Claire Clutterham (Sturt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What are living standards? Are they the level of wellbeing of households, which encompass various dimensions such as consumption, income, health, education, nutrition and housing? Are they a set of material conditions that people everywhere ought to have, no matter their intentions or conception of a good life or what other rights they may claim, or are they all of those factors that contribute to a person's wellbeing and happiness? It is probably right that they're a combination of all of those things and that what someone considers an adequate standard of living differs from the person down the street, in another community or in another state or territory. There's also quite rightly a debate in how to measure living standards: GDP, the Human Development Index or some other metric. Again, a combination of approaches depending on the context in and purpose for which standards are being measured is probably right.

What is not up for debate, however, is this government's focus on cost-of-living relief for Australian families. No matter which way you look at it, cost-of-living relief has been the government's No. 1 focus. The government, as we just heard, is frequently criticised for spending on cost-of-living relief, is frequently criticised for endeavouring to find savings and efficiencies to pay for that cost-of-living relief and is then criticised for not doing enough to relieve cost-of-living pressures. These arguments, which unhelpfully seek to criticise rather than constructively hold the government to account, are unproductive, but that is just the political climate we live in.

What is for certain, what's always being talked about, is what the government is doing on the cost of living. It's the No. 1 priority, which is why it is always the No. 1 topic in this place and in households across Australia. What the government is doing on the cost of living may not always please everyone, but the level at which it is reported on, examined, dissected and measured means there is always a cost-of-living initiative happening. You're talking about it because we're delivering it. This is the No. 1 item on the government's policy agenda: the economy—how to grow it, how to make it more productive, how to improve living standards, how to take pressure off working Australian families. Short-term initiatives, such as a few hundred dollars of relief here and there, are often the source of criticism, but they are not the backbone of the government's cost-of-living agenda. The backbone can be found in many areas of the lives of Australians, such as tax cuts, which are a feature, in three rounds, plus the instant $1,000 deduction plus the Working Australian Tax Offset, and cheaper medicines, at $25 or $7.70 frozen until the end of the decade for concession cardholders. This is not just a healthcare initiative; it is a cost-of-living initiative. More bulk-billed GP visits—I note that fully bulk-billed clinics have doubled in my electorate of Sturt since the beginning of 2026—are not just a healthcare policy. They are a cost-of-living policy.

The reduction in student debt of 20 per cent, welcomed by thousands of students across Australia, is not just an education policy; it is a cost-of-living policy. Equally, free TAFE has a dual design. Not only has it encouraged thousands of Australians to obtain a qualification in a critical industry or an industry with skill shortages; it is a cost-of-living measure. Paid prac, where students studying—for example, teaching nursing or social work—receive a $300-a-week payment when they are out on what are sometimes multiple week-long placements, is a cost-of-living measure. The multiple rounds of energy bill relief rolled out by the government were also a cost-of-living measure. More recently, the government cut the fuel excise in a deliberate, targeted and effective effort to provide cost-of-living relief to Australian families.

So, if we are talking about cost-of-living promises, then this is what the government promised to deliver: cheaper medicines, more bulk-billing, more urgent care clinics, more endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics, more tax cuts, 20 per cent relief from student debt, and free TAFE, just to name a few initiatives. These have been delivered. This government is delivering, and it will continue to craft policies that have cost-of-living relief for the Australian people at the heart of the agenda for the rest of this term and beyond.

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