Basem Abdo's recent appearances (OpenAustralia.org)
type: channel
language: en-gb
creator: OpenAustralia.org, mprss.php script
date: 2026-02-05T22:06:04+00:00
items: Brotherhood of St Laurence: Youth Transitions Support Pilot Program | Constituency Statements | House debates
items: Health Legislation Amendment (Prescribing of Pharmaceutical Benefits) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
items: Medicare | Questions without Notice | House debates
items: Bondi Beach Attack Victims | Condolences | House debates
items: Energy | Matters of Public Importance | House debates
items: VET Student Loans (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
items: Medical Workforce | Constituency Statements | House debates
items: Apprenticeships | Statements by Members | House debates
items: Medicare | Statements by Members | House debates
items: Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
items: Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
items: Medicare | Private Members' Business | House debates
items: Kolbe Catholic College: Walk against Domestic Violence, Elevation Secondary College | Constituency Statements | House debates
items: Housing | Questions without Notice | House debates
items: Housing | Statements by Members | House debates
items: Housing Australia Investment Mandate Amendment (Delivering on Our 2025 Election Commitment) Direction 2025; Consideration | Documents | House debates
items: National Health Amendment (Cheaper Medicines) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates

Brotherhood of St Laurence: Youth Transitions Support Pilot Program | Constituency Statements | House debates
type: item
description: Last week I joined the Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Anne Aly, in my electorate for a visit to the Brotherhood of St Laurence, where, together, we heard directly from young people in our...
encoded: Last week I joined the Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Anne Aly, in my electorate for a visit to the Brotherhood of St Laurence, where, together, we heard directly from young people in our community who have participated in their Youth Transitions Support Pilot Program. The YTS Pilot Program supports young refugees aged 15 to 25, providing guidance and practical support to help them participate fully in our community through work, education and sport. The program delivers pathways for young refugees to connect with employers, gain work and volunteer experience, and access career guidance, mentoring, training, coaching and support, often at moments when it is needed most. Among those we met was Jawid Noorzai, a 21-year-old originally from Afghanistan, who was connected to the YTS program through another local institution, the Kangan Institute, during his studies. Jawid was initially uncertain about his education and employment pathway. With encouragement and support from YTS, he was accepted into a Diploma of Information Technology at RMIT University. Since then, Jawid has pursued a full-time career in the insulation industry and is giving back, through his involvement as a casual youth adviser, to support other young people along similar settlement journeys. We were also introduced to Dina, a 20-year old who came to Australia from Iraq with her family five years ago and now lives in Craigieburn. Dina faced challenges engaging with the education system due to earlier disruptions in life. After connecting with YTS, she was able to develop her skills, build confidence and pursue her aspirations, securing work as a youth adviser with the Brotherhood of St. Laurence, followed by full-time employment in the hospitality industry. Similar stories were shared by other participants, including Lencho and Sandra, who connected with YTS activities while undertaking their Adult Migrant English Program studies at local institutions in my community. I want to congratulate these…
date: 2026-02-05T10:23:00+00:00

Health Legislation Amendment (Prescribing of Pharmaceutical Benefits) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
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description: I rise to speak in support of the Health Legislation Amendment (Prescribing of Pharmaceutical Benefits) Bill. This reform reflects our government's ongoing commitment to maintaining and...
encoded: I rise to speak in support of the Health Legislation Amendment (Prescribing of Pharmaceutical Benefits) Bill. This reform reflects our government's ongoing commitment to maintaining and strengthening the services that millions of Australians rely on each and every day. In my electorate, interactions with our healthcare system is a lived experience for many. It is something many people live with and seek access to every single day. It determines whether people can get to work, whether children can stay focused at school, whether students can attend their lectures and complete their studies, and whether older Australians can age with dignity, security and continuity of care. The belief that health care should be universal, accessible, affordable and of high quality is a core principle for members on this side of the House. That is why we made a clear commitment to prioritising a range of practical reforms that enable health professionals to deliver timely, accessible and effective care, and this bill does exactly that. This legislation amends the National Health Act to let appropriately trained and endorsed registered nurses to prescribe certain medicines under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, ensuring that those medicines attract Commonwealth subsidy and remain affordable for patients. This is a critical follow-up to the reforms introduced in December 2024, which established a new registration standard to enable qualified nurses to become designated registered nurse prescribers of medicines. Right across my electorate people tell me a familiar story. They are working hard. They are raising families. They are caring for ageing parents and relatives. For them, accessible health care plays an essential role in their day-to-day lives. We do not believe rising costs and a system perpetually under strain are inevitable. We believe they can be changed, reformed and strengthened. That is why it is so important to break down barriers that prevent families from accessing th…
date: 2026-02-05T09:50:00+00:00

Medicare | Questions without Notice | House debates
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description: My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. How are the Albanese Labor government's record investments in bulk-billing helping to strengthen Medicare after a decade of cuts and neglect?
encoded: My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. How are the Albanese Labor government's record investments in bulk-billing helping to strengthen Medicare after a decade of cuts and neglect?
date: 2026-02-04T14:42:00+00:00

Bondi Beach Attack Victims | Condolences | House debates
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description: I rise to stand in grief and sorrow with the families and loved ones of the 15 innocent people murdered and all those injured at Bondi Beach on 14 December 2025. This atrocity, which stole...
encoded: I rise to stand in grief and sorrow with the families and loved ones of the 15 innocent people murdered and all those injured at Bondi Beach on 14 December 2025. This atrocity, which stole innocent lives, was an act of terrorism deliberately targeted at Australia's Jewish community as people gathered to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah. This was a devastating, targeted, antisemitic attack, an attack on our shared values and on all Australians. On the very next day, I stood with members of our Jewish community in Melbourne. I stood with them to mourn, to listen, to grieve and to stand in solidarity. This nation stands with them. Communities right across Australia wrap their arms around them with care, with compassion and with resolve. I joined with the community at the Caulfield Shule to make one thing unmistakably clear: you belong here, never to be silenced by fear or diminished by hate. It should be voice, it should be defended, and it should always be uplifted. Every Jewish Australian has the right to live in peace; to work, to contribute, to worship safely, freely and without fear; to gather in community, proud of who you are; and to be celebrated for the profound contribution the community makes to this nation's strength, its character and its success. The attackers set out to do two things: to take innocent lives and to pull Australia down a dark and dangerous path, one marked by fear, division, hatred and suspicion of one another. They failed. They will fail. Australians will not be divided or defined by fear nor bend to violence. We will defend the right to live openly and safely, and we will respond to hate with resolve. We will stand today, tomorrow and always with all communities who call this country—Australia, in all its diversity—home. The evil of antisemitism wounds more than those it is aimed at. It attacks more than that wonderful expression that was put to me by young members of the Jewish community, something that stuck with me—Jewish joy. An…
date: 2026-01-19T13:11:00+00:00

Energy | Matters of Public Importance | House debates
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description: Those opposite love nothing more than talking Australia down. While this government is strengthening our energy system, lowering wholesale prices and rebuilding our reputation in the world, their...
encoded: Those opposite love nothing more than talking Australia down. While this government is strengthening our energy system, lowering wholesale prices and rebuilding our reputation in the world, their only instinct is to sneer, to undermine and to oppose. With our family in the Pacific, Australia has just secured unprecedented influence over global climate and energy deliberations. In 2026, Australia and the Pacific will co-host a special pre-COP, giving Pacific leaders and communities the global stage they deserve and ensuring the world sees the impacts and solutions of our region firsthand. That outcome strengthens our security, strengthens our economy and strengthens Australia's standing in the world, and the only response from those opposite is to try to tear Australia down. If your only focus is political pointscoring, you will never act in the national interest. We have an exceptionally strong climate and energy team. Teamwork, of course, is a foreign concept to those opposite. We've taken real steps to help: three rounds of energy bill relief, a gas price cap, and major investment in cheaper renewable energy while rebuilding a reliable modern grid after a decade of neglect. The Australian Energy Market Commission could not be more clear: delaying the connection of renewables and transmission puts upward pressure on electricity bills. This is where the opposition has completely lost the plot. They walked away from net zero. They walked away from investment certainty, and they walked away from Australia's place in the world. What they're really saying is that Australia should sit quietly and accept whatever the world hands to us. This government believes Australia should help write the rules, and that's why our minister has been asked to lead COP negotiations. We are Australia; we don't aim for second place. Those opposite can explain why they do. Our policies are built around Australian families and Australian industry. They spoke about manufacturing. In my elector…
date: 2025-11-27T17:01:00+00:00

VET Student Loans (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
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description: I rise to speak on the VET Student Loans (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2025. On this side of the House, we know the importance of vocational education and training and its impact on opening up...
encoded: I rise to speak on the VET Student Loans (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2025. On this side of the House, we know the importance of vocational education and training and its impact on opening up opportunities for so many in my community and right across Australia, whether it's a young person beginning their journey in the workforce or someone looking to reskill or upskill—a need which will become even more important to help address the economic changes our country is witnessing. It's the confidence of knowing that there are initiatives such as the VET and TAFE systems that are not only available but funded, supported and protected by the Albanese Labor government that gives certainty to students enrolled and looking to be enrolled knowing they have a government that supports them on their journey. I want to highlight the importance of VET student loans to my community, to Australians and to our economy. The VET student loans program makes vocational education and training more accessible to Australians. It enables students to undertake a VET course and defer the payment of tuition fees to an income-contingent loan—a similar scheme to the HECS-HELP loans that enable university students to defer their fees until they pass certain wage thresholds. It's very much about fairness in our tertiary education system. It provides financial support to students undertaking higher level training and courses that address workplace and industry needs. These courses have arguably never been more important with respect to employment outcomes and opportunities, with the opportunities they afford by helping to address skills shortages in industries right across our economy, involving fields such as science, technology, engineering or mathematics and occupational licencing trades. This is particularly important for communities such as mine. Without programs such as the VET student loans, many students would not have the opportunity to undertake tertiary studies. Australian businesses and …
date: 2025-11-25T19:20:00+00:00

Medical Workforce | Constituency Statements | House debates
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description: Professionals across our allied health sector do incredible work, not only in supporting our health system and keeping it afloat but also through the vital role they play in preventive health...
encoded: Professionals across our allied health sector do incredible work, not only in supporting our health system and keeping it afloat but also through the vital role they play in preventive health care, helping people spend less time within that system in the first place. I've spoken before about how workers in this space are too often overlooked and underpaid, and I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the critical work they do in communities like mine supporting some of our most vulnerable people. When all else fails, when someone's health, ability or circumstance changes, when self-reliance becomes increasingly out of reach, it is our disability and allied health workforce who step in. They pick up the pieces for patients and their families during some of the most vulnerable and emotional times in their lives. I'm an advocate for the dignity of work. It's what drives me every day in representing my community and in helping shape Australia and our economy. These workers not only carry that dignity with them every day but deliver it to others through the care and support they provide. That's why it's incumbent on all of us in this place not only to thank them but to support them, to stand by them, to back them and to deliver for them, just as they deliver for our communities. Nobody chooses the circumstances that place them at the receiving end of this care. When we talk about the dignity of work, we often mean the dignity that comes from employment itself. But we must also talk about dignity in work, which depends on fair conditions, proper staffing levels and fair pay. As this workforce supports people through their personal struggles, I also want to recognise the Health and Community Services Union in my home state for standing with their members in their collective struggle for dignified wages and working conditions. To those who work in mental health, disability and drug and alcohol services, to the nurses, allied health professionals, lived and living expe…
date: 2025-11-04T17:07:00+00:00

Medicare | Questions without Notice | House debates
type: item
description: My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. How is the Albanese Labor government delivering on our commitment to more Australians accessing bulk-billing? Why is it so important after a...
encoded: My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. How is the Albanese Labor government delivering on our commitment to more Australians accessing bulk-billing? Why is it so important after a decade of cuts and neglect?
date: 2025-11-03T14:30:00+00:00

Apprenticeships | Statements by Members | House debates
type: item
description: Every apprentice deserves to be safe at work. That's why the Minister for Skills and Training brought colleagues together to establish a zero tolerance approach to apprentice harm, updating the...
encoded: Every apprentice deserves to be safe at work. That's why the Minister for Skills and Training brought colleagues together to establish a zero tolerance approach to apprentice harm, updating the national code of good practice for apprenticeships and traineeships. Governments, industry and advocates share responsibility for apprentice safety. We're working with states and territories, training providers, employers and unions to ensure every apprentice receives the training, support and protection they deserve. Research by the Electrical Trades Union found one in eight apprentice electricians has been exposed to a potentially deadly electrical shock at work, and, when classroom training is delayed, that risk doubles. That's not good enough. We must ensure our apprentices are safe in every classroom and on every job site. Australia will need more than 100,000 additional electricians by 2050 to power the energy transition and to tackle housing. Through Apprentice Connect Australia, the $10,000 housing apprenticeship incentives and the $60 million Building Women's Careers Program, we're backing apprentices with skills, support and safe workplaces. Thank you to the ETU and to Aaron, Matt and Maya for their courage in speaking up and sharing their stories with us last week. Apprentices are a vulnerable cohort of young workers and workers new to the industry. They are the workers we need to help deliver the future of energy, housing and manufacturing, and of a future made in Australia.
date: 2025-11-03T13:44:00+00:00

Medicare | Statements by Members | House debates
type: item
description: It's nearly the end of the week. Not only will it be great to return to our communities, but, from Saturday, what goes live is the single-largest investment in Medicare ever. We're expanding the...
encoded: It's nearly the end of the week. Not only will it be great to return to our communities, but, from Saturday, what goes live is the single-largest investment in Medicare ever. We're expanding the bulk-billing incentive to all Australians, and we're boosting payments to general practices that bulk-bill every patient. We're already seeing the difference this is making in my own community. The Craigieburn Medical and Dental Centre has already moved to 100 per cent bulk-billing. It means families don't have to worry about gap payments or putting off care because of costs. I'm proud to have announced a full Medicare mental health centre in my community to roll out more places that locals can go for free public mental health care, backed by Medicare. Under those opposite, it had never been harder to see a doctor. Bulk-billing was in freefall. We had a neglected health system, longer wait times and Australians paying for care that should have been free. And who was at the helm of that policy? It was the current Leader of the Opposition, the then health minister—someone who said, 'If you don't pay for something, you don't value it.' My community values Medicare, we on this side of the House value Medicare, and Australians value Medicare.
date: 2025-10-30T13:55:00+00:00

Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
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description: And, if you're going to bring in other issues, Member for Barker, extend to your full time to explain yourself. I rise to speak in support of the Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025, a...
encoded: And, if you're going to bring in other issues, Member for Barker, extend to your full time to explain yourself. I rise to speak in support of the Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025, a bill that reminds us that the law is not only about contracts and clauses but about compassion and conscience—about people; about Baby Priya and her family and families right across Australia. This legislation ensures that parents who endure the unthinkable, the death of their child, are not asked to return to work while they are still shattered by grief. It closes a cruel gap in our workplace laws and places humanity at the centre of our fair work system, a fundamental principle of the Albanese Labor government. In June of last year, a baby girl named Priya was born just shy of 25 weeks. She was a tiny figure in a humidicrib, her parents, by her side, suspended between fear and hope. Her mother has since shared her story with immense courage. She said: I used to call her my 'fighter girl' and my 'super girl' when she was in the NICU, encouraging her through every challenge she faced and overcame, until she couldn't anymore. Priya lived for 42 days. Ten days after losing Priya, her mother—a loyal employee of 11 years—received a text message from work. It said her preapproved paid parental leave was being cancelled. Priya's mother asked if she could have, in her words, 'at least six weeks leave, for the time she was alive'. She received no response. Her partner, a teacher in the New South Wales public system, retained his full parental leave. Government paid leave is protected; private sector leave was not. That cruel contrast, between two parents grieving the same child yet treated differently by two systems, laid bare an injustice no fair minded Australian could accept. So, in the depths of their grief, Priya's parents began to campaign. They launched a petition in March, calling on the government to make it illegal for employers to cancel paid maternity leave following infa…
date: 2025-10-29T11:34:00+00:00

Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
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description: I just want to note for the member for Barker that, if you're not going to take up the full time that you're allowed to speak, my understanding of the law relates to severe foetal abnormalities...
encoded: I just want to note for the member for Barker that, if you're not going to take up the full time that you're allowed to speak, my understanding of the law relates to severe foetal abnormalities incompatible with life or serious threats to a pregnant woman's health and life.
date: 2025-10-29T11:34:00+00:00

Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
type: item
description: Australians should never be punished for seeking in good faith the help that their government offers them to manage life's challenges. Good government exists to lend a hand, not to turn that hand...
encoded: Australians should never be punished for seeking in good faith the help that their government offers them to manage life's challenges. Good government exists to lend a hand, not to turn that hand against the people it serves. Yet, through the bitter experience of robodebt, Australians have seen too clearly what happens when that principle is betrayed. Thousands of people were treated not as citizens entitled to fairness but as suspects to be pursued. Labor is determined to repair the damage that was done to so many innocent Australians who were hurt by the previous coalition government's cruel and disastrous robodebt scheme, to restore trust, to uphold the law and to rebuild a system that treats people with dignity, because, when government makes an error, it is not a line on a spreadsheet that suffers; it is a person, it is families, it is the parent sitting at the kitchen table staring at a letter from Centrelink—it is the quiet humiliation of being told you owe money you don't have and never should have owed. These mistakes go to the heart of something bigger than administration; they go to the social contract itself—the promise that our institutions will deal with people fairly and lawfully and that government will take responsibility when it falls short. That is why this bill is so important. It is addressing an issue that is less notorious and without the malice of robodebt but that, nevertheless, has a negative impact on vulnerable people in our community, and that is the longstanding process known as income apportionment. With income apportionment, imagine your pay slip covers two weeks of work but begins halfway through a Centrelink fortnight. One week falls in the first Centrelink period, the other week in the next. If you work more shifts in one week than the other, your income fluctuates, so your payment should too. But for years Centrelink assumed that income was earned evenly across the whole pay slip period. It spread that pay across both fortnights, …
date: 2025-10-27T17:54:00+00:00

Medicare | Private Members' Business | House debates
type: item
description: I rise to support the motion moved by the member for Lalor and I thank her for her commitment to her community and to protecting and strengthening Medicare, one of the proudest achievements in...
encoded: I rise to support the motion moved by the member for Lalor and I thank her for her commitment to her community and to protecting and strengthening Medicare, one of the proudest achievements in our national story. When Labor came to government in 2022 it had never been harder or more expensive to find a doctor. Bulk-billing was in freefall. After nearly a decade of coalition cuts and neglect, the very foundation of our universal healthcare system was eroding. That is the legacy of those opposite: a neglected health system that led to bad health outcomes, longer wait times and Australians paying more out of pocket for care that should have been free. Under the coalition, Medicare rebates were frozen for six years, stripping billions from primary care and making it harder for doctors to bulk-bill. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners estimates that general practice lost around $3.8 billion due to that freeze. And who was at the helm of that policy? The current Leader of the Opposition, then the health minister, who oversaw the continuation of that freeze and supported a GP co-payment, a policy that would have forced Australians to pay every time they saw a doctor, set in stone. In 2014-15 the coalition government proposed a $7 co-payment for GP visits and a $5 cut to that rebate, defended until public outrage forced its withdrawal. That's the Liberal record on health: freezes, fees and funding cuts. It left GP clinics struggling, bulk-billing collapsing, and patients paying the price, in money and in health. Labor is rebuilding Medicare from the ground up. The Albanese Labor government is proud to be delivering the single-largest investment in Medicare history: $8.5 billion to deliver 18 million additional bulk-billed GP visits every year across the country; hundreds of new nursing scholarships; and thousands more doctors through the largest GP training program in our history. In 2023 we tripled the bulk-billing incentive and delivered the largest inve…
date: 2025-10-27T11:01:00+00:00

Medicare | Private Members' Business | House debates
type: item
description: I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.
encoded: I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.
date: 2025-10-27T10:51:00+00:00

Kolbe Catholic College: Walk against Domestic Violence, Elevation Secondary College | Constituency Statements | House debates
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description: At Kolbe Catholic College in my electorate, I had the pleasure of joining students, teachers and staff for the school's feast-day celebrations, which included a walk against domestic violence....
encoded: At Kolbe Catholic College in my electorate, I had the pleasure of joining students, teachers and staff for the school's feast-day celebrations, which included a walk against domestic violence. Dressed in purple, carrying the words 'Not now, not ever', students took to the streets to send a powerful message: violence has no place in our homes, in our schools or in our community. The statistics show why this leadership shown by the school was so critical. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports that one in four women and one in 14 men have experienced a form of violence from an intimate partner since the age of 15, nearly a quarter of women and 14 per cent of men have experienced emotional abuse by a partner and more than 1.6 million women and 745,000 men have endured economic abuse. These are disturbing figures, but they are not just numbers; they represent neighbours, friends, colleagues and families in every community. The truth is the cycle of violence can only be broken by education, prevention and cultural change; that is why what I saw at Kolbe mattered so much. Education leadership provided for and by young Australians, like that shown by students in my community, is the key to ending this awful cycle of abuse. I congratulate the students, teachers and staff at Kolbe for the incredible work done to highlight such an important social issue and for their ongoing advocacy—a truly grassroots effort, real action on the ground, one step at a time. I recently had the pleasure of visiting Elevation Secondary College in Craigieburn, where I met with the student leadership team. Elevation is a school that lives its vision: to be an inclusive, outward-looking community committed to improving student learning, wellbeing and outcomes for every young person. The school values are clearly lived out by the students I met, who represented this school with pride and with purpose. The student leaders I met are amongst our community's brightest, and Elevation is he…
date: 2025-09-03T09:57:00+00:00

Housing | Questions without Notice | House debates
type: item
description: My question is to the Minister for Housing, Minister for Homelessness and Minister for Cities. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to address housing challenges? And is the minister aware...
encoded: My question is to the Minister for Housing, Minister for Homelessness and Minister for Cities. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to address housing challenges? And is the minister aware of any risks to the government's plans?
date: 2025-08-28T14:47:00+00:00

Housing | Statements by Members | House debates
type: item
description: I'm incredibly proud to be part of a government that is determined to take real action with the cost of living, and one of the biggest cost-of-living factors facing Australians and those in my...
encoded: I'm incredibly proud to be part of a government that is determined to take real action with the cost of living, and one of the biggest cost-of-living factors facing Australians and those in my community is the cost of housing and owning your own home. That's why Labor's five per cent home owners guarantee is so important, and it's why the program is going to be extended to all first home buyers. My community understands the value of housing—not just the dollar figures but the value it provides for families, the sense of purpose, the sense of security and the sense of place. With this reform, we are telling first home buyers: 'The Albanese Labor government is on your side. We will cut the years you need to save. We will stop you from being penalised with costly lenders mortgage insurance. We will help you move from renting to owning sooner.' This is fairness. This is aspiration. This is Labor making the Australian dream of home ownership real again. It is about turning rent payments into mortgage payments so that people who are building equity in their own home can secure their futures. The Albanese Labor government is doing what good governments should do, and my community has already shown that our policies can transform lives. Calwell has the fifth highest take-up rate of any electorate in the country under the home owners guarantee scheme. It shows that Labor and this government, the Albanese Labor government, understand the circumstances and aspirations of working Australians in Calwell and right across Australia.
date: 2025-08-28T13:40:00+00:00

Housing Australia Investment Mandate Amendment (Delivering on Our 2025 Election Commitment) Direction 2025; Consideration | Documents | House debates
type: item
description: Owning your own home is a shared dream for most Australians. There is the joy associated with a home, but, importantly, there is a sense of stability and security. I want that for all Australians...
encoded: Owning your own home is a shared dream for most Australians. There is the joy associated with a home, but, importantly, there is a sense of stability and security. I want that for all Australians who aspire to it. We know that people are working hard, doing everything right—saving, renting and sacrificing—and still, for too many, the dream of owning a home seems out of reach. This is not just an economic challenge; it is about whether Australians feel secure in their future. It is about whether young people believe they can enjoy the opportunities their parents had. It's about whether single parents or young couples starting a family can put down roots in a community they love. That is why the Albanese Labor government has taken bold action. From 1 October this year, three months earlier than promised, every first home buyer will be able to purchase with a five per cent deposit. Single parents will continue to be supported to buy with as little as two per cent. This is about cutting years off the time it takes to save. It is about avoiding thousands of dollars in what is so often inhibitive with the lenders mortgage insurance, and it is about turning rent payments into mortgage payments so people are building equity in their own home. This policy provides a real opportunity for all Australians looking to buy their first home. For a median priced home in Australia, of around $844,000, it can take up to 13 years to save the old 20 per cent deposit. Thanks to Labor's reforms, that wait is cut by up to eight years. Instead of needing nearly $170,000 up front, a first home buyer would need just $42,000. They will avoid paying around $34,000 in lenders mortgage insurance to a bank. That is not just policy on paper; it is life changing reform for ordinary Australians—a game changer for millions of Australians. Think of a young apprentice in my community, living at home with their parents while saving for the future. In my community, most often, they don't have access to th…
date: 2025-08-28T12:55:00+00:00

National Health Amendment (Cheaper Medicines) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
type: item
description: I want to thank the member for Whitlam for her contribution, and I'm proud to stand alongside her in support of this bill, which does precisely what it says. It delivers cheaper medicines—a...
encoded: I want to thank the member for Whitlam for her contribution, and I'm proud to stand alongside her in support of this bill, which does precisely what it says. It delivers cheaper medicines—a simple, principled objective to be delivered by the Albanese Labor government. It's a simple, effective proposition: Australians will no longer have to pay more than $25 for any medicine on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Let's unpack that. For the first time in over two decades, essential medicines will be capped at $25 a script. Last time this was the case was in the early 2000s, back when we were all glued to our soapbox, watching Kath and Kim, and Anthony Albanese was busy campaigning for the return of his beloved South Sydney Rabbitohs to the NRL. Times have changed, but the inherent value of affordable medicines has most certainly not. This is cost-of-living relief that matters to every Australian household—relief that shows once again that, when Labor are in government, we put the health and dignity of Australians first. I want to touch on the scale of our reforms. This bill, the National Health Amendment (Cheaper Medicines) Bill, reduces the PBS general patient co-payment from $31.60—an already reduced cost, again thanks to the Albanese Labor government—down to $25 from 1 January next year. This is a cut of more than 20 per cent to the maximum cost of PBS medicines. It will save Australians over $200 million every single year. As of 31 July, people in my electorate of Calwell had saved over $8.9 million, thanks to our already legislated cheaper medicines policy. And there is still more to do. Four out of five PBS medicines will become cheaper because of this government's $689 million investment. This will have a direct and significant impact on the quality of life of millions of Australians who rely on medications to maintain their health. We should never underestimate the impact of providing cheaper, accessible medication to those in our community that need it. It's …
date: 2025-08-27T10:39:00+00:00