Gabriel Ng (Menzies, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How is the Albanese Labor government delivering on its commitments to the Australian people to make a positive difference to their lives?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Menzies for his question—my favourite ever member for Menzies, it must be said. Six months on from the election, our Labor government is delivering the plans and policies that the Australian people voted for on 3 May.

We committed to cut student debt by 20 per cent and we delivered it. We committed to making medicines cheaper and we've delivered that. We expanded paid parental leave and super paid on PPL, and we've delivered that as well. We committed to the biggest ever women's health program, including reproductive health, and we have delivered that. We committed to $10,000 bonuses for construction apprentices and paid prac for teachers, nurses, social workers and midwives, and we have delivered that. We committed to enshrine penalty rates into law, protecting weekend and overtime pay, and we have delivered that. We said we'd cut taxes for every single taxpayer; we, of course, delivered that, and we'll top up tax cuts next year and the year after. We committed to the largest investment boost ever in Medicare, tripling the bulk-billing incentive, and on Saturday we delivered that. We committed to 50 urgent care clinics, going on top of the 87 that we had already opened in our first term, and they are opening right around the country, including one very soon—before parliament comes back—in the electorate of Grayndler. We also committed to ban social media for under-16s—so that kids have time to be kids, rather than engaging on their devices—to get our youngest Australians offline and into life.

Today we're joined in the gallery by a courageous 12-year-old, Florence—or Flossie, as she likes to be called—who's here with her mum and a neurologist expert from Hobart in Tasmania. Flossie was good enough to give me this friendship bracelet, and I thank her for it. I declare it on the register at this time! The work that Florence has done, as a young Australian, to inspire other children to embrace activities other than being on their devices is quite extraordinary. This is a social change backed by both sides of this parliament that has come from the bottom up. It's come from parents who have lost their sons and daughters, but it's also come from young people like Flossie, who's out there with her peers, saying: 'Get engaged in sport. Get engaged in music. Get engaged in reading. Get engaged in communicating with each other in order to benefit your life, not just in the period until you turn 16 but so that your life is better all the way through'—because Flossie has investigated what the neurological impact is of social media and the harm that it does. She is an articulate, inspiring advocate, and on behalf of this parliament—I think, everyone in this parliament—I say thank you for the work that you are doing and the leadership you are giving to young Australians.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!