Corinne Mulholland (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

You are part of the problem, and it is that cynical betrayal of the Australian dream that has got the Liberal Party into the mess that they find themselves in. It's no wonder that, when I went through Hansard, I found a curious thing. A lot of your senior leadership team has been found missing on this bill. Why is that? It's because they're smart enough to know that they shouldn't be voting against the interests and speaking against the interests of working Australians.

As a Queenslander, I know exactly what's going on in our housing market at the moment. A young couple in Caboolture trying to save a deposit for a home just want a fair go. They don't own multiple investment properties like that lot over there. A nurse in Mackay who's renting with her young family after a recent divorce doesn't benefit from a CGT discount. A tradie in Toowoomba working overtime, hoping to one day own his own home, has nothing to gain from the status quo. In fact, he's hurt by the status quo that Senator Henderson and all her mates on the other side are trying to argue in favour of, because it benefits them, not the people outside of this building that we're trying to stand up for.

It sickens me that people would come into this place and put their own personal financial interests above those of working people—nurses, tradies, teachers—out there from where I come from who are struggling to get into the housing market. Working people need someone to stand up for them, and it will be this Labor government. It certainly won't be that rabble over there. So don't come in here voting for secret vested interests and putting the interests of working people to the side. We will stand up and we will call it out every single day of the week.

Let's be honest about the interests that those opposite and One Nation are standing up for. Those are the interests of Australia's billionaires propping up the Liberal Party and propping up One Nation. Is it any wonder why they come into this place and argue against the interests of working Australians? What do those billionaires get in return for their money? They get a Liberal Party and a One Nation coming in here voting against a pay rise for childcare workers. They get a Liberal Party who is willing to keep house prices up, up, up. They get politicians standing up at the dispatch box defending a tax system that rewards capital over work. Labor will not allow this to happen to this country. We will not allow the interests of billionaires to veto the aspirations of working Australians. We will not be Americanised. It is really shameful that those opposite would trade their values away from those of the Australian people.

The good news in this bleak political landscape I see in front of me is that this budget also provides for a bright future for Australia. We are continuing to build our healthcare system that was absolutely trashed under the Liberal-National government. They tried to drive bulk-billing rates into the floor. Under this government, we've opened 137 new Medicare urgent care clinics right around Australia. There are 26 in my home state of Queensland alone in places like Brisbane, Buderim, Cairns, Capalaba, Carindale, Gladstone, Mackay and Greenslopes—the list goes on. Most recently, the very last one of our 137 urgent care clinics was opened in Caloundra, and I was very pleased to welcome Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to the Sunshine Coast to help us officially launch that new urgent care clinic, which saw over 110 patients in its first three days of operation—110 patients on the Sunshine Coast who didn't need to put their hand in their pocket. They didn't need to make an appointment. They could walk in and receive world-class care from a GP and a nurse in their own community, and that is exactly what Labor delivers for the working people of this country.

I'm also proud to say that bulk-billing rates in this country are going up. From November 2025 to January this year, more than 81 per cent of GP visits were bulk-billed—the biggest quarterly increase since the pandemic. In communities like mine, in the seat of Longman, on the north side of Brisbane and around places like Caboolture, bulk-billing rates have jumped by 30 per cent. We've also delivered a 15 per cent pay rise for early childhood educators—workers, who are overwhelmingly women, who have been chronically undervalued and underpaid under the opposite side of politics. A typical educator in this nation is now earning $150 more a week because of Labor.

From 1 July next week, paid parental leave in this country rises to 26 weeks—six months of government funded leave for families welcoming a new child—up from 18 weeks when we first came to government. One Nation voted against it. The Liberal Party didn't support it. It was Labor that delivered 26 weeks of paid parental leave for working women and families in this nation. We also knew it was important to put superannuation on top of that paid parental leave to close the super gap, and guess what? That mob voted against that too.