Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

Can I just acknowledge Senator Whiteaker and welcome her to this chamber. I look forward to hearing all of the first speeches from our wonderful additions on this side of the chamber and across the parliament. But, yes, thank you for the question. I'm looking forward to working with all of you in this next term of government.

As Senator Whiteaker pointed out, we have had a range of measures come into effect from 1 July, and that shows you the continuation of the approach we took last term moving into this term of government, where we've made decisions and funded those decisions in the last budget and where they came into effect six weeks after the last election. These are important cost-of-living measures that help households. We have seen a welcome reduction in inflation, which was a challenge in the former term in office and the government had taken a range of steps to support households through that. From 1 July, we have seen a 3½ per cent increase in the minimum wage for minimum wage workers, which will benefit over 2.9 million workers nationwide. The additional energy bill rebate—$150 off energy bills—which is on top of the $300 wiped from energy bills last year, will come into effect and also support small business. There's the new incentive for housing apprentices and the cheaper home batteries, and we're helping small businesses grow with the instant asset write-off. The super guarantee is going to 12 per cent. And, of course, there's our commitment to slash student debt by 20 per cent with the introduction of the legislation in the other place today. These are all measures that we put in place last term that we are seeing come into effect from 1 July. The government will continue to focus on how we can help Australians deal with cost-of-living pressures over the next term in government.