Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

The housing market in Australia is broken, and many young Australians know that very well at the moment. When a nurse, a teacher, a childcare worker, a police officer or an ambulance officer pays more tax in our taxation system than someone who earns millions of dollars by simply buying and selling assets, then we know that there is an issue with our taxation system. Our government is determined to fix it to ensure that the taxation system is fairer and that it promotes productive work in our economy and delivers for the average Australian worker and their family.

We know that, in Australia at the moment, housing is becoming incredibly unaffordable. In the electorate I represent, we're finding that a lot of teachers, nurses and police officers can't afford to live in the community they work in. When they go to an auction on a weekend to potentially buy their first home, they're priced out of the market by investors who are receiving large tax concessions under our taxation system to support them to buy a negatively geared property. That's why our government is acting to reform our taxation system—to ensure that it is fairer and delivers for working Australians.

Those opposite are teaming up with One Nation—so we've got the Liberal Party, the National Party and One Nation in a crackpot coalition teaming up to defend the current system. They want the system that is currently broken and is not delivering for working Australians to be maintained and to stay in place. It is Labor that is proposing to change the system to ensure that it is much fairer and works for the average Australian. We're proposing to do that by reforming negative gearing, ensuring that people who currently negatively gear properties will be able to continue to do so into the future—so they're not affected by the prospective changes—but that, from a point in time, those that wish to negatively gear properties will have to do so on the basis of purchasing off the plan or new developments, the philosophy being that we're encouraging people to invest in building new properties as an increase to the supply of housing in Australia, which we greatly need.

Secondly, we're also reforming the capital gains tax discount, returning to the inflation based method of calculating capital gains and providing discounts based on inflation rather than the current 50 per cent discount that was put in place in 1999 by the Howard government. This will generate a much fairer taxation system and ensure that Australians who are working hard, trying to make ends meet, feel that the taxation system delivers for them. And because we're making those reforms, we're able to deliver tax cuts for working Australians. Two tax cuts are coming up—one this year, one next year. We're also able to deliver a working Australians tax offset of $250 and a $1,000 instant return on taxation returns for the average working Australian.

This is all part of our government's broader economic plan, providing real relief for Australians who are doing it tough while strengthening our resilience and delivering meaningful reform for the future. These are all part of a responsible budget, shaped for a responsible moment, for Australians who are facing cost-of-living pressure and know that that is real, for families making difficult choices, for pensioners who are stretching every dollar, for young people wondering whether homeownership is still within reach and for small businesses that are navigating global uncertainty that continues to ripple through supply chains, energy markets and interest rates.

In this environment, our government has a responsibility to act—and that's exactly what we're doing. We're providing support where it's most needed while also laying the foundations for a stronger and more productive economy. That's exactly what the budget does—it delivers targeted cost-of-living relief measures, ones that won't pour fuel on the fire of inflation we've had over recent times in Australia, ones that strengthen essential services, reform the tax system, invest in housing and build a more sustainable budget for the longer term.

At the heart of our plan is a simple principle: responsible relief, responsible reform. We're helping Australians today while preparing the nation for tomorrow. One of the most significant ways we're helping is through that cost-of-living and tax relief—and this year, the legislated tax cuts will flow to every Australian taxpayer. That means more money staying in people's pockets at times when they need it most. On top of that, we're going to deliver new and permanent income tax relief through the $250 working Australians tax offset. It's a measure that boosts take-home pay and rewards work. We're also simplifying returns and reducing compliance burdens through the $1,000 instant tax deduction.

These reforms are part of a broader effort to build a tax system that is fairer, more efficient and more supportive of aspiration. They sit alongside changes designed to help more Australians achieve security in owning their own home. Through targeted tax reform, we're supporting around 75,000 additional Australians into homeownership. It's a meaningful step forward, restoring fairness and opportunity in the housing market, given that housing is one of the most significant challenges of our time.

We're not just undertaking tax reform; we're also ensuring that we're building the supply of housing in Australia. The Housing Australia Future Fund is now beginning to ensure that it's investing in new housing opportunities for Australians. In Kingsford Smith, 282 new social and affordable homes funded through the Housing Australia Future Fund are currently being constructed and will provide vitally needed housing, particularly for essential workers. Nurses working at the Prince of Wales Hospital, police officers working with the Eastern Beaches Command and childcare workers working and educating our kids in our local community are the people who will benefit from Labor's reforms around negative gearing and capital gains tax and our reforms to ensure that we're building more homes and adding to the supply of housing throughout the country.

We're also ensuring that we're unlocking infrastructure that supports housing with a $2 billion investment in enabling infrastructure to unlock the construction of up to 64,000 more homes. That brings our Homes for Australia Plan to more than $47 billion. It's a comprehensive long-term strategy to increase supply, improve affordability and ensure that more Australians have a safe place to live. At the same time, we're providing the states with $59.4 million to help secure social and affordable housing for more than 4,000 young people at risk of homelessness. These are practical, targeted measures that respond to real needs.

We're also delivering immediate cost-of-living relief for Australians with their fuel costs, immediate relief at the bowser. For three months, the fuel excise will be halved, providing direct savings to households and businesses. The heavy vehicle road user charge will be reduced to zero over the same period, helping to ease pressure and costs associated with freight. We're protecting consumers, doubling penalties for major breaches of consumer law.

You wouldn't believe it, but we actually have more fuel reserves in Australia now than we did when the crisis started. Much of that is thanks to the good work of the minister for energy and renewable energy, who's sitting here with me at the table. He's done an excellent job in securing those additional fuel supplies for Australia. We now have more fuel than we did when this crisis started, and, because of the good, strong relationships that we have with our partner nations within the regions like Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Brunei, we've been able to negotiate additional fuel supplies for Australia with more fuel on the water on its way to Australia. Through Export Finance Australia, we've been able to put together an arrangement that ensures that we can underwrite contracts by a contract for difference to ensure that people who are importing fuel into Australia aren't risking huge losses into the future should the price of fuel fall dramatically. It's all part of a suite of arrangements that were put together by the Minister for Climate Change and Energy in conjunction with other ministers in our government, to ensure that Australia's fuel security is as certain as possible into the future and that we're putting pressure to lower costs at the bowser, and hopefully that will begin to flow through to Australians.

In the Medicare and healthcare sector, we're ensuring that urgent care clinics become a permanent feature of our healthcare system. I know that the Medicare urgent care clinic in Maroubra, in our community, is open from 7 am in the morning till 9 pm in the evening, seven days a week. Everything is bulk-billed, ensuring that Australians and people living in our community get the health care they need when they need it and, importantly, taking much needed pressure off the Prince of Wales Hospital. The number of GPs that are bulk-billing in our community is increasing as well. I visited one last Friday, the Maroubra Medical & Dental Centre. All of their doctors and GPs now are bulk-billing. It's a fully bulk-billing practice, adding to the number of practices that are increasing their bulk-billing in our community.

This particular bill also ensures that there's relief for people in the budget, particularly those that are paying the Medicare levy at lower rates of income. Schedule 5 of this bill increases the Medicare levy for low-income thresholds for singles, families, seniors and pensioners to 2.9 per cent, in line with recent movements in the consumer price index. This ensures that low-income households continue to be exempt from paying the Medicare levy or pay it at a reduced rate if their incomes have increased, in line with or less than inflation. It's a simple, fair adjustment that protects those who can least afford additional costs. Successive governments have increased these thresholds in line with CPI since 1997, and it's a longstanding practice that ensures that the Medicare levy remains progressive and equitable. More than a million low-income earners are expected to benefit from these increases in 2025-26. It's a practical example of how we're easing pressure on household budgets while maintaining the integrity of our healthcare system.

Schedule 6 introduces an important reform that will assist a lot of the migrants that we have, particularly the Greek community in Kingsford Smith, who tend to travel back to their homeland during the summer months, which we're coming up to soon, through a change to the pension, a supplement for Australians travelling overseas. It doubles the amount of time a pensioner can travel overseas temporarily before their pension supplement is affected from six weeks to 12 weeks. I know that many of the members of the Greek community in our area will travel back to Greece, to their islands and their homelands, for a period of up to three months. Who wouldn't want to go back to Greece and enjoy the summer months? I often say to people in our community, Minister for Climate Change and Energy, that the streets of Kingsford and Kensington seem to be a lot freer during the summer months of Europe, when a lot of those people head back home—

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