Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Albanese government understands the pressures being felt across Australia, in homes, particularly in my electorate of Hasluck. I hear regularly from people who are experiencing particular cost-of-living pressures, such as pensioners who are close to paying off their mortgage but not quite and are now concerned about the interest rate rises and what that means for them, and young families who are just working hard to try and get ahead. While the RBA will make its own decisions on how to manage the interest rate rise, we are delivering on the commitments we made at the election to help reduce the cost of living.

In education and training, for example, the government is providing 20,000 extra university places. In my electorate of Hasluck, Curtin campus has a health-science focus, which means many students will be able to access a career pathway into health. Additionally, with Midland TAFE—I'm lucky to have that in the Midland precinct. The prospective students there will be benefiting from a number of fee-free places as well as commitments to advance technology in renewable manufacturing of wind turbines. There are 180,000 fee-free places across Australia. Being able to step into a new job and upgrade skills, at no cost, will be a way of getting ahead.

In health, we know how much pressure there is on hospital systems around the nation. This is why the commitment through recommendations coming from the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce Report will result in there being more additional urgent care clinics. For Midland, we will have a return of the fee-free bulk-billing urgent care clinic. I look forward to welcoming Minister Butler to the electorate to discuss that but also the opportunity to have a second one out in the growth corridor of Ellenbrook. We need to take the pressure of emergency departments, and we know that that's a way forward to do so. Additionally, we've heard the great news that, for the first time ever, we're getting a reduction in the PBS prescription costs. The maximum co-payment is now dropping from $42.50 to $30. That is a way of reducing costs for individuals and families, when it comes to their take-home pay.

There's early childhood education. So many wonderful young families, across the electorate of Hasluck, are looking to get ahead and return to the workforce early. They know that the opportunity for their children to better access early childhood education is the way. For my electorate, 5,000 families will benefit from being able to access affordable early childhood centres. That's a million families across Australia.

We also saw this week the housing future fund— (Time expired)