Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week the Prime Minister came to my electorate and my community, and what did he do? He washed a young woman's hair! It's such a shame that he didn't tell me he was coming, because I would have introduced him to a range of local people—the sorts of people who it seems that he just doesn't want to hear from—like Tracy, who is the hardest-working nurse you could ever hope to meet. She was in my office last week, crying, because she and her colleagues at Frankston Hospital are run off their feet and getting no recognition from the federal government.

Or there's Matthew, who has an intellectual disability. All he wants to do is get a job. But because of cuts to his NDIS plan he can't even afford the transport to go to interviews. Or perhaps there's Joe, whose parents are in aged care—the aged-care system, which is in crisis. They got COVID, they were separated and isolated in dementia wards. They were so distressed at being left alone that they had to be sedated. Or there are the aged-care workers who are working shift after shift after shift to care for the most vulnerable Australians and who have had their pleas for help ignored by this federal government and by a minister who goes to the cricket. Or perhaps the Prime Minister could have talked to Rachel, who runs two GP clinics in Carrum Downs which can't get bulk-billing GPs to come and stay because of this government's policies.

These are the real people in my electorate who I stand up for every day.