Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Right around Australia people are dealing with sharp cost-of-living pressures, and for those on low and fixed incomes, for pensioners and single parents and young people earning the minimum wage, those pressures really hurt; they present tough choices and tough realities. But Australians facing those pressures don't want to be told stories; they expect their government to face up to the challenge and to respond.

The Albanese Labor government has responded to stagnant wages by increasing the minimum wage and moving to fix a broken bargaining system. We've acted to address the cost of essential medicines by delivering the largest reduction in the maximum price under the PBS in its 75-year history. We've put a cap on gas prices, which is already having an effect, and we're reforming our energy system to deliver cheaper reliable energy into the future. And we're delivering childcare support for more than one million Australian families. That is what good government looks like—no excuses, no turning away from tough problems, no pretending there is a magic wand or easy answers.

After a decade of inaction and incompetence and dishonesty, the Australian community needs and deserves good government—focused, measured, serious, decisive, hardworking government that is guided by the principle of fairness, that proceeds in a spirit of optimism and that believes in the possibility of positive, sustainable change. That is the Albanese Labor government.