Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's another display of crocodile tears from those opposite, showing empathy for people who have challenges with the cost of living when, in fact, each time we put taxation relief before this chamber, they voted against it. Only today we had before the Senate the National Health Amendment (Cheaper Medicines) Bill 2025, which is reducing medications. The reality is different, despite the way that those opposite want to come into this chamber and rewrite history, as they tried to this morning with that contribution around aged care. They're doing it here again.

Looking at cheaper medicines, when they were in government for 11 very long years, they didn't do anything about bringing down the cost of medications. We know that over seven million Australians are living with arthritis in this country. Some of those who suffer with arthritis and from that disease take medications every day. Unfortunately, it's a large number of them. This is going to reduce their cost of living, which is going to have a real impact on those people. The 60-day scripts is another measure that's going to help with the cost of living. What did those people do when they were in government for 11 years? They failed to take that necessary step.

Since we've been in government, we've built on our first term. We take very seriously the challenges to people's households. We've actually delivered a real wage increase for Australian workers, unlike those opposite. Last week, we passed legislation to ensure that workers are able to rely on penalty rates and overtime rates by legislating to stop any change so that workers won't be worse off. Those people opposite didn't support that legislation. It's alright to come in here and try to rewrite history, but we know that the proof is in the pudding.

Let's talk about higher inflation. When we came into government three years ago, inflation was at 6.1 per cent. It was 6.1 per cent under you guys opposite. That's what you left behind. It now has a two in front of it. Is there still more work to be done? Of course, there is still more work to be done. We don't walk away from that. But when it comes to ensuring that we're investing in the Australian people and making sure that real wages are growing—they've grown for seven consecutive quarters—the economy is still expanding. The fundamentals of our national economy are strong. Interest rates have been cut three times in the last six months. Do they still need to come down? Yes, they do, but it's saving people real money and leaving more money in their wallet with interest rates coming down.

More than 1.1 million jobs have been created since we came to government. That's a record for any government in a single term. That's the reality of it, not the false, crocodile tears and rewriting of history by those opposite. The average unemployment rate is the lowest of any government in 50 years. These are the facts. You can't run away from them. The reality is that we have been delivering. We've delivered on all our election commitments. In our last term of government, we turned two Liberal deficits into two Labor surpluses and also halved the deficit in our third year. That's what a Labor government has done. Those opposite like to paint the picture that they're the only ones who can look after and build a strong economy. That is not right. Eleven years, and they failed to deliver one surplus.

When we talk about energy policies, we know that energy prices have to come down; that's why we're investing in renewable energies. But those opposite had 22 energy policies and couldn't land one of them! And at the last election, what did they come up with? The most ineffective, most costly form of energy possible. And the Australian people spoke. Let's not forget: when Australians go to an election, they never get it wrong. Whether we end up in government or not, the Australian people never get it wrong. They saw through Mr Dutton and the former government. They had 11 years of failure. (Time expired)