Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How has the Albanese Labor government been delivering on its commitment to build Australia's future, invest in our people and deliver real, lasting cost-of-living relief? What are the risks?

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

I thank the member for Jagajaga for her question, and I thank her for the visit that we had to the repat hospital there, speaking to veterans about the difference that our investment in veterans' affairs has made to the speedy processing of applications and the clearing of the queue—which is what we inherited from those opposite.

When I went to the National Press Club after the election, I said that this year, in that one year after 3 May, we'd be concentrating on a year of delivery: ticking off our commitments one by one, delivering real cost-of-living relief, investing in our people and building Australia's future. And that is what we have been doing.

There are 132 urgent care clinics open around Australia right now. We promised 50 originally; we delivered 87. Then we promised another 50, and another 45 of those 50 are open. And, coming up, there are five more to open—Darwin, Whyalla, Cairns, Caloundra and Coburg—because we deliver on our commitments. They promised to close them; we're opening them. That's the difference.

We promised record investment in bulk-billing. Rates are up over 80 per cent. More than 3,400 GP clinics now bulk-bill every patient, every visit. We promised to cut the cost of PBS medicines, and now they're down to the same price they were in 2004. We promised to strengthen Medicare and we are delivering it.

We promised tax cuts for every taxpayer, and, because we were re-elected, that will happen on 1 July—and another tax cut the following 1 July as well.

We've delivered landmark game-changing funding agreements for both schools and hospitals, delivering on the Gonski principles of making sure that every student gets valued and can fulfil their potential but also delivering a five-year hospital agreement with record funding. We promised paid prac for student nurses, teachers, midwives and social workers, and they're getting it. We promised free TAFE—something that those opposite said they wouldn't value—and three-quarters of a million Australians are getting the skills that they need through free TAFE.

We've been getting on with delivering; those opposite have just stood in the way, too busy fighting each other to bother with fighting for Australians. There's more to do. We'll continue to work each and every day to make a positive difference to the lives of Australians.