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

You're not going to stop me! In tonight's adjournment debate I want to speak about the first 100 days of the Albanese Labor government's second term. We have not stopped implementing policy reform to strengthen our country and our economy, empowering communities and families. Australians understand there is great global economic uncertainty out there, but they know that this government will be bold and make important changes to set our country up for the future.

In my home state of Tasmania our Labor team in the Senate and House of Representatives have been focused on delivering for Tasmanians and delivering on our election commitments. In particular, our urgent care clinics are working every day to keep Tasmanians healthy. We recently marked 100,000 visits to Tasmania's five urgent care clinics, and we on this side will continue to strengthen Medicare with our commitment to open another three care clinics across Tasmania. That means eight urgent care clinics where Tasmanians just need their Medicare card for health care when they need it most. This important policy will change people's lives for the better. As a senator from the great state of Tasmania, I could not be prouder of the Albanese government, led by Anthony Albanese, for delivering for Tasmanians.

As a government we've already opened the first of our 50 new Medicare urgent care clinics, adding to the network of 90 we opened in our first term, taking pressure off public hospitals and making sure people can get the treatment they need with just their Medicare card. There is nowhere more important for that to be delivered than in my home state of Tasmania. Tasmania has some of the highest rates of chronic illnesses in the country, unfortunately.

Who could forget that, in our very first sitting week of parliament, we passed legislation to cut student debt by 20 per cent and raise the repayment threshold from $54,435 to $67,000. This is cost-of-living relief, helping more than 53,000 Tasmanians with that debt burden. We've also introduced legislation to make medicines cheaper, protect workers' penalty rates—as I was speaking about earlier—and strengthen safety in childcare centres. Making the most of these advantages depends on making sure our economy rewards people for their hard work, and we as a government want all Australians to share in our wealth. This was the subject of the three-day economic roundtable here in Canberra last week. My Tasmanian colleagues and I held an economic roundtable in Tasmania to hear from businesses, unions and the not-for-profit sector about how they think we can boost national productivity.

We focus every day on building our country and giving Australians a helping hand with concerns about the high cost of living. From 1 July this year, another round of energy bill relief was rolled out for every household and small business around Australia. The Paid Parental Leave scheme has been expanded by another two weeks, and superannuation has been added to it for the first time ever. Who did that? A Labor government, unlike those opposite, who will sell Australians out—and their super, because they've never believed in it. It was established by a Labor government. We are the ones that work every day in this place to protect it.

Three million workers on minimum award wages have received another real pay increase—one that those on that side did nothing to help with when they were in government—and on 1 July next year, and the year after that, all 14 million taxpayers will receive our tax cuts. I know those opposite do not understand, but we on this side want Australians to earn more and to keep more of what they earn. As a government we're focused on delivering economic opportunities for women, abolishing non-compete clauses and pursuing competition reform to boost productivity.

Ambition and the need to deliver on all of these policies—that's what drives us as members of the Albanese Labor government. We understand that delivering is fundamental to building our nation and making a positive difference to people's lives. I'm proud to be part of a Senate team here that will work every single day to help Australians and to make sure that we leave no-one behind and that people get the opportunities that were denied to them by the former government over the nine long years— (Time expired)