Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

When Australians talk about cost of living, they want to know if they can afford to see a doctor, if they can afford to fill a prescription, access mental health assistance, age with dignity, put a roof over their heads, keep the lights on and pay the bills. And that is why this Labor government's priorities matter. We stand for strengthening Medicare, strengthening public hospitals, making medicines cheaper, supporting older Australians, investing in mental health and building a cleaner energy future that lowers bills for all Australians, and that's what we are delivering.

Labor believes all you need to access health care is your Medicare card, not your credit card. That's why we delivered the single largest investment into Medicare in Australian history through our bulk-billing reforms. For too many Novocastrians, seeing a GP had become harder and more expensive. Bulk-billing rates had been in decline for years. People were putting off appointments because they simply could not afford them. The Labor government stepped in because universal health care is not something you should allow to slowly disappear. It is something you fight for. In this budget we are delivering six new, fully bulk-billing clinics across Newcastle, the Hunter and Central Coast regions. That means more families are able to see a doctor without worrying about the bill at the end of the appointment, more pensioners getting care earlier and more people being able to take sick children to the GP before conditions worsen. That's what Medicare is supposed to do, and we are not stopping there.

We've made Medicare urgent care clinics permanent. These clinics are changing lives. Across Australia 136 urgent care clinics have opened their doors. In our own community almost 30,000 Novocastrians have already visited the Charlestown clinic since it opened in November 2024. Think about what that means. It means that nearly 30,000 people got urgent medical attention free of charge, without having to sit for hours in an emergency department. But it's not just the convenience of not sitting in the department that's important. It's the fact that we don't want people who need primary health care presenting at a tertiary health institution like a hospital. Nearly 30,000 people have received free care close to their homes. That's nearly 30,000 people who avoided the stress of unnecessary hospital visits. This is practical reform. That is what investment in health care looks like.

While we're expanding access, we're also strengthening the backbone of our healthcare system—our public hospitals. Labor has delivered an extra $25 billion into public hospital funding. That funding matters in communities like Newcastle. It supports frontline workers. It helps reduce pressure on emergency departments, and it helps hospitals deliver the care Australians deserve.

We also know that affordable health care means more affordable medicines. There is not much point in getting a prescription if you can't afford to fill it. That is why Labor cut the maximum cost of medicines on the PBS to just $25 a script and only $7.70 for concession card holders. In my community of Newcastle there's been almost $3 million that people have saved in cheaper medicines administered since those changes were brought in. That's $3 million sitting in people's pockets that they wouldn't have otherwise had. This is real cost-of-living relief. It means that someone managing diabetes, heart disease, asthma or chronic pain can save hundreds of dollars a year. It means older Australians are not forced to choose between groceries, medicines, petrol and rent. That is the difference Labor governments make.

We're continuing to modernise Medicare for the way Australians live today. Through 1800MEDICARE, Australians can access free 24-hour telehealth advice and care right from their own home. For regional communities, busy families and people who cannot easily travel, that service is incredibly important. Health care should not stop at the door of a clinic. It should meet Australians where they are.

One of the areas where this government is driving the most significant change is around women's health. For far too long women's pain has been dismissed. Conditions went undiagnosed. Essential treatments were unaffordable. Women were just told to put up with it or that it really wasn't that bad. This government has said, 'Enough,' and that is why Labor delivered the biggest investment in women's health in Australia's history. We've opened 33 endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics across the country. For the first time in more than 30 years new contraceptive pills have been added to the PBS. We've reduced the cost of menopause and endometriosis medicines to just $25 a script. We expanded bulk-billing for long-term contraceptives like IUDs, saving women up to $400. These reforms are not symbolic. They are practical, they improve lives and they restore dignity. They send a message that women's health matters.

Mental health matters too. After years where Australians struggled to access support, Labor is rebuilding mental health care backed by Medicare. We are investing more than $1 billion into mental health services. We're opening 92 Medicare mental health centres across Australia, including one in Charlestown. We're upgrading the Newcastle headspace into a headspace Plus service and, through the Medicare mental health check in, Australians can access free therapy and support from their home, because mental healthcare should not be available only to those who can afford expensive private treatments. Every Australian deserves support when they need it, and every parent deserves to know that their child can get help early.

Labor also believes that Australians deserve dignity as they age. Older Australians built this country. They raised families, worked hard, paid taxes, volunteered in their communities and helped shape the nation that we are today. They deserve respect and, after a decade of neglect in aged care, Labor got to work. We put nurses back into nursing homes. We've delivered the biggest aged-care reforms in a generation and we're now building on them with more home-care packages, more aged-care beds and more choice for older Australians and their families. If older Australians want to stay at home for longer—and many do—they should be supported to do so safely and independently. We listened to concerns around dignity in care and we're delivering reforms that put people first.

Australia is also facing another challenge that goes right to the heart of cost of living, and that's housing affordability. For too many young people, homeownership has felt further and further out of their reach. People who work hard, saving hard and doing everything right have felt that they've been locked out of the market. This government understands that frustration. Indeed, it's not just a frustration of younger people, as important as that is. Their parents—indeed, sometimes their grandparents—are coming to me sharing that frustration, worry and concern about their children or their grandchildren not having the same kind of opportunities that they've had in life. It's really exactly the reason why Labor's pulling every lever available to us as a Commonwealth government to make homeownership a reality again. We're increasing housing supply, we're building more homes we are supporting renters and, importantly, we're delivering tax reforms now that create a fairer and more efficient system that actually helps first home buyers compete. Young Australians should not feel like the system is stacked against them when they are trying to buy their first home, and these reforms are about restoring balance, about making sure that the dream of homeownership is not reserved for those with wealth behind them but remains achievable for teachers, nurses, tradies, retail workers and young families.

For first home buyers, this matters. It means a system that works better for the people trying to get into the market, not just for the people who are already deeply invested in it. It means more opportunity, more fairness and more confidence that hard work can lead to security. Labor knows that there is no single fix to the housing challenge, which has been built up over many decades, but we know also that doing nothing is not an option, and that's why this government is tackling the problem from every angle, boosting supply, investing in infrastructure, supporting affordable housing and reforming the tax system so it works for the next generation, not just the last one. Homeownership should still be part of the Australian dream.

And now I want to turn to another issue that affects every household every day: energy bills. Australians want lower power prices, they want reliability and they want a government prepared to invest in the future rather than argue about the past. That's exactly what Labor is doing, and one of the practical ways Labor is doing this is through the Solar Share Offer, helping households benefit from cheaper, cleaner energy. This is about making sure Australians can benefit from the massive growth in renewable energy even if they don't own rooftop solar themselves. The idea is simple: during the middle of the day, when solar energy generation is high and electricity is abundant, households can access periods of free daytime power, and this means that families can run their dishwashers, their washing machines, dryers, hot water systems, electric charge, electric car chargers and other appliances during those hours where you're getting free electricity and save money on those bills. This is about sharing the benefits of Australia's renewable energy success more fairly, and it's part of Labor's broader plan to deliver cheaper, cleaner and more reliable energy. It's important.

The evidence is already coming through. Just yesterday, new figures showed that Australia has hit 50 per cent renewable energy and we're leading the world in battery deployment. This record renewable energy generation is helping drive power prices down. Across New South Wales, my home state, household electricity prices are forecast to fall by another 3.4 per cent with even bigger reductions for small businesses—up to 20.9 per cent reductions for small businesses in rural New South Wales. That matters enormously for families and local businesses doing it tough.

Labor understands that the transition to clean energy is not just an environmental policy. It's an economic policy, a cost-of-living policy and an industry policy. For regions like Newcastle and the Hunter, it's also a jobs policy because our region has always powered Australia. From coal and steel to clean energy and advanced manufacturing, Newcastle has never been afraid of hard work or big transitions. Under Labor, Newcastle and the Hunter will continue to play a central role in Australia's economic future.

The measures I've spoken of today are united by a simple principle. Labor believes government should make life better for ordinary Australians—not harder, not more expensive and not more uncertain. Government should not be dragging us back to the last century. Whether it's strengthening Medicare, making medicines cheaper, expanding mental health care, supporting older Australians or investing in cleaner, cheaper energy—these are reforms designed to improve people's lives. They are reforms grounded in fairness, grounded in opportunity and grounded in the belief that no Australian should be left behind. That's what this government is delivering, and that's why these investments matter so deeply to communities like Newcastle and the Hunter.

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