Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

O'Connor's mineral and agricultural wealth drives the Australian economy, and in this toxic budget my regional communities have been sorely neglected. Families dealing with rising power bills, high grocery prices and increased mortgage stress have received no cost-of-living relief. Medicare bulk-billing remains the exception, not the norm, and we need new initiatives to attract and retain regional GPs. While Labor throws millions at Medicare urgent care clinics in the cities, there is not one planned for anywhere in my vast electorate. Labor claims this budget is creating intergenerational fairness, but in reality it's robbing our young people and families of the opportunity to grow their wealth while simultaneously curbing the self-sufficiency of our self-funded retirees. For our seniors, it's never been harder to access Support at Home, and not one new aged-care bed has been allocated in this budget. Wait times for home care and aged care have blown out to over a year, and our brave O'Connor veterans will be severely impacted by the $5,000 cap to their DVA funding. Our small businesses, farmers, explorers and mining operations will be crippled by the changes to the capital gains tax. No new road or water infrastructure funding further stifles investment and regional growth. Ultimately, O'Connor's mining and agricultural wealth drives this nation's prosperity. This budget raises a fundamental question: are we investing enough in the very regions that sustain Australia's economy and future? And the resounding answer is no.

Renee Coffey (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Friday, I sat down for a coffee with Amelia from Camp Hill, a young parent raising her child, running a small business and doing what so many women in Griffith do every day, carrying family, work, care and community all at once. She was thinking about her child's future, her business, her time and the pressures of building a good life. As policymakers, we cannot pretend that decisions we make in this place impact everyone in the community in the same way. Decisions about wages, child care, paid parental leave, health, housing, safety and superannuation affect women in specific ways. That's why Labor brought back the Women's Budget Statement—to build gender equality into decision-making from the start—after those opposite scrapped it. Our progress is clear: women's average weekly earnings have grown by almost $300 since 2022, more than one million families have benefited from cheaper child care, paid parental leave is expanding to six months and women have saved more than $647 million through cheaper medicines and better access to contraceptives and menopause therapies. In Griffith, women lead across every part of community life. Their leadership is practical, generous and often quiet, but it is felt in every suburb of our community. This budget backs them. It backs their work, their safety and their health. There is more to do, but, under the Albanese Labor government, women are in the cabinet room and in the caucus room at record levels, helping shape the decisions that affect our lives, affect our communities and affect our families.