Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, UNSW research shows that Fowler has the highest level of rental stress in the country, with almost half of the renters in housing stress. Working renters in my community are being smashed by high rents and soaring bills, yet most are not eligible for rent assistance or other concessions, even though they do the right thing and pay their taxes. What specific new relief will your government deliver this year for the renters in south-west Sydney who are above concession thresholds but are still falling further behind?

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

I thank the member for Fowler for her question. The first thing we will do, of course—that the member for Fowler, I'm sure, is quite conscious of because I think she voted for the tax cuts and welcomed them—is tax cuts for every taxpayer, including every single taxpayer in the electorate of Fowler. Fowler has 65,000 taxpayers, and I can inform the member that the average tax cut will be $2,160 a year or $42 every single week. That'll be followed up next year by the same—another tax cut—again reducing that first marginal tax rate so that every taxpayer benefits, not just some. It's a big difference between our approach on this side and the approach that was taken by the former government.

In addition to that, I can inform the member that 23,000 people in her electorate have got student debt relief, which is making an enormous difference. In terms of the PBS co-payment reduction, over $5½ million will be saved across 400,000 scripts in her electorate, making an enormous difference as well. In addition to that—something that was opposed by those opposite in various spots over there—was the 60-day scripts policy. Over $2½ million in savings has been made across 380,000 scripts of that. The Liverpool Medicare Urgent Care Clinic that's opened means that all that people who front up need is their Medicare card, not their credit card. And I can inform the member that, as of 2 February, 14,900 of her constituents have been to that urgent care clinic and got the care that they needed, when they needed it, efficiently taking pressure off the emergency departments of hospitals.

In addition to that, we have funded an upgrade at Fairfield Hospital. Even though it's not our responsibility—it's the New South Wales government's responsibility—we are rebuilding that hospital, making it better than ever and making an enormous difference. As for the changes that we made on 1 November, to have the tripling of the bulk-billing incentive, nine additional practices in that electorate have converted to be fully bulk-billing, meaning a total of 83 practices have signed up to be Medicare bulk-billing practices, making an enormous difference to cost of living in the member's electorate.