Corinne Mulholland (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last night, Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down a budget that delivers for Queensland. But, today, I want to highlight an announcement of $1.7 million for mental health support in Brisbane's north. Last night, the Albanese government threw a vital funding lifeline to four Safe Spaces located at Caboolture, Redcliffe, Strathpine and Bardon. These are centres that were threatened with closure under the LNP in Queensland. They are after-hours mental health facilities whose doors remain open when other clinics are closed. It means people experiencing severe mental health challenges are met with care instead of crisis, literally saving lives.

I want to thank Minister Mark Butler for hearing the concerns raised by Petrie's MP, Emma Comer; Ali France from Dickson; Madonna Jarrett from Brisbane; and me. We challenged the federal government to take this fight up with the state government. I also want to acknowledge the efforts of Mark Ryan, the state member for Morayfield. Five strong Labor voices united behind one message to make sure that these centres do not close, but we know that our work is not done. Locking in the federal funding is only half of the equation, and we know these centres are funded 50-50 with the state government. We are now waiting and watching to see whether Queensland's LNP government comes to the table with their fair share of funding.

We know it is in the DNA of the Queensland LNP to cut deeply into our health system, but the state government knows the value of these centres. They know that they divert people in crisis away from our emergency departments, which reduces pressure on ramping, our ambulance officers, our police officers and our EDs. So I say to Minister Tim Nicholls the federal government has stepped up; it is now time for the Queensland LNP government to do the same.

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week's budget from Treasurer Chalmers, on behalf of the Labor-Greens government, could not be further from the Labor Party's original support base of working Australians. A simple question: what in this budget will ease the challenges everyday Australians are facing, challenges the Labor government have created themselves? Under Prime Minister Albanese, inflation is 4.6 per cent and 13 per cent across his government's four years. Don't blame Iran or Ukraine! It's the government itself which is the leading cause of inflation.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics tracks increases in government services on a like-for-like basis. In the 12 months to March this year, government property rates and charges went up six per cent, water and sewerage went up seven per cent, postal services went up eight per cent, secondary education went up seven per cent, preschool and primary education went up five per cent. All of these government charges have increased faster than the overall inflation rate. Wages have gone backwards. Average wage increases in the last 12 months were only 3.7 per cent in the private sector and 3.9 per cent in the government sector—less than inflation.

Under the Albanese Labor government, if it feels like you're going backwards while working harder, it's because you are. That's why 56 per cent of the public in a recent Freshwater poll think the country is going in the wrong direction. It's no wonder the ANZ-Roy Morgan index of consumer confidence fell 4.3 points last week to 58.8 against the long-term average of 110. This is the lowest consumer confidence reading since records began in 1973.

The tax cuts in the budget are an insult and will be wiped out from inflation before they start next July. We need infrastructure spending, smaller government, an end to net zero madness and waste, and balanced budgets. And stop flooding this country with more people than we can build homes for. It's driving the prices of houses beyond affordability. These are all One Nation policies which will help. One Nation is now the party for workers.

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

The budget confirmed for Australians that Labor's economic vandalism is killing our once prosperous country. Labor's betrayal, broken promises and backflips have consequences, and fellow South Australians are paying the price. We have the highest proportion of older people on mainland Australia. If you are over 65, your private health insurance rebate is about to be cut. Continuing the reckless pursuit of net zero, Labor is taking from ever hardworking Australians to spend $18 billion on its net zero fantasy. South Australia has the highest renewables mix in its energy grid, yet we pay some of the highest electricity prices in the country—up more than 32 per cent under this government.

Groceries are up 17 per cent, health care is up 17 per cent, education is up 21 per cent, insurance is up 42 per cent, and rents are up 23 per cent, too. That will only get worse. For more than 200,000 rental households in South Australia, getting ahead is about to get harder. Just in, new quarterly data shows South Australians are experiencing the equal worst wage growth of any state or territory at just 0.4 of a per cent.

That is Labor's economic wreck. Small businesses in South Australia are experiencing record insolvencies. The dream, the aspiration, has been killed off for them. Australians will pay an extra $50 billion in taxes over the next four years. That includes an extra $15 billion in personal income taxes and billions more from new taxes on housing, businesses, farms and shares. Labor is making it worse. This is Labor's doing, no-one else's. They have had it for four years; they have stuffed it.