinics in the Northern Territory. There's been the biggest cut to the cost of medicines in the history of the PBS. All PBS medicines will be $25 or less and, for concession card holders, just $7.70. And that helps with the cost of living.

We understand that all Australians are following the events in the Middle East closely and are feeling the consequences here at home. Our government is looking at every practical measure required to shield our nation and the household budgets of Australians from the worst of this global uncertainty, ensuring our regional communities and the services that all Australians rely on can continue to access the fuel that they need.

Across the board, the Albanese government has been working through and planning for the impacts of this crisis and protecting Australians from the worst of this global challenge. Some key measures include that we have empowered the ACCC to protect motorists from unfair price rises as well as to watch airlines and airfares and to watch grocery prices. We've launched an enforcement investigation into allegations of anticompetitive conduct by each of the major fuel suppliers—Ampol, BP, Mobil and Viva—and are investigating reports around independent wholesalers and distributors that service regional and rural Australia. We've boosted fuel supply by releasing 20 per cent of the baseline minimum stockholding obligation for petrol and diesel, and that is helping with supply. We're getting more fuels into the Australian market by temporarily amending some of the fuel standards. We're working closely with industry and the states, as well as the territories, to ensure this fuel gets to where it's needed most, particularly regional communities.

This is a global challenge, and Australia's international relationships have never been more important. We have reaffirmed our commitment with Singapore to strengthen energy security, to support the flow of essential goods, including petroleum oils, such as diesel, and liquefied natural gas, between our two countries and to notify and consult each other on any disruptions with ramifications on the trade of energy.

Our government, the Albanese government, will continue to work with our partners to ensure we're doing everything we can to shield Australians from the worst of the challenges coming from the Middle East and ensure that truckies and transport operators are better protected from fuel price rises. Government amendments to the Fair Work Act will allow truckies and road transport businesses to make an emergency application for a contract chain order to deal with the current spike in fuel prices caused by the war in the Middle East. Our government is looking at every practical option to shield Australians and businesses from the worst effects of this current crisis.

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