Tracey Roberts (Pearce, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today in full support of a motion put forward by the member for McEwen highlighting the crucial steps taken by the Albanese Labor government to address the pressing issue of cost-of-living challenges facing Australians. Today marks a significant milestone for every Australian taxpayer as they receive a long-awaited tax cut. In Pearce alone, 86,000 residents are set to benefit with an average tax cut of $1,618 per person. It's important to know that Labor's tax cuts are designed to support a vast majority, including 85 per cent of taxpayers in Pearce totalling 73,000 individuals. Whether you're a nurse, teacher, police officer or tradie or you're working in retail or another industry in Pearce, we will be delivering a tax cut for every Australian taxpayer and bigger tax cuts for more workers to help with the cost of living.

From 1 July, the Albanese Labor government will deliver a $325 energy bill relief directly to small businesses around the country. This shows the Albanese Labor government's commitment to small businesses in Pearce and to ensuring that jobs in those small businesses are not only protected but also provided with a strong economic environment for jobs growth. The Albanese Labor government is committed to supporting small-to-medium businesses across the country and is providing a $290 million cash-flow support by extending the $20,000 instant asset write-off. The Albanese Labor government is also encouraging business owners to invest in their businesses, and, as small-to-medium enterprises grow and succeed, they will provide more local employment opportunities and contribute to the wider economy.

The Albanese Labor government is providing billions of dollars of cost-of-living relief to help ease some of the pressure that people have been experiencing during these times. We have provided cheaper medicines and energy bill relief, both of which are very much welcome in my electorate of Pearce. We have tripled the bulk-billing incentives for millions of Australians, and the Housing Australia Future Fund commences, along with further instalments of our energy rebates. We are doing our best to ease pressures on Australian households, and recently the ABS data has confirmed our $23 billion cost-of-living relief plan is working, taking half a percentage point off inflation.

The residents in Pearce will welcome new legislation that allows new pension entrants over the age-pension age and eligible veterans to start with a work bonus income bank balance of $4,000 instead of $0. Both new and existing recipients can keep the maximum work bonus balance limit at $11,800, up from $7,800. This change aims to support employment, which is a crucial factor for many. This will help people who wish to work if they want to, and I do know residents who are over the age-pension age that wish to do exactly that. We are doubling the employment income zero-rate period to reduce barriers for income support recipients to take up work, by allowing them to retain concession cards under the benefits for longer when they return to work. These are all key factors for income support recipients considering a return to work.

The government's 10-point cost-of-living relief plan, costing $22.5 billion over five years, has been clearly outlined. So let us recap what it entails: delivering the Energy Bill Relief Fund, providing cheaper child care, increasing Medicare bulk-billing, delivering cheaper medicines, boosting income support payments, increasing rent assistance, providing fee-free TAFE training, building more affordable homes, expanding paid parental leave and getting wages moving again. We know that we do not live in a vacuum and that world events are inflicting price pressures on Australians. That is why we're rolling out tax cuts to every Australian, along with billions of dollars of cost-of-living relief that has been carefully thought out to help Australians earn more and keep more of what they earn.

Starting today, 1 July, the Albanese Labor government is delivering tax relief for Australians where they need it the most. Our plan puts money back into the pockets of all taxpayers to help with the cost of living. This additional income will provide better support for all taxpayers and assist families in Pearce with covering their living expenses. The government's economic plan is all about helping Austrians, including in my community of Pearce, to earn more and keep more of what they earn, which is why our budget is focused on cost-of-living tax cuts for every taxpayer, energy rebates for households and small businesses, and real wages growth.

Sophie Scamps (Mackellar, Independent) | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the motion that tackling cost-of-living pressure must be the government's No. 1 priority, as indeed it is mine. The cost-of-living crisis is having a very significant impact on the people of Mackellar. When people who don't live there think of Mackellar, they typically think of Palm Beach and Whale Beach, which are indeed some of the most beautiful and fortunate parts of Australia. What they overlook, however, is the vast majority of the electorate, from Dee Why to Davidson, from Narrabeen to Narraweena, and Collaroy to Cromer, where ordinary Australians and families are quite simply doing it tough right now.

Demand for food support from wonderful Mackellar charities such as AOK and Street Mission has never been higher. Regardless of the cause, over the past two years I have consistently called for and supported many steps to alleviate the impacts of the cost-of-living crisis. I supported capping gas prices when the war in Ukraine made them soar. I supported making child care more affordable and making visits to the GP and medicines cheaper. I supported paid parental leave and fee-free TAFE and I also supported making HECS far fairer. I supported investing in the construction of more affordable and social housing and the inquiries into price gouging by supermarkets. Importantly, I supported the changes to the stage 3 tax cuts so they are fairer and benefit more people, especially people on lower income who were going to miss out.

But the main thing I want to talk about today, which will have an enormous long-term impact on the cost of living, is energy prices. As the world transitions away from fossil fuels due to climate change, Australians will nevertheless continue to demand two things from our energy system. They will want it to be as inexpensive as possible and as reliable as possible. These two core demands are vital for households and for our economy, particularly if we truly do want a future made in Australia by expanding our manufacturing base. It is these two demands, not ideology and not politicking, that must dictate our energy. They are pragmatic.

The 2023 GenCost report by the CSIRO and the Australian Energy Market Operator confirmed that firmed renewables are the cheapest form of reliable energy in Australia both now and to 2030. It is simply irresponsible and undermines the status of our nation's key scientific body for the coalition to argue otherwise for political reasons. The Grattan Institute explains that the 20 per cent rise in the cost of wholesale electricity prices last year had a few main causes: the war in Ukraine causing global gas shortages and pushing up the price of gas, outages at ageing coal power plants reducing competition, and extreme weather events causing flooding in coalmines. The fact that renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy and getting cheaper is the one thing countering further rises in energy prices right now. Already, 40 per cent of Australians' energy is generated from wind and solar—a 25 per cent increase in the last two years. So we are already a long way down the path to the 82 per cent renewable energy target by 2030. Energy prices will continue to reduce in line with the increase of renewable energy inputs to our grid.

On the other hand, the CSIRO and AEMO found that nuclear energy generation would be the most expensive energy technology available for consumers. Relying on nuclear energy would make household and business energy bills go up, not down, causing inflation throughout our economy. We know from experience that nuclear reactors generally take a couple of decades to build. Heading down the nuclear path would be too expensive and too late to help with the cost-of-living crisis we are experiencing right now. It is absolutely critical that Australia has cheap, clean energy now, in this decade, not in two decades time.

To make energy cheaper for households and businesses, I call on the government to invest heavily in the rollout of rooftop solar and behind-the-meter battery storage. This would take the pressure off building big renewable projects and transmission lines in the regions and immediately deliver lower energy prices for Australians across the country. We cannot make the transition to clean, cheaper energy quickly enough. It is good for the planet and it is good for our back pockets.

Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

We all know that cost-of-living pressures mean Aussies have been under the pump for quite some time. They were under the pump before we came to office two years ago, and they're still under the pump. The big difference is that this government is doing something about it. We are tackling the cost of living as the No. 1 priority of the Albanese Labor government. It's why our budget and our economic plan are all about easing inflation and easing those pressures in household budgets.

From today, 1 July, every taxpayer in this country is getting a tax cut. Not just some taxpayers, and not just some who are earning high incomes, but every single Australian taxpayer, all 13.6 million, get a tax cut. That includes 280,000 Tasmanians, and that includes 46,000 of my constituents in Lyons. This government is delivering cost-of-living relief to all Australians, not just to some. Our tax plan delivers bigger tax cuts for more taxpayers than Scott Morrison's plan from five years ago. An additional 2.9 million Australians earning $45,000 or less, who missed out entirely under the former stage 3 cuts, will now receive a tax cut. Just think about that. Those who need relief the most were to receive not one red cent under the Liberal's stage 3 tax plan. We changed that plan, and we have now ensured that people earning under $45,000 a year are getting a tax cut. On average, women will retain an additional $700 per year compared with the former government's stage 3 cuts. It's still a great shame in this country that, on average, women continue to earn less than men.

I am particularly proud of these tax cuts in Tasmania because 90 per cent of Tasmanian taxpayers, nine in 10, are going to be better off under Labor's tax plan than they would have been under stage 3. As the member for Lyons, I know that my constituents in my big, regional electorate are absolutely feeling the pinch on their household budgets. It means something to me to be able to look them in the eye and say, 'We know that you are hurting, and we are doing something about it.'

This government understands the pressures they are under, and we are taking real action to ease those pressures. From today the Albanese government is rolling out meaningful and responsible cost-of-living relief. There is a tax cut for every Australian taxpayer. For many, it means doubling the tax cut that they would have received under stage 3. Every household gets $300 in energy bill relief. There is $325 for small businesses from today. There will be a freeze on the cost of PBS medicines for every Australian. There will be an expansion of our Paid Parental Leave scheme. There will be more funding to build more homes in every part of the country. If only the coalition and the Greens would get out of the way in the Senate so we could release more housing funding. All this comes on top of a third consecutive pay rise for 2.6 million workers backed by this government.

Of course, the cost-of-living relief set to flow from this week is building on cost-of-living measures the government have already delivered in our first two years of government: cheaper child care, fee-free TAFE for nearly 500,000 Australians, the biggest boost to Commonwealth rent assistance in 30 years and the biggest investment ever in expanding bulk-billing—including, of course, the creation of Medicare urgent care clinics across the country. We're about to get a fifth one in Tasmania, and I'm proud to say that it's in my electorate of Lyons. All this is making a difference to the cost-of-living pressures that people are facing.

We know that the work is not over. We don't pretend, for even one minute, that it is. We know the work is still to be done, but we are doing it. We are taking real action because we absolutely care about getting the job done. It's a fact that Australians are better off under a Labor government. More jobs, higher wages, bigger tax cuts—that's what the Albanese government is delivering. Australians are earning more, and, as of today, they will get to keep more of what they earn.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) | Link to this | Hansard source

With all this pizzazz and excitement, you would think that people out in voter land would be dancing in the streets and rejoicing. I wonder, member for Wright, are they dancing in railway street in Beaudesert? They're certainly not dancing in Baylis Street in Wagga.

Labor talks about tax cuts and power price reductions. The member for Lyons has just mentioned, 'This is our No. 1 priority.' He said it very earnestly and seriously. That was what was on his talking points. And they all come in here and say, 'We want them to earn more and keep more of what they earn,' I mean, it is just a paraphrase of, quite frankly, the dirt unit's talking points.

But, seriously, they talk about cost of living being the No. 1 issue—for now. Let me tell you, it wasn't the No. 1 issue last year. Do you know what was? It was the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. It was the referendum. I haven't seen the Labor Party so excited since, as the member for Wright just reminded me, they thought they were going to win the referendum. Remember that? They thought they were going to win the referendum! How did that go for you?

We want our Indigenous peoples to receive the best services, to receive the most help and to get the most support that they need, particularly in regional and remote Australia—remote in particular, where the services are lacking, and that is a fault of all of us. But Labor were so committed they spent $450 million to $500 million on the Voice, and it failed. While they were talking about the Voice, while ministers were going over to London and elsewhere decrying what we were doing here and how terrible we were, and while the anti-Australian Greens were out saying how racist we were, the cost of living was escalating for families right across this nation.

When the Voice failed, all of sudden Labor thought, 'Gee, we better do something.' Somebody actually belled the cat. Somebody said, 'We've got a cost-of-living crisis in this nation, and Labor is in charge.' Labor members then thought, 'Oh my goodness.' Some of them ventured out of their electorate offices and heard what was being said in railway street, Beaudesert. They heard what was being said even in Canberra, in the member for Bean's electorate. Right across the nation there was this growing concern about the cost of living, and now it's like there's a big grizzly bear that has monstered the government, because it's rampant and out of control. Labor is now backpedalling to see what they can do about it. They offer 300 bucks for power savings. Well, they promised $275 97 times prior to the election. The Prime Minister said: 'My word is my bond. We're going to be more transparent. We're going to do the right thing by the Australian people.' Then they got focused on other things.

We hear from those opposite about affordable child care. I'd just like available child care. You talk to, particularly, mums across regional Australia, and they would just like a centre to drop their children off at so they can participate in the workforce.

And then we hear about power price cuts. Well, it's winter and it's cold; winter in Australia is cold. Let me tell you, there are a lot of people wearing another layer of clothing and putting another doona on their bed overnight because they can't afford to turn the heater on. That is a fact. More people are using the likes of the Salvos and St Vinnies than ever before, and that is such a shame. We do have a cost-of-living crisis.

I was down near the Murrumbidgee River in my home town of Wagga Wagga yesterday and saw the number of tents that had popped up alongside the river. Those people can't afford a house, they can't find a house, they can't afford to rent and they can't find anywhere to rent. This is a growing crisis. Labor has only just cottoned on to the fact that it is out of control, that people are hurting and that people, particularly those in regional Australia—not that those opposite would care—are doing it very, very tough. Those people in regional Australia—like the member for Wright's electorate and mine, Riverina—are the ones who carried this nation during COVID. They were the ones who carried this nation, provided the food, provided the fibre, provided the mining exports and kept the lights on. That's what regional Australia does. It's time that those opposite realised and addressed the cost-of-living crisis.

Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.