Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Since being re-elected, the Albanese Labor government have wasted no time on delivering on the promises that we made to Australians. Our focus, since being re-elected and in the last term, has always been on how we can help everyday Australians and give families the support that they need. For Labor, government is about making real changes that improve people's lives.

In just the first months of this new term, we've already delivered some big, tangible wins for families. Our very first piece of legislation passed was a 20 per cent cut to student debt. That means relief for more than three million Australians, particularly young Australians. It means a young nurse in Cairns starting her career will see thousands wiped from the balance of her student debt. It means a single mum in Townsville juggling work and part-time study will finally feel like she's moving forward, whether it's saving for a place of her own or getting the kids the new football boots that they need. That's what good government does—it backs people in.

We're also making medicines cheaper, and I know that this has a real impact on families, particularly in regional Queensland. Since coming to office, Labor have already slashed the cost of hundreds of common medicines, and, in this new term, we're going even further than that. We're taking the price of medicines back to the same price that it was in 2004. That's right—we are taking it back to when Nollsie was topping the charts, capping PBS scripts at $25. Making scripts cheaper will save Australians $200 million at the pharmacy counter every single year. That's money back into household budgets at a time when every single dollar counts. Combined with our 60-day scripts, that's people saving more money and more time.

We're standing up for working people as well. This sitting fortnight we are protecting penalty rates permanently. We know that people who give up their time with their families to work nights and weekends and public holidays deserve their penalty rates, and they deserve to know that their right to a penalty rate is protected in law. That's the difference between our government and those opposite. Labor will always back working families.

This week we've delivered one of the most important housing reforms in a generation so that almost every family has a place to call home. We've brought forward our five per cent deposit scheme for first home buyers. From 1 October, every first home buyer will be able to enter the housing market with just a five per cent deposit—no income caps, no limits on places, no lenders mortgage insurance. From 1 October, every single first home buyer will be able to enter the housing market with just this five per cent deposit required. This is life changing. Let's be honest—saving a 20 per cent deposit in today's housing market is out of reach for so many Australians. The median home price today is $844,000; a 20 per cent deposit is almost $170,000. For young people, for renters and for families, that can feel basically impossible, but, under Labor's scheme, a first home buyer in Brisbane will be able to buy a $1 million home with just a $50,000 deposit. They'll save up to 10 years off the time it would have taken them to get into the market, will avoid around $42,000 in mortgage insurance and will finally start paying down their own loan instead of somebody else's mortgage.

In a place like Rocky, what that means to a young couple just starting their family is that they can purchase a $600,000 home with only a $30,000 deposit.

They'll save about six years of savings and $25,000 in mortgage insurance and could pay $126,000 into their own mortgage instead of a landlord's pocket. That's not abstract policy. This is real people—thousands of them—moving into their first homes years earlier than they thought was possible. This is just the start. Because Labor was elected to deliver for everyday Australians, that's exactly what we have done since the election and is exactly what we'll continue to do.