Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I've had many conversations in my community in Melbourne with young people, with their parents and with their grandparents who want to know that the promise that has been there for them and the promise that has been there for previous generations—that if you work hard you will get the opportunity to have a secure roof over your head—will be there for the generations to come. But the reality is that, right now, too many young Australians are being priced out of homeownership. House prices have risen 400 per cent over the past two decades or so. They've gone from four to eight times incomes over the past 20 years, and ownership is down seven percentage points for young people. Just 44 per cent of Australians aged 25 to 34 own a home of their own.

That obviously has serious consequences for these young people, but it also has consequences that don't just affect them but affect all of us. The reality is that when a community is filled with people who can't see that the promise of their hard work is a pathway to a secure roof over their head for them and their family, the result is that we have a community that is increasingly divided. We already see some of the effects of that inequality and lack of opportunity in the divisive politics which is playing out in countries overseas at the moment. Indeed, it seems to be a sort of politics that those opposite—the Liberals and Nationals under the watchful gaze and resurgent popularity of One Nation—seem very keen to bring to Australia.

This is not how our government sees the future of Australia. In contrast, our government is focused on levelling the playing field for first home buyers. We are investing in fairness, in opportunity for all and in ensuring that more working families have the opportunity to get ahead. These bills give effect to a budget focused on what matters most to Australians, helping with the pressures people are facing right now, while also building a stronger, fairer and more resilient future.

This budget recognises the reality Australians are living through. Families are still feeling pressure at the checkout. Mortgage holders have faced the impact of higher interest rates. Renters and first home buyers are under enormous strain. Global uncertainty, from the conflict overseas to instability in energy markets and supply chains, continues to place pressure on prices here at home. So these bills deliver practical cost-of-living relief. They strengthen Medicare, they support housing affordability and they invest in Australia's long-term economic resilience.

I know that many young people in my community are working hard and saving carefully, but they still find themselves unable to buy their own home. They're turning up to auctions only to find themselves outbid by investors. The reality is that they've been priced out because of a system that has given people who already have a foothold in the property ladder access to support that new homebuyers don't have. Labor believes young Australians deserve the opportunity to buy a home in the communities that they grew up in. I hear this often from people in the suburbs of north-east Melbourne that I represent; they want to know that their kids have the opportunity that they had, and that they will be able to live in the beautiful communities that we call home and provide for their families there.

We on this side of the parliament believe that governments have a responsibility to tackle the structural barriers that are locking a generation out of homeownership. I think the people in my community understand this, and they do see our reforms as an important step towards improving intergenerational equity in both the economy and the housing market. I do also understand that there are some people who have concerns about these changes, and I am concerned that at the moment there is a lot of misinformation about the budget that is being spread around. The reality is that our government has backed and will continue to back small business. We will continue to back innovation and aspiration. These are of course very important Australian things. We will back hardworking Australians as well as reform the tax system to make it easier for people to get into secure housing.

We are also continuing our efforts to build more housing. This budget also continues Labor's investments in social and affordable housing. Locally, we are already seeing the impact of these investments. In Rosanna, 45 new social and affordable homes have just been completed. It was great to join the Prime Minister and Minister O'Neil last week to see these new homes for local residents right on the railway line there, providing much-needed housing to people and families at risk of homelessness and key workers that we need in our community. They are a fantastic investment for us locally. More homes are being built in Ivanhoe, Heidelberg and Greensborough. In Heidelberg West you can see the cranes in the sky, as our government is currently working with the Victorian government to deliver 104 new homes as part of the Bell-Bardia estate development.

This is work our government is undertaking because we understand that this is crucial to Australians now and into the future. It is work that was neglected by those opposite during the decade they were in power. During my time as the member for Jagajaga when those opposite were in power, I certainly was not able to visit new social and affordable housing being built in our community. This is a challenge that Labor has taken up, understanding that we need to level the playing field for new homebuyers and that we need more housing supply and more social and affordable housing. This is what Labor is doing.

We're also getting on with the job because we understand that we have a responsibility to deliver now, helping Australians through difficult times while also building for the future. This is in very clear contrast to those opposite, whose policies are clearly now being driven by their fear of One Nation and what it means for their chances at the next election. The opposition leader's budget reply made it clear that he and his party are not interested in levelling the playing field for young Australians looking to buy their home. Instead, the opposition leader borrowed and leant into divisive politics, threatening hardworking migrants in Australia with removal of their access to government services and support.

These are people who have helped build, and continue to help build, our country. They are part of our communities, and they are being told by the Leader of the Opposition and those who sit with him—and, of course, his One Nation inspired policies—that they are not worthy of support. At the same time, the opposition leader and the Liberals are backing more dirty, expensive coal. They're opposing the clean energy transition, and they're standing against the very housing programs that are helping to deliver more homes for Australians. We know that those opposite's, the Liberals', policies would leave Australians paying more for energy while also missing out on the jobs, investment and industries of the future.

It is really concerning that, alongside One Nation, the Liberals have now become a part of a dysfunctional coalition that is built on grievance and division, not real solutions. This is not the party of Menzies. This is not their grand legacy. This is dog whistling, leaning into the lowest common denominator and pulling Australians away from the future that they should have. While Labor is focused on building more homes, strengthening Medicare and easing cost-of-living pressures, the Liberals and One Nation are offering more delay, more division and higher costs for local families.

This government very clearly supports hardworking Australians. From 1 July, every Australian taxpayer will receive more tax cuts. Working Australians will receive an additional, permanent tax cut worth $250. We're also introducing a new $1,000 instant tax deduction without receipts, making it easier for working people to claim the deductions they are entitled to. Alongside this, we've been cutting fuel taxes to help ease the pressure every time Australians fill up at the petrol bowser. These are practical measures designed to make a real difference in people's lives. But, as I said, these bills before us are not only about immediate relief; they are also about strengthening Australia's long-term resilience in an increasingly uncertain world.

To better protect Australia from global shocks, our government is investing in our energy future, including in reliable sovereign renewables. We will establish a $3.2 billion Australian fuel security reserve and strengthen our national fuel security by increasing Australia's diesel and jet fuel reserves. We're also supporting the implementation of a domestic gas reserve where LNG producers will be required to reserve 20 per cent of exports for the domestic market. These are important reforms that will help put downward pressure on domestic gas prices and better shield Australians from global price volatility. Australians should not continue paying the price for instability overseas.

Some of the most important investments in this budget are in Medicare. As ever, Labor is the party of Medicare because we believe health care should depend on your Medicare card and not your credit card. We are making Medicare urgent care clinics a permanent feature of our health system in this budget. That means locals can continue to access urgent but non-emergency care without waiting hours in a busy emergency department and without paying hundreds of dollars out of pocket. In Jagajaga, these Medicare urgent care clinics are already making a difference. The Heidelberg Medicare Urgent Care Clinic has now seen more than 45,000 patients since opening in 2023. It's actually one of the busiest clinics in the country.

The new Eltham Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, which opened in December last year, has already supported more than 5,000 visits from local families needing urgent health care close to home. I visited that clinic last Friday with the member for Eltham, my colleague Vicki Ward, and they were telling me there how the clinic has become such an important piece of the local healthcare infrastructure. It is very busy on the weekends at the moment, with football injuries and all that that brings in. But what a difference to local families to have that support, to have that access to urgent care when they need it close to home without having to wait at a hospital emergency department.

Our budget is also supporting our public hospitals, including our local Austin Hospital, and we continue our work to strengthen bulk-billing and to make medicines cheaper. More GP clinics in our community are now bulk-billing as a result of our increased support. We now have 15 clinics locally who are bulk-billing patients—eight more since our changes. We've capped PBS medicines at $25 and at just $7.70 for concession card holders, meaning more than 2.5 million cheaper scripts have been filled since our cheaper-medicines changes.

As I've said, these changes don't happen by accident; they happen because Labor fundamentally believes in Medicare and because Labor supports Medicare. When we are in government, this is what we do. We make sure that the benefits of Australia are available to all Australians, that the healthcare that people should be able to get depends on their Medicare card and not on their credit card.

These bills deliver cost-of-living relief. They strengthen Medicare, they support housing affordability and they invest in Australia's long-term resilience in an uncertain world. I know how important these investments are right now and will continue to be to my local community. I know what it means when a local family can access free, urgent health care close to home. I know what it means when a young person gets a fairer shot at buying their first home. And I know what it means when governments invest in the communities they represent. Ultimately, budgets are about people and about the types of communities we want to build and the type of country we want Australia to be.

We are very clearly setting out in this budget that we want Australia to be a country, and the communities that I represent to be communities, where people have a fair go and where that aspiration and ability to get ahead is there for everyone. Contrast that with those opposite, with the Liberal-National-possibly One Nation opposition—still fixated on higher power prices through an obsession with dirty, expensive coal, determined to drag Australia back to the fights of the past not to invest in the future and the opportunities that come with it but to play out culture wars they import from elsewhere, and hope that that'll reverse their electoral fortunes.

These appropriation bills say that our government wants an Australia where hard work is rewarded, where Medicare remains universal, where young people can aspire to own a home and where more Australians can get ahead. The Albanese Labor government is getting on with the job of building Australia's future.

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