I understand the constant stress and anxiety that cost of living pressures can cause.
That’s why Labor is focused on easing financial pressure for all Auastralians through our comprehensive suite of cost of living relief measures.
Theres still more work to be done, but our number one priority is delivering real relief to the Australians doing it tough.
From July 1, every taxpayer will get a tax cut.
The Morrison Government's tax cuts left out people earning $45,000 or less. Under our government, everyone who pays income tax gets a tax cut.
Our cost of living tax cuts are about rewarding hard working Australians.
From July 1, every Australian household will receive $300 off their power bills, and 1 million small businesses will receive a rebate of $325.
We know Australians are feeling the pressure from higher global energy prices.
These rebates will help families pay the bills, while putting downward pressure on inflation.
After a decade of the Liberals and Nationals in government deliberately keeping wages low, our Labor Government is getting wages moving again.
We’ve supported three consecutive pay increases in the minimum wage, and we’ve delivered an historic 15 per cent pay rise for aged care workers.
We’ve taken the gender pay gap to a record low.
We’ve banned pay secrecy clauses.
We’ve made deliberate wage theft a crime.
We’ve legislated our ‘same job, same pay’ protections for casual workers.
And we are seeing wages grow at a higher rate than inflation.
Labor built Medicare and we will always strengthen it.
In this Budget we are providing $3 billion to support pharmacies and to keep the costs of medicines down.
We’re freezing the maximum cost of PBS prescriptions for a year. That means no one will pay more than $31.60 for a PBS script.
For Australians with pensioner or concession cards, we’re freezing the price for five years. So those Australians won’t pay more than $7.70 for the medicine they need.
And we’re adding more life changing medicines to the PBS list.
Labor will always invest in education because we know it changes lives.
That’s why we’re wiping $3 billion in student debt and changing the way HELP loans are indexed to make it fairer and cheaper over the life of a loan.
And by backdating this change to mid-2023, we’re able to provide debt relief in the form of HELP loan credits to over 3 million Australians.
We’re also reducing financial barriers for the next generation of nurses, midwives, teachers and social workers.
These students will be eligible for a prac payment to support them while undertaking the compulsory placements that are required to graduate.
We want to make sure Australians are getting a fair deal at the checkout.
That’s why we’re holding supermarkets to account with a strong competition watchdog, and making the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct mandatory. By strengthening competition and accountability in the sector we will secure fairer prices.
We want new parents to have the flexibility, support and choice they need. That’s why we’re delivering the biggest boost to government Paid Parental Leave since Labor created it in 2011.
We’re moving towards six months of paid time off – with the flexibility to choose how to split it between parents.
And we’re introducing paid super on government Paid Parental Leave.
It’ll mean more dads can take time off work, so caring responsibilities can be shared more equally. And it’ll mean more opportunity for mums, boosting workforce participation across the economy.
We’re providing the first back-to-back increase to Commonwealth Rent Assistance in more than 30 years.
On top of the 15% increase in our last Budget, this year we’re delivering a further 10% increase.
This is much needed support for renters across the country who are doing it tough.
