Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Current world events and the destabilisation of our geopolitical climate demonstrate that Australia, despite our challenges, is a resilient and strong democracy. This should never be taken for granted. Having the opportunity to stand in this place today and make this speech after a seamless transition post election proves that we are indeed the greatest country on earth.

Entering my second term in the Senate, I've been reflecting on what the past six years threw at us. Obviously, for those that were also in the class of 2019, we didn't have very long in this place until, suddenly, life was far from normal. COVID entered the scene in early 2020, and we were trying to work out what it meant for Australia. Parliament was cancelled, and we spent all that time in isolation. We Western Australians spent a few too many days cooped up in hotel rooms—or, as it was for me, in a caravan—after parliamentary sittings. Then came the economic shocks, the supply chain challenges—we all remember the rush on toilet paper—the rising inflation, the growing uncertainty in global affairs and the creeping sense that things would never be the same. And we've faced compounding pressures on families, small businesses, budgets and national morale. Yet here we are.

I'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge some of my colleagues who have finished their service in this place and the other place. Firstly, I acknowledge our leader last term, Peter Dutton. Peter was a great support to me, and I'm incredibly grateful to him and his family. The election result was disappointing, but Peter deserves recognition and respect for his almost 25 years as a member of parliament, including as a cabinet minister and, most recently, the Leader of the Opposition.

Secondly, I acknowledge my fellow Western Australian, former senator Linda Reynolds. Linda has been such a strong advocate for Western Australian and the coalition. Linda, you can be proud of your contribution and what you achieved in our nation's parliament.

I would also like to acknowledge my other colleagues Hollie Hughes, Perin Davey and David Fawcett. Thank you for being such great colleagues and supporters and for all the work that you did in this place. I wish you the very best for what comes next.

It is through these reflections that you realise the immense privilege that it is to serve in the Australian parliament. I never want a day to go by without that feeling of great pride. We should never feel entitled or be comfortable in this job, for it is for Western Australians and it is with Western Australians, who have placed their trust in me to represent them and deliver for them.

This is a sobering time for the Liberal Party. The results of the past two elections highlight that much has gone wrong. It is easy to rush to judgement, despair or fear and think that it will always be, but there are important lessons for me and indeed for the whole coalition. This moment that we're in right now presents a new opportunity, and we must seize it. The great Sir Robert Menzies once reminded us that 'the greatest enemy to present joy and high hopes is the cultivation of retrospective bitterness'. Drawing on past grievances won't help us rebuild, but honest reflection, clarity of purpose and renewed commitment to our longstanding beliefs will.

Like it or not, voters always get it right. You may not like the decision, but in a democracy they are the better judge. It's clear Australians did not think that the coalition was ready to govern. With the benefit of hindsight, I suspect they were right. In my view, we failed to express some of our most important beliefs, the very same beliefs for which we've seen the coalition elected many times before. How can we be the party of lower taxes and sound economic management if we oppose tax cuts and fail to deliver and outline a clear vision for tax reform? With bracket creep coming into sharper focus, we cannot afford to sit on the sidelines and allow it to happen. Put simply, it's robbing hardworking Australians of money that should be in their back pockets and not in the Treasury.

Speaking of robbery, this is what the current Treasurer is doing with the proposed tax on superannuation for those with a balance of $3 million or more. You know it's a bad idea when the father of superannuation, former prime minister Paul Keating, is saying that this is unconscionable. He knows, like everyone else, that it needs to be indexed; otherwise, the very workers that he sought to protect by creating this superannuation guarantee will be the ones most affected by Treasurer Chalmers's foolish ideas.

With millions of Australians paying billions in tax each year, the electorate is crying out for taxation reform. With productivity continuing to decline, reforming the tax system is one pathway to restoring it. We face a very simple choice: should governments find more ways to tax Australians, or should we collectively work together to get Australia's budget back into a sustainable position? As Liberals, it should definitely be the latter. It is in our DNA. But we need to find the collective will and courage to fight for this. I firmly believe that, if we contest the next election with a vision of economic strength and a plan for tax reform, Australians will see the coalition as the alternative government that they've been looking for. We must cast a vision for Australia, something more than just good policy.

Under the leadership of the Hon. Sussan Ley, I've been privileged to serve in her shadow ministry as the shadow minister for infrastructure, fisheries and forestry. These sectors are critical to the Australian economy. Infrastructure impacts Australians every day. Through efficient and safe infrastructure, we enable businesses to boost productivity and transport goods. We enable people to get to work safely, parents to do the school run, public transport to operate and so on. In this portfolio, I'll be primarily investigating the need to improve road safety. Last year, 1,300 lives were lost on our roads, the highest in a decade. That is one less person at family dinners or at Christmas gatherings. We must ensure that funds are allocated correctly to make our roads safer, and I'd add to that we must ensure that projects are delivered on time and on budget for that to occur.

I'll also champion the infrastructure needs of my home state, Western Australia. Infrastructure fuels economic growth, yet WA seems to be missing out, despite being the engine room of this country, as I'm sure you'd agree, Acting Deputy President Cox. A 2019 Australian infrastructure audit estimated that congestion in Perth would cost $3.1 billion annually by 2031. Winding roads and freeways are sensible, but often we react to congestion rather than proactively plan and build before it becomes an issue. We also need to rethink commuting options. Perth has one of the lowest rates of walking and cycling trips nationwide. According to Infrastructure Australia, there are 4.2 million private car trips daily, with 2.8 million under five kilometres.

The other major element of my portfolio is fisheries and forestry, two industries under constant attack by the Australian Labor Party and the Greens. Along with Senator Cadell, I work constructively to ensure government policies support these industries and enable sustainable operation for future generations. Bizarrely, the Left seems hell-bent on squeezing these industries until they collapse. In WA, the Cook Labor government has banned native logging, with little regard for the regional towns that relied on it and offering limited alternative economic opportunities. Let me be clear: while the coalition agrees that these industries must operate sustainably, we also believe in the people and the towns that rely on them and the vibrant economy that they contribute to. My family hails from Manjimup, a beautiful part of the world. I love native forests, but everything must be balanced, and a total ban is not the answer.

As many of you know, I also love the great outdoors. During recent school holidays, only a few weeks ago, my family and I drove the Great Central Road to the Red Centre. This is the road that cuts straight through from Laverton all the way to Uluru. It's Australia's longest road route and it's an incredible shortcut. In fact, it's known as the great shortcut. It saves you about 1,200 kilometres if you take that direct route rather than going through Port Augusta and across the Nullarbor. The journey along the Great Central Road is an epic odyssey. There remains a 736-kilometre unsealed section on the Western Australian side. Having experienced it firsthand, I will advocate for this part to be fully sealed. I want to give a special shout-out to the Mayor of Laverton, Patrick Hill. He has led this cause for over 25 years. He is someone who deserves great recognition.

A heads-up to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee budget estimates process: I will be coming to that committee with many questions on why this road has not been sealed already. The funding is there. My initial investigations suggest that the delays are linked to native title issues. The Morrison government allocated $400 million to this project. The money's sitting there. But the state Labor government has sat on it for over three years. My understanding is that the conflicted areas cover only a small part of the route, so why is the Albanese government allowing it to stall?

This is a vital infrastructure project for Western Australia and, indeed, the nation. A third transport link into WA is critical. Two years ago, there was a fire down on the Nullarbor and a flood up in the Kimberley. The flood destroyed the Fitzroy Crossing bridge, and, of course, the transcontinental railway and the Eyre Highway were blocked by the fire. Freight had to be shipped from either Melbourne or Adelaide to get across to Perth. That included groceries. The case for sealing this route is clear, and the inaction shows that WA is being taken for granted. I'll have more to say about this in coming months.

In closing, much work remains for my party to return to government. It's obvious the Australian people didn't think that we were ready to govern on 3 May. The Liberal Party has a lot of rebuilding to do. But, when faced with adversity, we should meet those challenges head-on. Restoring trust with the electorate, delivering policies that bring meaningful change and building a stronger Australia for families should be our guiding goal. Building a stronger Australia starts with stronger families. Policies like income splitting for families with young children are more than good ideas—and a special shout-out to you, Senator Collins, for your great first speech last night and for raising this important topic. They recognise that the great sacrifices of stay-at-home parents are important. These mothers and fathers do vital work raising the next generation and deserve a fair tax system that honours their choices rather than punishing them.

On education, we need to get back to basics. Every Australian child deserves a solid foundation in literacy and numeracy within a calm and orderly classroom. This involves backing evidence based teaching methods and raising standards, not lowering them. On energy and climate, Tony Blair, in his foreword to the paper The climate paradox: why we need to reset action on climate change, makes it clear: we cannot meet our climate goals with ideological divides that continue to hold us back. Australia needs realism and support for technologies that can deliver clean, reliable, affordable power. Nuclear energy should be on the table, not as a last resort but as part of our energy mix. I want to be part of a process that makes these changes happen, not one that stalls progress—a process that seeks to improve rather than stifle good ideas.

There are many challenges facing us as a nation. One of them, of course, will be the advancement of artificial intelligence. We're less than 18 months away from having artificial general intelligence. That is going to profoundly change the way we go about life. It will happen within this term of parliament. Within this term of parliament, we will see dramatic changes in the way that our lives are impacted. In fact, it's going to impact upon government, and it's going to impact upon revenue. There are many challenges that we are going to have to face in this parliament.

In the Liberal Party, we've faced lows before. We're at an all-time low right now, but we can deal with it. We've been written off before. We've been written off as out of touch before. We've been written off, but we will rise again. As the 40th president of the United States, who endured a period in the political wilderness himself, once said:

From times of hardship, we've always emerged with a renewed sense of confidence and a determination to meet and to conquer whatever challenges lie ahead.

Ellie Whiteaker (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm delighted to speak to this address-in-reply today. I want to thank the Governor-General for her generosity to us in recent weeks—in particular, to us new parliamentarians. Her Excellency welcomed new senators and members to Government House while we were at school earlier this month and then opened Government House to our families ahead of the first sitting last week. I also thank her for her address to senators and members in this place, setting out the government's agenda for the term.

On 3 May, the Australian people made their voices heard. Australians re-elected the Albanese Labor government for a second term with an increased majority—and an historic majority at that. It's a very clear endorsement of the work that the Prime Minister and the Labor government did in the first term and of the plan we presented to build a better future for our country—a plan to deliver cost-of-living relief, to strengthen Medicare, to get more people into their first home, to create a more accessible universal early childhood education and care system and to build a future made in Australia. It's a clear mandate to deliver on that plan. In my home state of Western Australia, it's a mandate to continue to keep WA's economy strong, to make more things in WA and to keep helping Western Australian families. That is exactly what we will do. Western Australians know that it is only under a Labor government that they will see action on the things that matter most to them.

This government has been really clear. Tackling the cost of living is our No. 1 priority. We want Australians to earn more and keep more of what they earn, and we've made good progress. The Albanese government has got wages up and brought inflation down, but we know that cost-of-living challenges are still being felt by many Australians. That's why we will do more. Following the recent federal budget, the government legislated tax cuts that took effect on the first of this month. These changes will deliver real tax relief to every Australian taxpayer, helping ease cost-of-living pressures and tackling bracket creep head-on. It's a meaningful step to put more money back into the pockets of Australians.

We're not stopping there. Further rounds of tax cuts will be locked in for 2026 and 2027—fair and simple relief for low- and middle-income earners. On 1 July this year, award and minimum wage workers, including those in hospitality, retail and community services, received a 3.5 per cent pay rise—a real pay rise, above inflation. It's something Labor fought for. Just this week, we've been legislating to cut HECS debt, to make medicines cheaper and to protect penalty rates. We're also delivering more support for parents—extending paid parental leave to six months so that families can spend more time together at home in those early months when they most need to be with their new babies. And for the first time, superannuation will be included on government paid parental leave, a crucial step in ensuring women are better off in their retirement and in closing the gap that so often emerges over the course of many women's lives when they take time off to have a family.

We are also delivering another round of power bill credits—another $150 credit for every household—to help bring down household costs. Treasury estimates that this will directly reduce headline inflation by around half a percentage point in 2025 and reduce household bills by 7½ per cent, on average, compared to bills without the extension. In WA, along with the power bill credits delivered by the Cook Labor government in recent years, these credits have meant Western Australians have received significant bill relief at the time they needed it most.

Australians are proud of our world-class healthcare system, and Labor is proud to have created it. Medicare was established by the Hawke government over 50 years ago, and the Albanese Labor government will honour that legacy by making the single largest investment in Medicare ever. In the last term, the government opened 87 Medicare urgent care clinics right across the country, with plans to establish a further 50 this term. This will mean that four in five Australians will live within a 20-minute drive of a Medicare urgent care clinic, within a 20-minute drive of free walk-in care. The government will establish 1800MEDICARE, a 24-hour free health advice service that will help save Australians from unnecessary trips to the emergency department. And we will roll out our plan to make more GP visits free, because we know you shouldn't need your credit card to get the health care you need. Only Labor can be trusted to strengthen Medicare, because we created it and we will always protect it.

We know that many Australians are working hard, doing all the right things, but are still struggling to buy a home or afford—or even find—a rental, and that's why housing is a key priority for this government. We are making it easier for first home buyers to buy a home, with a plan to support five per cent deposits, in every town, every city and every region across our country. And we'll build 100,000 new homes to be set aside specifically for first home buyers so that they're not competing with investors just to get a foot in the door. These measures will shave years off the time it takes to save for a deposit and will open the door to a new generation of homeownership. We're also making renting fairer, having already worked with a number of states around the country to ban no-grounds evictions, cap rent increases and set minimum rental standards. We've increased rental assistance by 45 per cent, helping more than a million households keep a roof over their heads.

Ultimately, though, we know the best way to make housing more affordable is to simply build more of them. That's why this government will deliver the biggest housing construction program in our nation's history—1.2 million new homes, including 55,000 social and affordable homes, through the Housing Australia Future Fund and other initiatives. We're investing in the infrastructure to support that growth, cutting red tape and backing the tradies who'll build them, because housing should be within reach, whether you're looking to buy, renting or just looking for a safe roof over your head.

The Albanese government knows that early learning sets the foundation for everything that follows. It helps kids start school ready to learn and it helps parents get back to or stay in work. That's why we will guarantee three days a week of subsidised early learning education for children who need it, beginning on 1 January next year. This will make a real difference for more than 100,000 working families. Those earning between $50,000 and $100,000 will save, on average, $1,460 per year. That's real cost-of-living relief.

Making early education and care the best it can be, the best possible quality, is a key priority for our government. That's why we are also supporting new and expanded centres where they're needed most with our Building Early Education Fund. It's a billion dollars to make sure all families, no matter where they live, can access quality education and care centres for their children. It will support early education and care in our outer suburbs, in regional towns and in our fastest-growing communities—the areas most in need of more funding. It will help not-for-profit providers grow, will support co-located services on school grounds and will look at ways we can directly invest in centres. All of this is part of the government's plan to make early education and care more affordable, more available and more universal, ensuring every child, no matter where they live or what their background is, can thrive from their earliest years. The Prime Minister has been clear. He wants to build a universal education and care system where every child can access high-quality early education that is simple, affordable and accessible, and that is what we are doing.

We are also building a future made in Australia in our cities, our regions and our communities that power our economy. The government will continue to drive that investment in local manufacturing, because our ambition doesn't end at digging things out of the ground. We want to process, manufacture and value-add right here at home. We are backing industry that will convert these minerals, many of which are in my home state of Western Australia, into solar panels and batteries—the very technologies that will power the next century of Australian homes and businesses.

And we're helping Australian households be a part of that clean energy future too. We will subsidise the cost of home batteries for Australian households, reducing their power bills for life. Our $2.3 billion Cheaper Home Batteries Program will help more than a million households install home batteries by 2030. It will reduce the cost of a typical battery by around 30 per cent. Families with rooftop solar will be able to store their own power and use it when they need it. It will cut power bills by up to $1,100 per year. The program builds on that same trusted scheme that helped millions of households install solar, and we're extending that success to batteries. We are also supporting small businesses and communities to install batteries, helping more Australians reduce their reliance on the grid and pushing down power prices for everyone. This is a smart energy policy and it is real cost-of-living relief.

We are lowering bills, cutting emissions and keeping investment flowing into Australian manufacturing. The Albanese government is committed to making more things here in Australia and more things in Western Australia. Whether it's batteries or ferries to expand WA's public transport network, we're creating good, local jobs. We're also investing in transport infrastructure to support Perth's growing suburbs, including in my own neck of the woods, with works to widen the Kwinana Freeway to reduce traffic congestion and enhance freight efficiency.

The Albanese government is delivering on its promises for working people. We're training the next generation of tradies, with nearly 600,000 free TAFE places already delivered. Apprentices in construction and clean energy are now eligible for a $10,000 support payment to help them stay on course and finish their training. Today, the Senate passed our bill to cut student debt by 20 per cent, just like Labor promised. We know this is a game changer for Australians just starting their careers, saving for their first home, juggling a mortgage or raising young kids. Every little bit helps. And we're going even further, raising the repayment threshold so people aren't forced to start paying debt when they can least afford it.

For our kids in school, we're getting every school in every state on a path to full funding. As part of our agreement with the states, we're lifting the Commonwealth contribution from 20 per cent to 25 per cent of the school resourcing standard. The funding is tied to the reforms needed to lift education standards right across the country. It means more help for students and more help for teachers.

This is all about fairness. It's about giving Australians a better start and delivering on the commitments we made, because that's what good government looks like. Labor's vision is clear. We are backing working people. We're backing families. This government is committed to building Australia's future.

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too today rise to speak on the Governor-General's address to this place on the opening of the 48th Parliament. Can I firstly express my absolute appreciation and gratitude to the people of South Australia for the privilege once again of serving them in this place and being sworn into the 48th Parliament. I can absolutely commit to the people of South Australia that I will continue, first and foremost, to fight hardest for their interests, as I have done in my previous 12 years—nearly 13 years—here, because in this place our first duty is always to represent the state that elected us to be here.

Right now, there couldn't be an issue that is more important to prosecute in this place on behalf of the people of South Australia than the absolutely devastating algal bloom that is occurring in the Gulf of St Vincent. We've known now for probably seven or eight months that this algal bloom is threatening marine life and the economic lives of those people that rely on the gulf for their livelihoods, whether that be the communities, the fishers, the tourism operators or the other businesses that are in those communities. This algal bloom has threatened them over the last six months. It continues to threaten them, and they remain in a state of incredible uncertainty because we don't actually know what our governments—both the state government and the federal government—are intending to do in order to support those communities and, most particularly, to understand what needs to be done to get rid of this algal bloom and ensure it doesn't happen again and then, of course, once the algal bloom has been dealt with in whatever way is appropriate, manage the cleanup that follows and support those communities as they get back on their feet.

I say that because, as I said, we've known about the algal bloom since December last year. There's been concern expressed, and yet very little was done. Very little has been done by the state government and the federal government. We now find ourselves in a situation where the algal bloom is quite catastrophic, and everybody is wondering what they are going to do to deal with this problem. We know that it is impacted by warmer weather. As we are now slowly creeping our way out of winter into spring, we know that the threat the algal bloom currently presents is only going to heighten.

So it's too little too late, but we now need to make sure that we are acting with absolute urgency to deal with this. We can't have a situation where our governments don't care about it when we see an impact on the beaches of Edithburgh and Stansbury. But I'm telling you that this will now hit the beaches of Brighton and Glenelg, and maybe then, as it hits our metropolitan beaches, we will see the government take this more seriously. Unfortunately the track records of this government and the one in South Australia have shown it only matters if it occurs in our cities.

One of the biggest issues that we saw during the last term and we saw during the election campaign—and Her Excellency the Governor-General raised it in her address to this parliament on behalf of the government that leads the 48th Parliament—was Medicare. I want to reflect on a matter of serious consequence to the Australian public, and that is the Albanese government's preparedness to continue to repeatedly mislead the Australian public about Medicare, particularly about whether you need your credit card or whether you are going to have out-of-pocket costs when you go to see your GP. During the campaign, the Prime Minister confidently declared on a number of occasions:

One card covers it all.

Not your credit card—your Medicare card.

He reiterated this promise in excess of 71 times during the campaign, promising all Australians would need is their Medicare card to see a GP for free.

The election goes by. Australians are continuously misled about the out-of-pocket costs that they are going to be paying. Australians also know right now they have never paid more out of their pockets when they go to see a GP. The Prime Minister, I think, knew what he was telling Australians wasn't true, but the sad fact is that now, following the election, we find out that the Prime Minister's own Department of Health and Aged Care, under FOI and the incoming government brief, confirms that the government's modelling showed that 25 per cent of GP clinics will not bulk-bill under the government's own policy framework. That statistic completely and utterly shatters the Prime Minister's promise to Australians that they would not require anything more than their Medicare card when they visited a GP.

We also see other independent and reliable sources like the RACGP, AMA, Cleanbill and the like, underpinning the report from the Department of Health and Aged Care in relation to the very unlikely chance of the quotes of the Prime Minister ever coming true, with reports from all of these organisations saying that GPs will not be in a position to be able to fully bulk-bill Australians, which is the promise the Prime Minister continuously made—in fact, it was made 71 times. And we also saw this week the Minister for Health and Ageing belled the cat in his recent comments to morning television, when he said:

We never said there'd be a hundred per cent bulk billing.

Well, I'd like to understand the difference between 100 per cent bulk-billing that the minister says they never promised and the Prime Minister promising Australians that all you would need is your Medicare card. I would really like to understand how the Prime Minister and the health minister can conceive they are saying the same thing. But the Prime Minister has been absolutely unequivocal in his promise to Australians.

Let me be clear, the coalition wants Australians to be able to get timely access to affordable healthcare. We hope the Prime Minister actually hasn't lied to Australians. Unfortunately, we fear that he has. And the worst part of it is that not only are Australians having to put their hand in their pocket every time they see their GP but the amount of money they have to pull out of their pocket has never been higher. Right now, out of pocket costs to see your GP are the highest they have ever been. They increased 45 per cent in the three years of the first term of the Albanese Labor government.

We've also seen bulk-billing rates falling from over 88 per cent when we left government to 77 per cent now. That is an 11 per cent drop in bulk-billing rates over the three years of the Albanese government, and yet many opposite still come in here and actually mislead this place by suggesting, for some reason, that bulk-billing rates have gone up under Labor. The facts, the statistics, the national accounts and your very own department's figures all show bulk-billing rates have plummeted by 11 per cent. As a result of that, last year alone there were 40 million fewer bulk-billed visits to our GPs in Australia. That's 40 million more visits to the GP where people have actually had to pay out-of-pocket costs, and they have risen on average to $48 per consultation.

As a result of this, people are not going to see the doctor, because, they say, they can't afford to do so. Last year, 1.5 million Australians said that they didn't visit their doctor because they couldn't afford to. That's 1.5 million Australians who were forced into making a decision between going to the doctor and putting food on the table, meeting their mortgage repayments and paying for their groceries, their electricity and their insurance. These are the decisions that are being forced upon Australians, and they are not decisions that Australians should ever be making. But the reality is that, when people avoid seeing the doctor and avoid getting primary care, they inevitably become sicker. Inevitably, when they become sicker, the place they end up in is our emergency departments or ramped in ambulances outside of our hospitals. Not only is that really bad for the person who's impacted; it also means there is additional pressure on our hospital systems. We know that, once you get sicker, the cost of that care is so much higher.

What we've seen is a government that has run around telling stories to Australians to try and hide from the fact that, by every metric in the healthcare system, it has failed Australians in the last three years. It is a national failure of this government. The Labor government came to power promising to strengthen Medicare, and, in reality, all this Labor government has done is weaken it. But, most distressingly, we have a Prime Minister who is prepared to lie to Australians about something as important as their access to health care. The reality is that Australians know that it's never been harder or more expensive to see a doctor.

Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Ruston, I ask you to withdraw your comment a few moments back, which I think you're aware of. Can you please withdraw?

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will withdraw. The fact is that these promises have been made to Australians, and I can assure the people of South Australia that, as your representative in this place, I will be holding the government to account to make sure that it delivers on the promises that it has made to you. If it does not deliver on those promises, I will make sure that you are well aware of the fact that you were misled in the lead-up to this election, because you deserve, as every other Australian deserves, easy and quick access to affordable health care in Australia. It is a fundamental right of all Australians.

But this is not the only promise that was broken. In the 2022 election, the then opposition, as it sought to become the government, made a number of promises to the Australian public. During the previous term of this parliament, it failed to deliver most of them. The reality is that the challenges that we were facing in the last term haven't gone away. Australians are still struggling with the cost of living. It doesn't matter how many times the government tell everybody how fabulously they're doing and about all the wonderful things they're doing, Australians know because they can feel it in their hip pocket. They can feel it in their family budgets. They feel it every time they go to the supermarket or go to pay their mortgage.

There's another promise that this government made that it's failed to keep. We know that we're in the midst of a housing crisis in this country. The Housing Australia Future Fund promised so much to Australians, yet in this place we have failed to get the government to even tell us how many houses have been built by this Housing Australia Future Fund. I fear that it's probably a very low number. My understanding is that it's probably only 17. Half a billion dollars in the last 12 months was allocated from the Housing Australia Future Fund to build houses for Australians, yet we understand that probably fewer than 20 have been constructed already.

When it comes to aged care, in 2022, this government came in on a platform of saying it was going to put the 'care' back into aged care. I cannot possibly see how denying 87,000 Australians, as we stand here today, the care that they have been assessed as needing achieves that when this government refuses to release the home-care packages that are needed to get rid of the waitlist that has absolutely blown out under this government. That is a waitlist that's more than doubled in the last three years, and the wait is three times longer than it was three years ago. How on earth can this government think that is putting the 'care' back in to aged care?

The government went to the election promising 83,000 new home-care packages to try and deal with the waitlist that has blown out under its time in government, and what do we see? The government's first action following the election was the withdrawal of those 83,000 packages for the Australians who are currently waiting on the priority waiting list. They've withdrawn them, so these people are once again left without the care that they have been professionally assessed as needing.

The other thing the government needs to come to terms with is the fact it cannot review its way through this next term of government. The last term of government was absolutely littered with review after review after review. The time for review is over. It is time for action. We need to actually do some of the things that Australians were promised in 2022. Most of the promises that were made in 2022 that were not able to be kept have been re-promised in 2025. I say to the government: if you are serious about delivering the agenda that the Governor-General set out and laid out in her speech to this place, then you need to stop reviewing and you need to start doing.

I hope the government deliver in this next term of government, because the Australian public deserve nothing less from their government. I fear that they won't, but all of us on the coalition side, for the sake of Australians, hope they actually do something this time.

Richard Dowling (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Again, I note this is not my first speech. It is a great honour to rise today in reply to the Her Excellency the Governor-General's speech marking the opening of the 48th Parliament. I thank Her Excellency for the generosity and clarity with which she spoke of the government's legislative agenda. Her speech struck a tone that was both optimistic and clear-eyed, one that acknowledged our strengths as a nation and our responsibilities as a parliament. The values she invoked—kindness, courage, humility and service—are values that I believe in and, I'd hope, this whole chamber believes in. They are values that I know are lived every day by the people I represent, from Hobart's eastern shore to the Huon Valley, from Devonport to the West Coast, and every community in between.

Australians returned the Albanese government with a strengthened mandate because we've delivered and because we've listened. We've brought fairness and stability back into economic management, with tax cuts for every Australian, not just the top end of town. We've invested in the fundamentals that support our prosperity for future generations: Medicare, schools, housing, clean energy and secure jobs. We as a Labor Party and as a government know the work is not finished and that we must do more. And we want to do more. The Australian people expect us to do more, and they trust us to do more.

The 48th Parliament has opened with a clear and urgent focus: cutting student debt by 20 per cent. In my home state of Tasmania, last year the average outstanding student debt was almost $23,000. A 20 per cent reduction in that debt is worth more than $4½ thousand to each of the over 50,000 Tasmanians who will benefit. We're also raising the repayment thresholds and moving to a fairer marginal repayment system.

Other focus areas include making child care safer, more affordable and more accessible to more families; strengthening Medicare—the roll-out of 87 Medicare urgent care clinics across Australia, with 50 more to be built over the next three years, and the establishment of 1800MEDICARE; a $10 billion investment to build 100,000 new homes just for first home buyers; tackling cost-of-living pressures with practical, targeted support; making education more affordable and more accessible for all Australians, with fee-free TAFE right across the country and, as mentioned, cutting 20 per cent of all student loan debts; supporting older Australians through aged-care and pension reform; advancing the National Reconstruction Fund to drive local manufacturing; strengthening our defence capability and deepening our regional engagement; continuing the transition to clean energy with confidence and ambition; and boosting our nation's productivity, growing our economy and making sure everyone stands to benefit—whatever they do and wherever they live.

Labor's agenda has been embraced by millions of Australians on a scale that few predicted at the start of the election. You'd think such a result would give pause for thought from the other side. Indeed, just last week, we heard from the other side that the election result was 'humiliating' and warranted time for reflection—reflection, we are told, that will result in them being 'more constructive'. Yet, in the next breath, we heard nothing but derision about some of the very policies those millions of Australians clearly voted for across every state and territory.

There is no alternative from the other side. They have lost touch with Australian needs, wants and expectations. Australians need action on the cost of living, whether that be through energy bill relief, reducing student debt, cheaper medicines, access to free TAFE, or affordable childcare. Australians want to know that they and their families will get a fair go, that the economy they work in will reward effort, that they'll be able to buy their own home, that their children will be safe at childcare and that their elderly parents will be looked after with dignity in their final years.

Australians expect action on climate change. That is why we've announced a $2 billion expansion of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Contrast this with the other side, who, in the first week of parliament, were already arguing with themselves about net zero targets.

The government's priorities must be delivered in every region, and that includes my region—my home state of Tasmania. For young Tasmanians, particularly first-in-family university students from rural areas, the wiping of indexation and reduction of HECS debt can be the difference between staying in the state or leaving Tasmania altogether. HECS debt relief will make a huge difference for approximately 52,000 Tasmanians. It's not only cost-of-living relief; it's an investment in people who have made an investment in themselves and in improving their future.

On childcare safety: in Tasmania's smaller communities, where services are often stretched and staff are in short supply, ensuring that national standards on childcare safety are enforced and properly resourced will matter deeply to working families. When it comes to affordable housing, there are too many Tasmanians unable to buy their own home who are waiting too long for social housing or who have to continually move around because they're renting. Just yesterday, my office had a call from an elderly woman concerned about what was going to happen to her after her landlord sells the home she's been renting for years. The government's build-to-rent scheme will give greater security to tenants, with five-year leases. Homeownership is a way for people to genuinely own a stake in the economy and a way to help support intergenerational equity. For this we need to build more homes and unlock more land supply.

On the cost-of-living issue: from petrol prices in Queenstown to the cost of groceries in Sorell, Tasmanians feel the pinch of distance and distribution. That's why targeted relief like energy bill rebates and rent support must reflect regional realities.

Turning to clean energy: Tasmania's leadership in hydro, wind and emerging green hydrogen means we're well placed to play a central role in Australia's clean energy transition. But we need national coordination and long-term investment certainty to maximise that role.

On the topic of aged care: in towns across Tasmania, aged care isn't an abstract policy; it's deeply personal and community based. Reform must lift standards, improve workforce conditions and respect rural providers.

Like many in this chamber, I've come to this place with a belief that politics should be about practical progress and that governments should be a force for good. From Rosny College to this red chamber, I've seen how public policy shapes lives and how it must evolve to meet new challenges.

One area that I hope to contribute to is improving the nation's productivity. Only through productivity improvements can we achieve higher living standards for the next generation. It won't be an easy task, but it's one we should confront with optimism and confidence.

Whether on economic development, education or the energy transition, I'm here to contribute constructively and to ensure that Tasmanian voices are not only heard but central to national decision-making. The Governor-General said:

… democracy is always a work in progress—one that thrives when ideas and propositions are subject to robust, but respectful, interrogation.

She's right. That means disagreeing well, listening, acting in good faith and delivering results that improve lives—not just for the loudest or the most powerful, but for every Australian.

This 48th Parliament opens at a time of global uncertainty but also of national opportunity. Let us use this opportunity well. Let's live up to the faith Australians have placed in us. Let's govern with the values Her Excellency reminded us of—humility, strength and service—for Tasmania, for the nation and for future generations.

Dave Sharma (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia faces immense challenges. We live in a dangerous and more unstable world, our geographic isolation no longer affords us the protection that it once did, and the liberal international trading system which has done so much to underpin Australian prosperity is under threat. Our Defence Force is underfunded and underequipped, and our economy, once the envy of the world, is stagnating.

Australia is a great and prosperous nation, but this is not the result of dumb luck or mere chance. It's something that we have built collectively, through active choices and decisions taken over decades. Our economic success has been built by hard work, by liberal economic policies, by a thriving private sector, by competition and dynamism, by a willingness to embrace new technologies and new methods of working, and by ensuring that effort, enterprise and risk taking are rewarded, not punished. Unless and until such time as we rediscover those principles, unless and until such time as we get our economy out of its rut and get it moving again, our other national challenges will only grow more profound. We will not be able to modernise and enlarge our defence forces, as we so desperately need to do. We will not be able to modernise or upgrade our infrastructure. We will not be able to continue to fund generous social services and health care. We will not be able to care for communities in need, be they the elderly or those with a disability. Turning a blind eye to the profound economic challenges we face, or pretending—as this government has done over the past three years—that we have no agency or ability to address them, is national negligence of the highest order.

In her address, the Governor-General noted the government's newly found interest in productivity and in a more resilient and diversified economy. It's refreshing to hear this Labor government finally acknowledge the scale of economic challenges facing our nation. At least the era of denial seems to be over. If the Labor government are genuine about seeking to address these challenges, then they will find a constructive partner in the Liberal Party. I'm very grateful to have been appointed as the shadow assistant minister for competition, charities and Treasury by the Leader of the Opposition, and I look forward to working with my colleagues across this parliament to scrutinise, hold to account and support, where warranted, this government's economic policy.

But let's be honest about our challenges. Under this Labor government, we've got lower living standards, we've got higher debt, we've got higher taxes, we've got stagnant productivity, and we've got anaemic business investment. The government now say their ambition for rising wages, growth and productivity requires a unified national effort. Well, this damascene conversion is welcome, but Australians are right to ask: where has this ambition been for the past three years? We've seen GDP per capita—the best measure of family, household and individual prosperity—in sustained decline under this government. It's likely that GDP per capita will not recover to 2022 levels until 2030. That is a lost decade. We've had productivity stagnant since Labor came to office. It currently sits at 2016 levels.

We've had this government take $144 billion in new spending decisions since coming to office and, in addition, spend much of the windfall from high commodity prices. In the last budget, we saw government spending growing at six per cent, four times faster than the rate at which the economy is growing. That is unsustainable. And it's reflected in the jobs figures. Four in five jobs created in the past two years have been in the non-market sector, propelled by government spending. This is the only part of the economy that is actually growing, the non-market sector.

Business investment is close to the debts last seen in the middle of the 1990s recession, over three decades ago. The OECD estimates that Australia has a 30 per cent shortfall in investment relative to economic output, making us the third worst-placed country in the OECD on this metric. Our energy costs are now some of the highest in the developed world when they were once amongst the lowest and formed a key plank of our competitive advantage. Energy is an input into every facet of economic activity, and high energy costs effectively act as a tax on production. This deterioration in competitive advantage is a direct result of the flawed energy transition being pursued by this Labor government.

I now want to turn to productivity, which is the topic of many speeches at present and the focus of the government's upcoming economic reform summit in August. As the Productivity Commission has rightly identified, productivity growth has accounted for 80 per cent of national income growth over the past 80 years. That means that productivity is the basis of higher living standards. It underpins economic growth. It's why this generation of Australians is materially better off, with more opportunities and better health than previous generations of Australians. The only way that today's parents can expect their children to have a better standard of life and more opportunity is if we get productivity moving again.

As Ken Henry noted in his recent Press Club address, unless Labor's anaemic productivity is rebooted, this government will need to raise taxes by as much as five per cent of GDP. That is the pathway we are heading down: a low-productivity, high-cost, high-tax, high-spend economy. Ken Henry further noted that the average Australian today is cumulatively half a million dollars worse off because of the failure to match our productivity performance in the last two decades of the 2000s to that of the 1980s and 1990s. But it's important to understand that our productivity performance is not uniform. In the market sector—the private sector, largely—productivity has increased by 35 per cent since 2000. But, in the non-market sector—the sector which is overwhelmingly government owned, operated or funded—productivity has grown by just two per cent in that period. So that's an increase of 35 per cent in the market sector since 2000 and an increase of two per cent in the non-market sector since 2000. Remember, four out of five jobs created in the past two years have been in the non-market sector.

It is this growth in government spending which is driving the creation of non-market sector jobs, crowding out the private sector and hurting our overall national productivity. But, even in the market sector, productivity performance has been patchy. In construction, for instance, which is worth highlighting, labour productivity has gone backwards in past decades. In the past two decades, for instance, labour productivity in dwelling construction has fallen by 33 per cent in terms of the number of houses built. This means it takes more workers more time to build a house than it did two decades ago. We are getting worse at building homes. If you want to know why we have a housing affordability crisis, part of the explanation lies in this figure.

Let's not forget that one of the very first acts of this government when elected in 2022 was to abolish the sole industrial umpire in the sector, the Australian Building and Construction Commission, the ABCC. Since that time, the unchecked, militant, unlawful and intimidatory tactics of the CFMEU and other emboldened construction unions have added an estimated 30 per cent to construction costs in Australia over the last three years. That's a tax that we all pay. It's a tax that our state governments have to pay if they're undertaking major infrastructure projects, but it's also a tax we all pay if we're seeking to renovate our home or buy a new home.

One of the most troubling figures to emerge in recent days—which, I think, spells out the economic malaise we're in—is that, today, more than 50 per cent of Australians rely on government for their main income, whether it's through public sector wages, social security benefits or subsidies. This is because we have seen government spending surge, going from 24 per cent of GDP to 27 per cent of GDP in just a few years. That's a figure that was last seen in the early 1980s, and there is no end in sight. This is strangling the private sector and increasingly turning Australia into a mendicant society, one that depends on government spending for its livelihood.

This government has now announced an Economic Reform Roundtable to take place in the third week of August. This is a welcome recognition, at least, that the Australian economy is in poor health and that we have an urgent need to address its ailments. Hopefully, it means the era of denial is over. But this summit has to be more than a ritualistic or formulaic exercise. It must deliver outcomes.

But you cannot say that the initial signs are promising. We've had the Prime Minister and the Treasurer rule out industrial relations changes. We've had the Prime Minister and the Treasurer effectively rule out any ambitious tax reform. We've had government ministers talk about giving unions a right of veto over the deployment of productive technology in the workplace. We've got trade unions having been given four out of the 24 spots available at this Economic Reform Roundtable.

One of the demands from the ACTU and trade unions—these are the people who will occupy almost 20 per cent of the seats at this roundtable—is to abolish the Productivity Commission. That's right: abolish the professional, independent, expert body that advises the government on how to improve productivity. The union suggestion is that this body should be abolished as a way to somehow improve our productivity. Another of their demands is to give trade unions a veto over the deployment and use of artificial intelligence in the workplace. Their final demand is a shorter working week, not offset by productivity increases, by increased workplace flexibility or by the deployment of new technologies—just a shorter working week.

It doesn't augur well, and it has echoes of the Jobs and Skills Summit in 2022, which was, as business frankly concedes now, a complete stitch-up. It was used as a vehicle by the government to pursue dramatic changes to our industrial relations system, which has taken us well back beyond the era of Paul Keating. It's basically destroyed the system of enterprise bargaining that he helped introduce, and it's destroyed the very notion that workers in an enterprise can negotiate with their employer and trade off flexibility or productivity for material wage gains or better working conditions.

I want to turn briefly to competition, because competition is an area that must be addressed by this roundtable. Australia is being held back in too many sectors by weak competition. A lack of competition in these sectors is hurting not only the workers in those sectors, who are not able to sell their labour more effectively to other bidders, but also consumers. We have welcomed the government's work through the competition taskforce, and we remain ready to support important competition reforms.

But what have we seen on the government's agenda? Well, one of their first acts last week in the parliament was to seek to enshrine penalty rates in law, remove flexibility and make it more difficult for workers to negotiate higher rates of base pay by offsetting penalty rates—something that many workers have pursued over the years. We've also seen ministers talk about giving unions a veto over the deployment of artificial intelligence. And, again, the only area of tax reform the government seems to be pursuing is a novel, untested and, frankly, nightmarish tax on unrealised gains in super accounts, something that has never been done before in Australia, which will almost certainly act not only as a tax on those individuals who have self-managed super funds with balances above the amount but a tax on early-stage investment.

We will hold this government to account for its big talk on productivity and economic growth. Australia is a great and prosperous nation not by chance but by choice. Our economic success has been built on hard work, on economic liberalism and on reward for effort. But weak productivity, a lack of competition and anaemic growth are all major challenges for Australia, and we cannot afford to sit by or think we can regulate or tax our way to prosperity. If we want to remain a high-income, high-opportunity country, we need to get serious about economic reform. That means less red tape, more competition and greater innovation so that we can restore our economic strength and leave the country in better shape for our children.

Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise to make a contribution to this debate. But, before I do, I absolutely need to thank and acknowledge the good people of South Australia for returning me to serve another six-year term, alongside all my fellow South Australian senators who were also re-elected, and I acknowledge Senator Antic, in the chamber, as one of them. I know it is absolutely the privilege of all of our lives to serve in this place. There's a deep level of trust placed in us by the people of our state, the greatest state in Australia, to do our job here, and I really want to recognise that. Oh, sorry! Senator Blyth, as well, is one of our South Australian senators representing that great state. So thank you, South Australians, for that privilege that you have bestowed upon us.

Throughout the campaign, my greatest hope was that the election would return an Albanese Labor government so that we could continue all the work we started last term. But my second greatest hope during the election campaign was to find myself with a new local member of parliament. The newly elected member for Sturt, Ms Claire Clutterham MP, is the first Labor MP in 53 years to serve in that seat and the first woman ever to be the local representative in that role. The member for Sturt worked extraordinarily hard during that campaign. She will be a fantastic addition to the federal parliament. I know she will make a great contribution. I also acknowledge Mr James Stevens for his service over six years as the previous member for Sturt.

There were many volunteers from our movement who contributed to the history-making result in Sturt and I want to thank and acknowledge all of them, including my friend Jason Byrne, who made a remarkable contribution to that effort. But there were many, many people who did, and I acknowledge all of them, too.

I also want to thank the Australian Electoral Commission and acknowledge the role that they played in the 2025 election campaign. Our democracy is the envy of the world, and our Electoral Commission deserves so much credit for that. We are extremely lucky to live in a country where we can take for granted the fact that we will have fairly conducted election campaigns, free of corruption and interference, and the AEC are the custodians of that. The people who work for the AEC do extraordinary work, over very, very long hours and often in trying circumstances. I do want to acknowledge their work and their contribution in the conduct of our recent federal election.

We took many commitments to the Australian people this federal election, but I think it is fair to say that the most significant of those commitments we took was about our healthcare system—the future of Medicare, and how we choose to invest in health care, how we choose to prioritise health care, and especially how we choose to invest in and prioritise women's health. I've been advocating for greater investment in women's health since the start of my parliamentary career, because you simply do not have to look very far to see the instances where women's voices have gone unheard, where women have felt silenced, and where women have not received the support and care they need when it comes to their health care. I am deeply proud of the position we took to this election campaign—our investment of some $800 million in women's health, including new medicines on the PBS for the first time in decades; new contraceptive pills on the PBS for the first time in decades; new hormone replacement therapy on the PBS for the first time in decades. We're also making substantial investments in men's health, too, which I'll come to later in my speech.

But health care, I think, was the defining policy question in our election campaign and it will be the defining work of all of us as we continue our term. There are few things more important—really, is there anything more important?—to Australian families than their health and the health of the people they love. And we know that we need to improve primary care in this country. We need to improve and invest more in the Medicare system in this country.

We are the pride of the world when it comes to our healthcare system, but it was systematically undermined by the previous government's previous prime ministers—I can't remember how many there were. We need to turn that around and make much greater investments in our healthcare system. Women's health is a significant part of that.

Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Smith, you'll be in continuation when debate resumes on the address-in-reply. It being 1.30, it's time for two-minute statements.