I'm pleased to present the report of the Australian parliamentary delegation to the 150th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly, held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, from 5 to 9 April 2025. Following the prorogation of the 47th Parliament and dissolution of the House of Representatives on 28 March, my House colleagues and I were not able to attend the 150th assembly. However, the Australian delegation to the IPU was expertly led by Senator Deborah O'Neill and accompanied by the former senator, the Hon. Linda Reynolds CSC.

The Australian delegation focused its engagement with the IPU on the twice-yearly assemblies; however, it is not possible always to participate, and online events have been a normal occurrence. As part of my commitment to the civics education program Parliament in Schools, as well as to the National Youth Parliament, I've moderated an IPU webinar entitled 'Engaging young people to improve democracy: how can political leaders in power provide young people with the opportunities to have their say'. The webinar has brought together parliamentarians and civil society leaders to discuss practical steps to empower young people in democratic processes.

Next year the Australian parliament will celebrate 70 years of membership with the IPU. While I'll have more to say about that milestone later, Australia has a significant track record over its decades of IPU engagement. The 150th assembly in Tashkent was no different, as our delegates represented the parliament with distinction. Firstly, I give thanks to Senator O'Neill for representing Australia at the IPU Executive Committee and for serving, on my behalf, as the chairperson of the Sub-Committee on Finance. Senator O'Neill presented a proposal for a future resolution on tax avoidance, which was accepted by the standing committee on sustainable development. The topic will be debated at the next assembly, in October this year, and advanced as a resolution for endorsement at the 156th assembly in early 2026.

Senator Reynolds has continued to advance her work on orphanage trafficking while also serving on the bureau of the Forum of Women Parliamentarians. As part of an orphanage trafficking plan, Senator Reynolds participated in a podcast, has written opinion pieces and facilitated discussions at the 150th assembly on implementing the 2023 IPU resolution on orphanage trafficking. Senator O'Neill has also served as president of the bureau on the Standing Committee on Democracy and Human Rights, responsible for presiding over committee meetings and debates, and reporting to the assembly on the committee's activities.

On behalf of the Australian delegation, I want to thank those who supported our delegates at the 150th IPU assembly. I give thanks to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra and the Parliamentary Library for providing detailed background information to the delegation. The delegation also appreciated the assistance and support of the International and Parliamentary Relations Office. I also give my thanks to Senator O'Neill for leading the delegation with professionalism and expertise.

Finally, I'd like to acknowledge the contribution of former senator the Hon. Linda Reynolds CSC, whose work on orphanage trafficking at the IPU culminated in a groundbreaking resolution on the subject in 2023. The resolution was adopted by the IPU member parliaments by consensus, marking the first global action on orphanage trafficking. Senator Reynolds has also attended six assemblies from 2022 and was the 49th woman parliamentarian to serve as an Australian delegate since the Australian parliament joined the IPU in 1956. I thank her for the service. And, finally, I'd like to thank and acknowledge Dr Jane Thomson from the Department of the Senate, who served as delegation secretary.

I commend the report to the House.

I have received messages from the Senate informing the House of the appointment of senators to certain joint committees. As the list of appointments is a lengthy one, I do not propose to read the list. Details will be recorded in the Votes and Proceedings.

I declare that, unless otherwise ordered, the Customs Amendment (Australia-United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2025 and Customs Tariff Amendment (Australia-United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2025 stand referred to the Federation Chamber for further consideration at the adjournment of the debate on the motion for the second reading of the Customs Amendment (Australia-United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2025.

I move:

That:

(1) for Tuesday, 29 July 2025 and Wednesday, 30 July 2025:

(a) standing order 33 (limit on business after normal time of adjournment) be suspended; and

(b) so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the adjournment debate being interrupted at 8 pm and government business having priority until:

(i) business concludes, if earlier than 10 pm; or

(ii) 10 pm; or

(iii) a later time specified by a Minister prior to 10 pm;

at which point, the debate being adjourned and the House immediately adjourning until the next sitting;

(2) for Tuesday, 29 July 2025 to Thursday, 31 July 2025:

(a) statements of no longer than 10 minutes each on the provisions of the Early Childhood Education and Care (Strengthening Regulation of Early Education) Bill 2025 be permitted in the House or Federation Chamber when other business is not before that Chamber; and

(b) statements of no longer than 10 minutes each on the provisions of the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025 be permitted in the House or Federation Chamber when other business is not before that Chamber; and

(3) any variation to this arrangement being made only on a motion moved by a Minister.

Given the unusual nature of this suspension, I'll give a brief explanation to the House. I want to thank both the Manager of Opposition Business and the crossbench for the consultation that has happened in the lead-up to this, and I accept that this is a process which we are doing for specific reasons today. I am hopeful that, if we ever repeat it, it's very rare. Certainly, the ideal would be that it's never repeated.

I'll explain, having said all that, what it is we're actually doing. There are two items of legislation that the government needs to urgently get across to the Senate. One relates to the 20 per cent cut in student debt and the other relates to the government being able to raise standards in early childhood education. These bills need to get across to the Senate quickly for very different reasons.

The issues with respect to the student-debt bill is because, once it passes the parliament, there is a mountain of work that has to be done in terms of lines of coding and everything before students will in fact see the reduction in their debts. They're not disadvantaged by this, because it is backdated, but the length of delay which already occurs just administratively is longer than we want it to be and we are trying to avoid the parliament adding to that delay.

For the second bill, with respect to early education, anyone who has been asked in the media about this bill, from wherever they sit within the parliament, has spoken about its urgency. The nature of the issue though is one where lots of people will have speeches, including some very personal speeches that they'll be wanting to put on the record. I don't think anybody wants their speech to be a reason for the delay, and we do want the education minister to be able to have the powers that are contained within the legislation at the earliest possible opportunity. The examples that we've seen from a very, very small section of workers within that sector are so horrific that there is a legitimate expectation by the public that we act quickly.

The normal way of the government being able to act quickly with respect to both of the bills would simply be for me to move that the question be put. That is the normal way that that's been done by both sides of politics over the years. With this motion I am trying to accept the urgency but find a way that the parliament still gets to vote on each of the procedures that the parliament would normally want to vote on, some of which would be lost if I moved that the question be put, but still make sure we get it across to the Senate and people are still able to get their speeches about the legislation on the record.

So, while I accept completely that it is well and truly imperfect and there is stronger language available about people making some of their speeches after the bill has gone across to the Senate, that is the only way I've been able to find—short of the traditional gag motion—to get it across there. I am hoping that, by providing the opportunity for speeches both here and in the Federation Chamber, through the parliament's sitting late tonight and sitting late tomorrow night, that will encourage people to give very few speeches this morning and later this afternoon when we're dealing with the specific bills, in the hope that we might be able to get it across to the Senate cooperatively. That's what I'm hoping for, and I thank the House for it.

I give fair notice that we do need to get the student debt bill across before question time, but I'm hoping that we're in a position where we can do that cooperatively. For the benefit of members, particularly new members, who might not be aware of this: even though the parliament sits late, after 6.30 there are no divisions or quorums. So you will stay here late if you are giving a speech—or if you just enjoy being here listening to the speeches; all reasons are available. But certainly there'll be no votes or quorum calls after 6.30. I hope that explains the procedure that this is bringing forward.

I just want it known, for the House's benefit, that the coalition has agreed to this unusual procedure—and I hear what the manager has said. We have accepted the advice from the government that there is an urgency in relation to the education bills and clearly in relation to the childcare bills. The Leader of the Opposition has indicated that we'll be constructive on these sorts of matters, and we will be.

I would add to the manager's speech simply that the nature of the election timing and where we are now is another reason we have agreed to this unusual process for these two very important first bills that have come before the parliament. That wouldn't normally be the case. There's obviously an important reason, and I hear what you say about the gag. However, on this one occasion we agree and we accept the advice from the government that there is an urgency to this matter.

The question is that the motion be agreed to.

Question agreed to.

I rise to speak on the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025, a measure which provides a one-off 20 per cent reduction to higher educational and program debts and restructures how young people will repay their debt, including lifting the threshold for compulsory repayments from $54,435 in 2024-25 to $67,000 in this financial year.

Around three million Australians who have student debt loans will see some benefit from the debt reduction measure, including the 70 per cent of HELP debtors who are aged 35 years old or younger. This change forms part of broader adjustments to the repayment system and will provide some immediate cost-of-living relief for those carrying significant student debt. This policy resonated at the election, because young people are being hit hard by Labor's cost-of-living crisis, and student debt is part of that pressure. This policy will assist a specific cohort: those with large HELP debts, most of whom had the opportunity to attend university.

The government has accepted that early childhood workers and nurses should be writing off the debts of lawyers and doctors—indeed, debts worth $16 billion. But there are millions of Australians who don't have a student loan, and many of them are also struggling to pay the rent, to buy groceries and to cover basic bills, and it is their taxation dollars that are going towards this one-off $16 billion cost to the bottom line of the budget.

The government's approach ignores the needs of those young Australians who don't go to university, including those in insecure or lower paid jobs who are highly exposed to high cost of living and high housing costs. Students face huge increases in everyday costs thanks to this government's policies. Since they were elected, rent has gone up by 18 per cent, cheese has gone up by 20 per cent, milk has gone up by 17 per cent, cereal—the staple of all students, may I say—has gone up by 20 per cent and eggs have gone up by 32 per cent.

We understand that, today, around three million Australians have a student debt amounting to $81 billion, meaning each student carries an average debt of $27,640. As they move into the professional world, they have to work out how they will repay this debt. We acknowledge, though it is predominantly higher education debt, there are also some VET loans. The government estimates this measure will save those debtors, on average, $5,520 on their accumulated HECS debt.

The Australian government invests heavily in university education and has done so for decades, and it is important to remember that Commonwealth covers around 60 per cent of a student's degree, although that varies greatly by discipline. Further support for students is welcome, but it must be balanced with a focus on broader reforms that improve opportunity for all.

Analysis of this policy would suggest that it will benefit high-income earners who have undertaken expensive degrees. We know there are some categories of women who will be disadvantaged, especially those who will work part time early in their careers, and that past debtors who have repaid the cost of their studies and future students, enrolling as of tomorrow, will miss out. The changes to the repayment method also contained in this bill will affect all debtors and, for many of those with low incomes, may keep them in debt for even longer. The Parliamentary Budget Office modelled that a graduate with a low income—50 per cent of average graduate income—will fall below the new minimum repayment threshold and will take approximately another eight years to pay off their debt.

With effect from 1 June, the bill reduces student debt, including all HELP, vocational education and training student loans, Australian apprenticeship support loans, student start-up loans and other student loans. While attractive at the ballot box, this is poor economic and educational policy. When Labor announced this policy last year subject to the election outcome, economists slammed it as a poorly targeted sugar hit. Let me quote Chris Richardson, an economist:

…handing $16bn to graduates is a reverse Robin Hood: it's a tax cut targeted to the big end of town, with money going from the less well off to the better off.

It's a fairness fail.

Worse still, that $16bn does nothing for the nation's future.

Andrew Lilley, Chief Interest Rate Strategist at Barrenjoey, said:

Just sad to see this. Many good ways to "spend" ten billion. Attempting to buy 3 million votes in a close election is not a good one. We should be wary—creeping populism can grow for decades.

Ashley Craig, economist said:

He also said:

This is exceptionally bad policy which favours the rich, doesn't help with current cost of living, and does nothing to encourage higher ed.

Ben Phillips of the ANU Centre for Social Policy Research said:

'Real cost of living relief' better directed to genuinely poor people rather than well paid Uni grads in their late 20s/early 30s (when they benefit from the new policy). What about future grads?

And Andrew Norton, the highly regarded Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy at ANU, said:

Marginal HELP repayments will be 15% on incomes $67,000-$124,999 & 17% on incomes of $125,000+.

For most HELP debtors, the marginal HELP repayment rate will be slightly higher than now. A consequence of needing to recover the lost revenue from the higher first threshold.

Those with bigger debts will get more relief, regardless of their capacity to earn more in the future, so a lawyer who graduated last year will receive more help than a social worker. Young people who haven't gone to uni or who studied a lower cost course and those who haven't worked hard and haven't made voluntary payments will not see the same benefit. The biggest beneficiaries of the 20 per cent cut are recent graduates whose debts are at their peak but who haven't made any significant repayments on that debt. Those midway through paying down their loans and current students will see some benefit, but those who have just finished repaying and who have struggled to retire their debt and future students will get nothing. Others who gain the most are current and former students of private higher education providers, who pay high fees through FEE-HELP, and postgraduates who may have large debts.

It goes without saying that the best long-term cost-of-living relief for students and non-students alike is to get the cost of living under control. That means cutting red tape, boosting productivity, easing pressure on energy prices and winding back wasteful government spending. The reality is, under Labor, everything has been, and continues to be, going up in price. Since Labor came to office, health costs are up by 13 per cent, food by 14 per cent, rent by 18 per cent and insurance by a staggering 36 per cent. This is the cost-of-living crisis of Labor's own making, and now they're offering narrowly targeted relief while leaving millions of Australians behind and asking them to pick up the bill for the three million Australians who will benefit from this one-off reduction.

All young Australians, whether they went to university or not, deserve a government focused on real reform and fair opportunity for everyone, not just the few. As the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow minister for education have indicated elsewhere, we will be constructive and we will not stand in the way of this legislation passing. This policy resonated at the election because young people have experienced the heat of Labor's cost crisis over the past three years and they continue to feel locked out and let down by Labor on housing.

HELP is a system which supports students to access tertiary studies by deferring the cost until they are earning. It is predominantly used for university degrees and has opened the doors to university for millions of Australians. It is indeed a national asset which has enduring support from all sides of government.

While this government shifts its focus to productivity in coming weeks, having overseen a slump in productivity to what is now the lowest average productivity growth in two decades, it may wish to think through the relationship between extending student debt and productivity. The biggest productivity payoff comes not from forgiving debt but from ensuring the education system matches labour market needs, lifting quality in higher education and supporting lifelong learning across all sectors of the workforce.

My party is focused on our duty to reflect and represent modern Australia, including the three million Australians carrying significant education debts. Those debts are concentrated in seats like Kooyong, Chisholm, Ryan, Menzies, Goldstein, Bradfield, Bennelong, Deakin, Dickson and Mackellar. Australians sent us a clear message at the election, and we are listening. We'll take time to get it right and we will show up and engage with the issues that matter to younger Australians, and we're working to get that done.

Labor is the party of education and Labor is the party of aspiration. This bill delivers both, cutting 20 per cent off all student debt for university students but also, importantly, vocational education and training students too, saving around three million Australians an average of $5½ thousand and, importantly, making the repayment system fairer for the future, delivering a permanent structural boost to the take-home pay of young Australians.

Two hundred and sixty-eight days ago, in the electorate of Sturt, I promised that this 20 per cent cut to student debt would be the first bill that we brought into this parliament. Today, we deliver that. Every member of the government knows how important that promise was to Australians who we engaged with from that day, 268 days ago, right through to 3 May. Twenty per cent off student debt was the first bill we introduced to the parliament. Now, this bill will be the first bill that passes this parliament as well, because that is what our government is all about: delivery, turning promises into progress.

We started at the beginning of this month, 1 July, delivering cost-of-living relief, a real pay rise for three million people on minimum wage and award wages. We haven't just done it once; we've done it again and again and again. At the 2022 election, the $1 coin I held up, something that those in the then government said would see the sky fall in, saw us win the support of workers, who understood how important it was. On 1 July, that real wage increase, following on from the tax cuts that we had from 1 July last year, means that our commitment to have people earn more and keep more of what they earn is being delivered.

There's another round of energy bill relief for every household and every small business. We expanded paid parental leave by two weeks and, importantly, we added superannuation to it for the first time. We increased the superannuation guarantee to 12 per cent for every single working Australian, and we introduced as well the $10,000 incentive for construction apprentices, following the successful implementation of our program for new energy apprentices. That had already been implemented. Our Cheaper Home Batteries Program, permanently cutting power bills and taking pressure off the grid, has been an enormous success. The energy minister reported to parliament yesterday that, in just a matter of weeks, the figure is that already over 12,000 households have benefited from this policy. And we'll finish July with real cost-of-living relief for all three million Australians with a student debt.

Education is the most powerful weapon we have against disadvantage. It is the best investment that we can make in a stronger, more productive and more skilled economy. Education is fundamental to the Labor mission. It opens the doors of opportunity and widens them. That is why we are doubling the number of university hubs in the regions and outer suburbs—to bring higher education to communities that were missing out. It is why also an important measure came in on 1 July: we delivered paid prac—paid prac for students studying to be nurses, to be social workers and to be teachers. I think that most Australians would be stunned to hear that someone studying to be a nurse, to look after their fellow Australians, would have to sacrifice a part-time job in order to go do the prac that's a part of their course—to be penalised financially for doing so. The measures that we've put in place there will make an enormous difference. That's new financial support for the next generation of teachers, nurses and social workers so that they're not put in that position while they're on placements.

In last year's budget we wiped $3 billion in student debt from Australians who had been caught out by the global spike in inflation. This saved a person with an average debt around $1,200. We addressed that one-off and fixed the system so it could never happen again.

But at the election on 3 May, of course, people did have a choice. You had our position of paid prac and then taking 20 per cent off student debt, and you had the coalition, which released its costings just on the Thursday of the election week, on 1 May. They released their policy, which not only was to oppose the 20 per cent reduction in student debt; it was to get rid of the paid prac policy and to put that onto students' HECS debt. It was a bit like their tax policy that said not only were they opposed to the tax cuts that will come in on 1 July next year and the July after but they would legislate to increase taxation for all 14 million taxpayers. In this area of policy, they not only opposed the 20 per cent student debt reduction; they said they would add to student debt by adding the paid prac payments to the HECS debt that people owed the government.

Our government understands that student debt can hang over young Australians. It can affect how much they can borrow for a home. It impacts decisions they make about family and career. That's why, when those opposite said that this was somehow unfair, we said that this was an intergenerational-equity measure to make an enormous difference. It's not like we came out with it at the last minute. We came out with it in November, in a speech in Adelaide in the electorate of Sturt, and made it clear that it would be, as we said at that time, the first piece of legislation we would introduce into the 48th Parliament.

Because of the changes that the Morrison government made, as well, HECS came out of your take-home pay sooner. Right at the heart of our election campaign was the commitment to tackle this intergenerational unfairness, and that's what this legislation is about. It takes 20 per cent off student debt, the debt that was there. We imposed it from 1 June, before indexation came in, and are making the system better and fairer into the future.

We are raising the repayment threshold from $54,000 up to $67,000. We're lowering the rate of repayments and indexing both to keep them fair. This means that someone earning $70,000 will save around $1,300 a year in repayments, helping everyone repaying a student debt right now and delivering a better deal for every student in the years ahead. It's permanent, structural reform to boost take-home pay for young Australians, putting money back into people's pockets and putting fairness back into the system. It's good for the cost of living, good for this generation and generations to come and good for building Australia's future. I'm proud to lead a government delivering on this commitment and I'm proud to commend this bill to the House.

I rise to thank the minister for education for moving this bill, the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025, with a degree of urgency. We know that HECS debt is an incredible burden for so many Australians, current students but also graduates. We know that young Australians are deferring starting their studies because of the fear of the extreme debt that they can accrue as a result of the massive increase in the cost of HECS that we've seen in recent years. We've seen the impact of the job-ready graduates scheme, which the government, when in opposition, described as pernicious and punitive. It has doubled the cost of degrees in arts, business and law overnight. As a result, arts degrees are now $50,000; combined degrees are $85,000.

We know that many graduates now have $150,000 in debt when they graduate, and the PBO has told us that some people will struggle to pay off their HECS debt in their working lifetime. One of the implications of the bill that the government has in front of the House is that many students will go onto a debt treadmill when in fact we're going to see that the increase in the repayment threshold, which appears on the surface of things to be a positive move, will mean that many people pay off less than the cost of indexation each year, such that their debt actually increases rather than decreases.

The Prime Minister spoke quite movingly about the impact of students in the care sector having to pay for prac placements. It's great that the government is extending that support now to students of nursing and midwifery, teaching and social work, but it's not extending that support to other students in the care sector. We have medical students sleeping in their cars when they are undertaking prac placements. The system of prac placement is particularly difficult for women, because they often have care responsibilities. It means that people from Indigenous backgrounds and from rural and regional communities are less likely to complete their studies on time. They're having to defer or go part time to meet the extreme cost of prac placements, which doesn't just include travel and accommodation but includes professional registration, uniforms and insurance.

I will speak to this bill in more detail later today, and I thank the government for the opportunity to do that. I move the amendment that has been circulated in my name:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:

(1) notes that many degrees have increased in cost well above CPI, resulting in excessive HELP debts which place additional financial burden on Australians in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis;

(2) calls on the Government to:

(a) calculate HELP debt indexation after the due date for individual tax returns each year; and

(b) immediately reform the failed Job Ready Graduates Program, which has been the primary driver of increased student debt; and

(3) asks that the government recognise the importance of practical placements in care sector degrees, but also the cost and practical challenges associated with rural and regional placements, by:

(a) extending practical placement payments to students of all care sector professions including medical, allied health, mental health, pharmacy, and veterinary sciences, who are required to undertake such placements as mandatory components of their courses;

(b) reducing both the student and Government funding contribution for units that are delivered as practical placements; and

(c) allowing practical placements undertaken by Australian students overseas to be recognised as course credit by their Australian higher education provider".

This amendment essentially asks the government to change the timing of HECS indexation, which is unfair; to extend the support for paid practical placements to all students in the care sector; to reduce the cost of degrees, particularly by immediately reversing the job-ready graduates scheme; and to look at education more as an investment in our future and not as a cost to the people of Australia.

Is the amendment seconded?

I second this motion and I will reserve my comments for my speech that I'll make as a statement in the House later this afternoon.

The original question was that this bill be now read a second time. To this the honourable member for Kooyong has moved as an amendment that all words after 'That' be omitted with a view to substituting other words. The question now before the House is that the amendment be agreed to.

As promised, this was the very first bill to be introduced into the parliament after the election and, very shortly it will be the very first bill that we vote upon. This bill cuts student debt by 20 per cent. It also makes important structural changes to the way our student debt repayment system works. The Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025 will take a weight off the shoulders of three million Australians, and it's happening because of a promise that the Prime Minister made to the Australian people in November last year. It's happening because Australians voted for this in their millions in May this year. And it's happening because we are about to vote for it in a few moments time.

I thank the member for Kooyong, not just for her contribution to this debate but for her ongoing commitment to reform of higher education. The changes the member refers to were considered by the Universities Accord. I've often said, as I did in answer to a question in question time yesterday, that the accord is bigger than one budget and that it's a blueprint for the future. We will keep working through the accord's recommendations, and we will take advice from the Australian Tertiary Education Commission as well.

Although we're not in a position to support these amendments at this time, my door is always open to all members of parliament to talk about how we build a better and a fairer education system. With that, I commend this bill to the House.

We are dealing with the amendment moved by the honourable member for Kooyong. I will put the question that's before the House, that the amendment be agreed to.

Question negatived.

Original question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

by leave—I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a third time.

I rise today to speak on the Early Childhood Education and Care (Strengthening Regulation of Early Education) Bill 2025, which amends A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999 to give the Commonwealth government power to cut off funding to childcare centres that don't meet safety and quality standards; to allow Commonwealth officers to perform unannounced visits to detect fraud and non-compliance across the sector; and to actively allow stronger 'name and shame' powers, especially on the StartingBlocks website, by expanding the secretary's powers to publicise details about providers.

Today, according to the Productivity Commission, more than 1.4 million children across Australia aged between zero and 12 attend an early childhood education and care setting, of which there are more than 19,000 across Australia. The ECEC system, as it is known, has seen much growth in the last 15 years, with the number of places having grown by some 50 per cent between 2013 and 2023, largely under the settings of the former coalition government. The national body charged with regulating standards in the sector, the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority, was only created in 2012 which, while sounding like a long time ago, is one of the youngest of its counterpart bodies, with the national regulatory bodies in both higher education and vocational education fields having been created sometime earlier.

There are few things more important and more sacred than the safety of our children, at no more precious time than their early years. Every moment is laden both with learning as well as vulnerability. It is a time when many children cannot communicate beyond smiles and tears. Every parent who drops their child off at a childcare centre entrusts that service with the most precious part of themselves. Sometimes that is a comfortable choice. Sometimes that is fuelled by need: to get back to work to get back to feeding the family and the mortgage. Parents deserve to be able to rely on such a service without fear or uncertainty, yet, right now, that trust is shaking.

Like many Australians, I have felt deep revulsion and sorrow at the reports of alleged abuse taking place in early learning settings—the most recent and horrifying example being the case in Victoria that has left parents reeling, and our entire community rightfully shocked, when this news hit the papers earlier this month.

On 1 July, Victoria Police announced that Joshua Dale Brown, a 26-year-old man with a long history of work in childcare settings in Victoria, had been charged with over 70 alleged offences. As a result, infectious disease testing was recommended for 2,000 children. It has emerged that the alleged offender worked in over 20 childcare centres between 2017 and 2024. The Victorian government has ordered a review into its childcare sector, due to report by 15 August 2025.

The Victorian opposition, however, has already announced its intent to implement a series of safety measures were it to be successful in next year's state election, including the publication of safety data relating to each Victorian ECEC setting; the publication of staffing levels and qualifications; changes to the Working with Children Check, including a reduction of the validity period from five years to three years; extensions to the safety training of workers; reviewing the content of the current Certificate III and diploma courses which qualify for work in the area; to establish a register for all qualified ECEC workers; and finally, banning all personal devices and installing CCTV at all centres.

To our collective shame, this is not the first time we've heard of such crimes, but it must be the last time we fail to act quickly and decisively. Our children deserve better. This legislation today will make a start not only on addressing the issues before us now but on rebuilding confidence in a system that millions of Australian families rely on every single day.

I thank the Minister for Education and his team, as well as his senior officials, who have briefed me and the shadow minister for education and early learning, Senator the Hon Jonathon Duniam, on the proposed measures in this bill a number of times.

The Commonwealth's role in this sector is largely one of funder, through the childcare subsidy, which, according to the government's own figures, costs the Australian people more than $16 billion each year, representing the 11th or 12th largest expenditure program under the remit of the entire Australian government. Through its funding, the Australian government can play an important leadership role in standards and system setting. While the Australian government largely foots the bill, the states and territories continue to hold the reins on most regulation and safety measures and, indeed, oversee the police forces charged with identifying any criminal behaviour which might be occurring in these settings.

This bill, however, expands the Commonwealth's contribution to safety. It is one part of that national response and, while we welcome its introduction, I must be clear: it cannot be the beginning and end of the government's plan.

This bill gives the Secretary of the Department of Education new powers, stronger powers, to cancel or suspend childcare subsidy approvals if a provider is failing to meet appropriate quality or safety standards. That is important as it will signal to the sector that safety is essential to each centre's ongoing existence. It also signals that persistent noncompliance and poor track records won't be tolerated and that the right to access government funding comes with real responsibility and consequences.

The changes in this bill strengthen Commonwealth powers to act when serious quality or safety concerns arise. They empower the Department of Education to respond when providers pose a risk to children, including suspending or cancelling their approval to receive taxpayer money. But this bill alone will not fix the childcare system. It is a necessary step but only one step.

The bill will also grant new powers to the secretary of the department to refuse to approve a provider or suspend or cancel an earlier approval in the event she or he is not satisfied that the provider continues to give regard to quality, safety and compliance. The bill will also build the secretary's ability to publish information about actions taken against providers, from suspensions and cancellations to infringement notices and conditions placed on a provider's approval. This is a critical step in building transparency and builds on the work that the coalition did in government to strengthen transparency and make information available to parents, especially quality ratings available on the Starting Blocks website. We agree that parents have a right to know whether the service caring for their child has a history of breaches or disciplinary action. By shining a light on poor practice, we not only empower parents; we drive up standards across the board.

The secretary will also be able to publicise suspensions and cancellations, as well as any conditions imposed on a provider or any refusal to expand or vary earlier approvals and the reasons why. Infringement notices will also be able to be issued, including the details of the notice, contraventions and any levied fines.

One of the most meaningful elements of this legislation is the new power for unannounced visits to childcare centres by persons authorised by the secretary under the act. This is a significant departure from current arrangements. The Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Act enables entry to premises for monitoring either with consent or under a warrant. I am advised by the department's officials that, until now, the practice has been that the department would give up to two weeks notice before visiting services and, when they did go, they were accompanied by the Australian Federal Police. This largely reflects the fact that entry was sought to asses the financial integrity of the childcare subsidy rather than the safety and quality in ECEC settings.

Unsurprisingly, there have been reports of some providers using that notice period to clean up the books, scrub records and present a false front to regulators. With this bill, that should change. Officials will be able to walk into a centre unannounced, like state regulators already can, and observe what's happening on the ground, not to conduct a criminal investigation but to conduct spot checks, check documentation, verify working-with-children checks and to also flag with state regulators any concerns, such as that basic safety and hygiene standards are not being met. This isn't about catching people out for the sake of it; it's about safeguarding integrity and restoring rigour and faith in a $16 billion annual program and giving parents the peace of mind they deserve.

While we acknowledge that there are concerns about potential duplication of Commonwealth and state and territory responsibilities for conducting compliance visits to childcare centres, the Department of Education has provided assurances that it will be working in collaboration with states and territories. The minister cannot allow this to become an overall reduction in the important quality and safety work which rests with the state and territory regulators. It will act as a deterrent. If providers know there's a greater chance of a government official walking in at any time, the incentive to always do the right thing increases.

We do appreciate that this bill has been prepared with haste, and we note that there are still questions to be answered. I am grateful to the sector for the guidance they have provided to the coalition on questions requiring greater clarification to ensure providers can meet the changes set out in this legislation, such as that, while the legislation empowers the secretary to revoke a provider's approval, it does not provide a clear definition of what constitutes 'persistent' noncompliance and nor does it spell out how many breaches are too many or whether a single serious incident will suffice. These are not minor details, not for people running centres. They are the difference between a system that is fair and effective and one that is opaque and unpredictable.

We understand that a new national compliance framework is in development and we will assess it carefully when it becomes available. We cannot allow vague discretion to become the enemy of due process or natural justice. What's needed is clarity of a timely nature for providers, parents and the public.

We acknowledge that the work of keeping children safe will, in fact, never be done. It is a daily obligation on all of us. When we were in government we did not sit on our hands. In particular, we accepted and took seriously our response to the Commonwealth targeted recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Former prime minister Morrison delivered a national apology address on behalf of all Australians and established the National Redress Scheme to compensate and support survivors, the National Office for Child Safety, and the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse to increase understanding of the impacts of child sexual abuse on victims and survivors. Confronting heinous and unthinkable crimes against children is the responsibility of all governments and all parliamentarians and requires all leaders to work together. This is another moment for national leadership.

While the Commonwealth Department of Education has done what it can in terms of instituting processes relating to regulation safety, we remain concerned about the pace of activity in leading the states and territories to do their part. The next meeting of state and territory education ministers is not scheduled until the middle of August. That is still weeks away. Given the severity of the crimes alleged in Victoria, the deep concern of Australian parents and the broad outcry in the public media, including in today's papers, that crime has gone unheeded and unpunished, a few weeks is still far too long to wait. I trust that the Minister for Early Childhood Education in the other place has been in constant communication with her state and territory colleagues, as I have been with the shadow minister for early childhood and education in Victoria, Ms Jess Wilson, since the revelations in Victoria were made.

I ask the government to consider bringing this meeting forward and then to set regular meetings of early childhood ministers. There is no justifiable reason to delay urgent national coordination on child safety. Parents are watching. They are worried, and they want action now, not in the better part of two months since the Victorian allegations were on the front page of every Australian newspaper.

The meeting of ministers should focus on key priorities, including speeding up the implementation of a national register of early educators and harmonising the working with children check system, which lacks standardisation and only identifies those whose behaviour has resulted in a conviction. I know this matter has been taken up by my colleague the shadow attorney-general, the member for Berowra, with his counterpart. They also need to look at implementing a mobile phone ban. The national model code for taking images or videos of children while providing early childhood education and care, developed by the national regulator, is currently voluntary. These are basic commonsense measures.

In times of crisis, Australians don't want politics. They want to see us unified. On this issue, from the outset, we have worked constructively with the government and will continue to do so. As the Leader of the Opposition pledged at the National Press Club, the coalition will always stand up for the safety of women and children. Their safety is above politics, and we will not play any games. As the opposition leader said here in question time last week:

I can't think of many issues in my time in this parliament that have made me feel as physically sick as this one has, and I know this feeling is shared by members across the aisle.

There is a lot of good work being done in services across Australia, and the vast majority of educators are dedicated, hard-working professionals who care deeply about the children in their care every day. No parent should ever have to ask whether their child is safe in child care. No child should ever suffer harm in a place that is meant to nurture them, and no government should ever respond to tragedy with half-measures or delay. We stand ready to work with the government, the states and territories and the sector itself to build a stronger, safer early education system—one that parents can trust and children can thrive in and one that reflects the values of care, safety and excellence that every Australian child deserves.

I thank the member for Flinders for her contribution to this debate. I also thank the opposition leader and the shadow minister for education and their teams for, as I said last week in question time, the professional, constructive and bipartisan way in which we have worked together to get this legislation to this point. We're about to pass it and send it to the Senate. The faster we pass this legislation, the faster we can use it and the faster we can use this legislation to do what it's intended to do, which is to make sure that our early education and care centres—and not just them but also in-home care and out-of-school-hours care—meet the sort of quality and safety standards that mums and dads expect and that our children deserve. We need to do everything here to make sure that our children who walk through or are carried through the doors of our early education and care services are safe. This legislation is just one part of that, as the member for Flinders pointed out. She's absolutely right: this is just one part of that.

There is a lot more work that we need to do to rebuild confidence in a system that parents need to have confidence in. The member for Flinders mentioned the work around working-with-children checks and the Attorney-General mentioned yesterday in question time the hodgepodge nature of working-with-children checks as they apply and operate in different states. Fixing that is at the top of the agenda when attorneys-general meet next month. But we also need to address issues like a national register of early educators so we can properly track workers moving from centres to centres and from state to state. The alleged offender in Victoria and the way in which information was released to the media are a demonstration, if we need it, about how the system is not working properly at the moment.

We also need to make sure that we arm the people who work in our centres, our early educators, with the sort of mandatory child safety training that they need to help to spot somebody who might be in their midst who's seeking to either groom children or groom them. That happens. These early educators, in a sense, are our best asset. The Queensland government is doing some good work on behalf of other states at the moment in the design of what mandatory child-safe training can and should look like for that workforce that are in our centres now. It rests heavily with me that over the course of the last few weeks, as we've focused on this legislation and what comes next, we also can't forget the hundreds of thousands of people who work in our early education and care system, who we entrust our children with and who are just as broken, just as hurt and just as angry with what they see and hear in the media as everybody else.

My older cousin has worked in the system for 35 years and dedicated her whole life to it. She's proud of what she's done to help raise the quality of the services that she's operated in. She feels broken at the moment too about what it has all been for. As I said on the telly last week, there've been people spat on in the streets wearing their uniform and told by employers not to wear their uniform. We need these people, not just to educate our kids but to keep them safe, and we want more people to become early educators as well. As we focus on this and on making sure that we keep our children safe, we've also got to be champions for those good people because the truth is they represent 99.9 per cent of the people who work in our early education and care service. Let's never forget them. We need them.

We also need to look at CCTV and how it works. It's already in some centres; other centres are intending to roll it out. But, if you talk to operators and talk to parents, they'll tell you that we've got to make sure we get the way it works right so that where the information is stored cannot be used by people who might want to use it for the wrong purposes. But, if used properly, it can be something very helpful in deterring bad people from doing bad things and helping police to investigate them when they do it. All of these things and more are being worked on by the states right now. Yes, there is a meeting of education ministers that's going to come next month, but we're not standing still until then. All of the states and territories are working together right now, at a ministerial level and a departmental level, on what comes to us and on what to decide and to do when we meet next month.

I know the shadow minister understands that. As she pointed out in her concluding remarks, the truth is this work will never end. The horrible truth is bad people will always seek to try and do bad things, and we've got to be up to the task to make sure that we do everything that we possibly can to help to keep our children safe. This bill's one part of it, but it's an important part of it. I thank the House for its support of it. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

CLARE (—) (): by leave—I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a third time.

The Speaker has received a message from the Chief Government Whip nominating a member to be a member of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights.

by leave—I move:

That Ms Campbell be appointed a member of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights.

Question agreed to.

There are two bills in this package. The first bill, the Customs Amendment (Australia-United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2025, amends the Customs Act 1901 to introduce new rules of origin to determine if goods imported from the UAE into Australia are eligible for preferential tariff treatment under the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between Australia and the United Arab Emirates. The amendments also give effect to the requirements for verifying claims for preferential tariff treatment of goods exported from Australia to the UAE.

The second bill, the Customs Tariff Amendment (Australia-United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2025, amends the Customs Tariff Act 1995 to give effect to the preferential tariff treatment applicable to goods covered by the CEPA between Australia and the UAE, signed on 6 November 2024, being for goods referred to as UAE originating goods. Specifically, the amendments in the bill will amend the Customs Tariff Act to provide for a 'free' rate of customs duty for UAE originating goods not listed in new schedule 16. The 'free' rate will have effect from entry into force of the agreement for Australia. The amendments also insert new schedule 16 to specify the phasing rates of customs duty for certain UAE originating goods that will incrementally reduce to 'free' by the fifth calendar year after the agreement enters into force for Australia and to maintain rates of customs duty imposed on certain alcohol, tobacco, fuel and petroleum products which are equivalent to the rates of excise duty payable on these goods when locally manufactured. Additionally, the amendments in the bill amend schedule 4 to maintain customs duty rates for certain UAE originating goods in accordance with the applicable concessional rates.

The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties supported this agreement. JSCOT received 45 formal written submissions from bodies such as the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the National Farmers' Federation, the Australian Industry Group and Australian Grape & Wine. Stakeholders from the agricultural industry, industrial exporters, and education and financial service providers welcomed the agreement and found it would enhance recognition of Australian degrees in the UAE and support the expansion of current operations in the UAE. Other stakeholders also expressed a desire for CEPA to further investment from the UAE into Australia.

This is a good week. We commend the government for closing out this agreement. We actually initiated the agreement when in government, back in March 2022. Just to remind the House, Deputy Speaker Chesters, as you would be well aware, I think one of the great unsung achievements of the coalition government between 2013 and 2022 was the work done by our trade ministers. In fact, what happened during that period was that goods and services covered by free trade agreements covered 25 per cent of goods and services exported in 2013 and went to 80 per cent by 2022 with the last two deals. I know the good member sitting next to me, as a staffer back in those days, worked on some of those deals and did some good work, so I thank and commend the now member for Flinders for her work previously in this building to help some of those deals happen. The last two deals, with the UK and India, were done just before we lost government in 2022.

To give you some examples—and I'd be happy for the member for Flinders to interject to tell me which ones she was involved with—we ratified the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the world's largest free trade agreements signed with Korea—

Tick.

China?

Tick.

Hong Kong?

At the beginning.

And there were those with Peru and Indonesia, as well as the regional agreements across the Indo-Pacific, including the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations Plus and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

To segue a little bit, I think back to Federation, when there were two major parties. It wasn't, with all due respect, the Labor Party and it wasn't the forerunner of the Liberal Party. It wasn't even the forerunner of the Nationals or the Country Party. It was the free traders versus the protectionists. There was a fierce economic debate for many decades. But what has worn through the test of time is that there is bipartisan agreement in this chamber on the advantages and the benefits of trade for Australia, and we have led the way in that in a bipartisan fashion over many, many decades now. And what has it resulted in? It has resulted in the fact that now, in trade, exporting companies in Australia are literally driving our economic growth and economic prosperity. We exported around $650 billion worth of stuff last year. I'm a little bit biased. I'm a regional MP, and over two-thirds of that is from regional Australia. Coal, iron ore, gas and food—ag, if you like—are the four biggest exports of our country, all from regional Australia. I know my community get the benefits of free trade, as most of regional Australia does. Just as a personal aside, the biggest employer in my electorate is an abattoir which exports 70 per cent of what it processes. They employ over a thousand people and process both beef and pork.

Again, as I said, I'm happy to be bipartisan and commend the government here. I would make a couple of points. Part of this that would have happened if not for government policy would be live sheep exports. The ban the government is implementing is, I think, a shame, because certainly the UAE is a gateway into the Middle East for us for a lot of things. That's disappointing. But, again, I think the benefits this will open up—and it will open up the Middle East to us as the first agreement to be done in this region—are very positive, and I commend the government and I commend these two bills to the House.

Debate adjourned.

'A huge weight off my shoulders', 'opening up new opportunities', 'every penny helps my savings'—now, these aren't my words; they are the words of some TAFE students who joined me recently to talk to me about what student debt relief means to them. This is real cost-of-living support, helping students with those week-to-week costs and helping them save for the rent, a home deposit or whatever it is that is their dream.

But, beyond that, this is something that is continuing to break down barriers. Through this measure, through this bill, the Albanese government is sending a really strong signal to Australians, particularly but not only young people, so that everyone can see that accessing education and training is possible, that pursuing a new career needn't be only a dream but is something that can be tangibly reached.

In our first term, the Albanese government wiped $3 billion of student debt through changes to indexation, putting this money back into the pockets of students and apprentices right around the country. We listened to students, who were telling us that cutting student debt made a real difference to their lives. So we didn't stop there. Last year, in Sturt, the Prime Minister announced that a re-elected Albanese government would introduce as our first piece of legislation a 20 per cent cut to student debt for students in universities and for students in the VET sector, too. We listened to students, and now we are delivering.

I want to recognise the fantastic work of my friend Minister Clare, the Minister for Education—the work he's done to put this bill before the House, to show that we are delivering to those students and to thousands like them right around the country. This is of course the first bill presented to the parliament by the re-elected Albanese government.

The bill also underscores our government's commitment to making tertiary education more accessible. This is a wide-ranging commitment, of course, because it sits alongside measures such as free TAFE—almost the last bill legislated in the last parliament—alongside our critical apprenticeship incentives and of course alongside paid prac. It means that more women, more First Nations Australians and more people from our regions can get the skills they want so they can do the jobs we need—secure, long-term, well paid jobs in industries like construction, the care economy, manufacturing and technology. By cutting student debt, the Albanese government is taking pressure off more than three million Australians who have a student debt loan, including nearly 300,000 students in the VET sector, whose debt will be reduced by half a billion dollars. That is three million Australians right around the country—including, of course, more than 20,000 students and apprentices in my electorate of Scullin.

During the election campaign I heard from so many community members—again, particularly young people—about what the 20 per cent cut to their student debt meant to them. With this bill there are additional measures. We're also increasing the repayment threshold to $67,000 in 2025-26. This means, for example, that someone earning $70,000 a year will have around $1,300 less in repayments.

As the Minister for Skills and Training I'm particularly proud of what this legislation means for students in the vocational education and training sector. I've been travelling to TAFEs right around the country, meeting with students and apprentices to hear about how government can better support them. I've seen firsthand how many of them have leapt at the chance to undertake a free TAFE course. On the basis of the latest data we know there've been more than 650,000 enrolments in free TAFE. We also know that free TAFE is producing results, with more than 170,000 course completions, seeing more Australians heading towards work in critical industries. And now these students, these apprentices, will be benefiting from student debt relief, too. Students with Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans and those with VET student loans will benefit—nearly 300,000 of them.

On 1 June 2025, apprentices with these student loans had $1.22 billion of loan debt, while students with VET student loans had around $1.6 billion of student debt. Now, as a result of our 20 per cent student debt cut, around 244 million of Australian Apprenticeship Support Loan debt and $317 million of VET student loan debt will be removed. For an apprentice with the average-size loan, $9,000, the debt relief they'll see will be $1,800, while debt relief for someone with the average VET student loan of $11,000 will be $2,200.

These loan programs have made further study and training possible for hundreds of thousands of Australians. They've enabled students and apprentices to pursue high-level training, including in courses that address the needs our country is facing and of course creating better employment outcomes and opportunities for them. In manufacturing, our government continues to drive forward a future made in Australia. In the care economy, we are developing reforms across aged care, health and early childhood education to support communities and ensure that they have the services they need. In housing, too, we are boosting the pipeline of housing construction workers to build the new homes Australians need. In science and technology, we are putting Australia at the forefront of global innovation and developing solutions for the modern world. Not only is this of benefit to students; we know how much Australian businesses and the economy benefit from the skills these graduates bring.

I very recently met with some students from CIT here in Canberra who very generously shared their stories with me. Jennifer has a $40,000 student debt across both HECS and VET. She told me: 'I am relieved I will be saving around $8,000. It makes such a huge difference. I feel a huge weight off my shoulders, and I really feel like I can focus on finishing my course and getting into my industry.' Ralph is undertaking a Diploma of Nursing. As a result of this legislation, he will save $3,000. Ralph's looking to continue his journey to become a registered nurse. He told me that having more money back in his pocket will make a big difference. Izzy is set to see $2,000 of her student debt cut. For someone who has gone to TAFE to follow her passion for interior design, she feels like the government is supporting her to pursue her dream. Lauren told me she is trying to save for a home and that the student debt cut she will receive will get her a little bit closer to that goal. Elliott was pleased that they would receive a student debt cut on top of seeing wages rise for early childhood educators and free TAFE too.

This is just a snapshot of the nearly 300,000 students and apprentices in the VET sector who will benefit from our government's student debt relief. It's clear to the students that this will make a really tangible difference in their lives. It's recognition from our government that we want to support students and apprentices to pursue new opportunities through TAFE and help set themselves up for their future and our future too.

Very shortly after the Albanese government was first elected to office we brought stakeholders together in a jobs and skills summit. Alongside employers, unions and civil society, we are continuing to work to address what we inherited, which was the worst skills crisis in 50 years and the second-worst of any advanced economy. In our first term, we followed this by putting TAFE back at the heart of the VET system, delivering now more than 650,000 free TAFE places to address critical skills shortages and offer more people the opportunity to get ahead through training. These vital skills are now being deployed in industries like construction, hospitality, health and aged care, cyber and manufacturing. At this point, the very start of our second term, this bill, which will deliver a 20 per cent cut to student debt, will help expand opportunity to those who have traditionally been denied it while critically delivering immediate cost-of-living relief. I commend the bill to the House.

Before I speak about the substance of the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025, I would like to make a comment about the procedure that is happening here. I think it sets a very, very dangerous precedent to pass the bill and then have statements about it as opposed to actually debating the bill in parliament before it passes. The purpose of speaking on a bill in this House is to inform the debate and inform members' decisions on how they are going to vote before the bill passes. That's actually the whole point of this House and the proceedings that happen in this House. I think there is a real precedent danger there. I would caution the government against being too cocky about the large majority that they have and changing the procedures in this place in a way that undermines the purpose of debate. I hope that we won't see that happening again.

On the bill itself, I commend this bill to the House. The bill implements a significant pre-election promise from the government and one that was likely a vote winner because it does directly affect millions of voters. In WA there are about 265,000 higher education debtors, owing a combined total of about $6.8 billion in student loans. In my electorate of Curtin, this bill will directly benefit 22,000 constituents. Given that about 70 per cent of HELP debt holders are aged 35 or younger, this is targeted at younger Australians, and I welcome that. This promise is a significant one-time debt relief measure for existing HELP and vocational loan holders, delivering immediate cost-of-living benefits to millions, and, for this reason, I will be supporting this bill.

But I would like to make it clear that this bill is mostly short-term economic stimulus and financial reprieve, rather than a sustainable overhaul of higher education funding or university affordability. In this term, I would like to see government go further for future students and take on the challenge of structural reform within university funding and address the burden that our kids and grandkids are taking on when they decide to embark on higher education.

What does this bill do? This bill is pretty simple. It allows the ATO to retrospectively apply a 20 per cent reduction to the balance of HELP debts as of 1 June. It will also increase the minimum repayment threshold to $67,000 in 2025-26. Compulsory repayments will only be calculated on the income above that $67,000 threshold, rather than the total annual income. That is an ongoing change that will benefit future students as well. It means that people will make smaller compulsory repayments and only do that once their income reaches a level where they can afford to do so.

Why was this needed? Cynically, this promise was made as part of an election cycle. But, non-cynically, this promise was made in response to a cost-of-living crisis where young to middle aged people were burdened by high education debts. It was an acknowledgement that older people who were afforded free higher education had an advantage over younger people who, since 1996, have been paying increasingly higher university and vocational training fees. As far as being a response to a cost-of-living crisis, it seems fine. According to the government, this bill will wipe $16 billion of student debt, which is about $5½ thousand off the average HELP debt of $28,000. Raising the compulsory repayment threshold could reduce repayments by about $1,300 a year for someone who is earning $70,000. That's more money available for people who are trying to make ends meet.

But, let's be clear, this bill doesn't make the most of the opportunity to address the generational inequity of rapidly increasing higher education fees. It's a short-term relief measure that doesn't tackle underlying issues such as escalating university fees, particularly those from the 2021 job-ready graduates reforms. Importantly, only current debt holders receive a benefit from this bill. Future students who take out loans later won't get any relief in the amount of debt that they owe.

What needs to be done? While I agree this is a good first step to reduce financial stress from university loans, I urge the government to be brave and bold in this term and focus on the heavy costs on younger generations. Our young people are grappling with rising HECS or HELP debts, as well as low wage growth, unaffordable housing, climate burdens and insecure employment. Anything we can do to try and reduce the burden should be considered, and, in this higher education sector, that could include reducing HELP debt for priority sectors like nursing, teaching and the care economy; increasing direct public investment in universities to reduce reliance on international student revenue; and encouraging research and development on the big issues that we're facing. It could include introducing free TAFE and low-cost undergraduate education, particularly for under-represented or rural students, and it could include reversing the job-ready graduates reform, which increased fees for humanities and reduced funding per student—and that's one which I think is a really important reform.

For this reason, I commend the member for Kooyong's second reading amendment which calls for the reversal of the Job-ready Graduates Package and to change the timing of debt indexation until after prepayments are made. It's clear that the Morrison government's Job-ready Graduates Package has failed. It's left some students, notably arts graduates, with extremely high debts, given that the cost of most of their courses more than doubled. These debts do not reflect these students' future-earning potential.

It also hasn't achieved its aims of diverting humanity students to other courses. One study using Universities Admissions Centre data concluded that only 1.5 per cent of university applicants changed their preferences from humanities to STEM and teaching because of the cost changes under the scheme. As it turns out, if you're a humanities student, you're unlikely to change your future path based on relative uni fees. The Universities Accord review recommended the scheme be scrapped, saying:

… the continuation of these current arrangements risk causing long-term and entrenched damage to Australian higher education.

I urge the government to act on this.

In conclusion, I give bill a B. Twenty-two thousand Curtin constituents will benefit. It recognises the challenge of education debt for young people and increases the threshold for payment, but it's mostly a one-off change. In personal terms, this is great for my first son, who's in his second year of uni, but will do nothing for the uni debt of my second son, who will be starting next year. We have to do more for future university graduates as well. It's a good response to the cost-of-living crisis, but in the education sector there's a lot of work to be done to make sure that we're an educated population and that we're not burdening young people with crippling debts.

I'm very proud to rise today in support of the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025, a crucial piece of legislation that will support three million Australians with student debt. This legislation was a key Labor promise, and I am excited that my first speech on legislation in this House is on this piece of legislation, something that will directly benefit over 25,000 people in my electorate of Maribyrnong. This bill is about supporting everyday Australians, relieving cost-of-living pressures and making tertiary education more accessible for all. It removes a significant barrier to those seeking tertiary education who otherwise may be deterred by the rising costs associated with such an endeavour.

I take you back to February 2003, when I first walked onto campus. I had the very good fortune of achieving a tertiary education, and I still recall the date that I finally paid off my debt as such a relief. But the reality is that now it is harder. It is harder for our students in terms of both the cost of qualifications and, more broadly, the cost-of-living pressures that we're under. In fact, both tertiary education and vocational education lead to good, well-paid jobs, an integral part of our economy, and therefore we must do all we can to make it more accessible for everyone.

Student debt often leads to sacrifices everywhere, like homeownership, seeking important healthcare and every other daily cost-of-living pressure. While student debt affects many in our community, it disproportionately affects young Australians. By cutting all student debt by 20 per cent, we are making a significant investment in the future of all young Australians. We're cutting student debt by more than $16 billion. This is on top of the $3 billion we wiped off of HELP debt last term and the changes we made to the indexation, ensuring that student debt will never increase faster than the growth rate of wages.

What is also great about this legislation is that it will make repaying student debt fairer. Currently, if you make over $54,435 annually, you pay a percentage of your entire wage towards your student loan. Under this legislation, the minimum income threshold will be raised to $67,000. Further, you will be paying only a percentage of the income you make over that $67,000, so, if you're making $70,000 a year, you will be paying only $1,750 each year. Essentially, this legislation will not only immediately help Australians but also help them to prosper in years to come by changing the current system that is unfairly based on their entire income. What's also important to reassure my electorate about is that this legislation is clear that the cut will be backdated to 1 June 2025, before the increase due to indexation. That means that indexation will only be applied to your total student debt after the 20 per cent cut has occurred.

As a proud Victorian, from the education state, I know that this legislation will have an immediate impact. In fact, over 800,000 Victorians have student debt, totalling $23.2 billion. The average reduction from this legislation will be $5,755. This is huge. Throughout the campaign, I doorknocked every suburb in Maribyrnong and saw the excitement many had when we discussed this policy. This is not surprising, because in my community of Maribyrnong, as I said, nearly one in four have a student debt. The reactions of those I spoke to were those of optimism and relief along with the positive reassurance that, after a decade of being ignored by the previous coalition government, Labor was campaigning to take action on the issues that disproportionately affect younger Australians.

These are life-changing reductions, and everywhere you turn in my community there are stories that speak to how important this legislation is. There is John from Strathmore, who studied teaching at Victoria University and is now a social studies teacher at a local school in Airport West. John is a local who has made the most of our higher education system and is now giving back to his community in the invaluable field of educating our children. In doing so, he has amassed a student debt of over $27,000. But, thanks to this legislation, he'll be saving over $5,000. These changes will also decrease John's future repayments, leaving him with more money in his pocket.

Order! I do apologise, Member for Maribyrnong. Statements on this topic are interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. We will now move to 90-second statements.

I rise today to give voice to those regional apprentices across Western Australia who are being unfairly burdened by recent cuts to the transport and accommodation allowance. As of 1 July this year, the accommodation support payment has been slashed from $100 to just $70 per night and travel reimbursement halved from 40c to just 20c per kilometre. These changes are not only disappointing but unjust and out of touch with the realities faced by regional apprentices and, indeed, their families.

Take this recent example provided to my office from a local concerned mum whose son, a third-year apprentice, is earning about $600 a week. He's been required to travel to Rockingham for block release training three times a year, spending roughly six weeks away from home. Each two-week block costs him in excess of $2,000 in accommodation alone. Once you add food and travel, the financial strain becomes, quite simply, overwhelming. These cuts mean that apprentices are now expected to shoulder even more of their training costs on wages that barely cover the basics. This is not just a financial issue; it's a fairness issue. Regional apprentices already face barriers to accessing training, and reducing this support only deepens the divide between metropolitan and regional opportunities and risks pushing young people out of the trades altogether.

I had the honour of joining the Vietnamese Community in Wollongong in June to mark 50 years since the arrival in Australia of Vietnamese refugees from the Vietnam War. The event brought together not only our Vietnamese community but also many of the people and organisations who supported their early settlement. It was a moment to acknowledge the friendships, partnerships and collective effort that helped shape the strong, proud community that we see today. A special tribute was paid to Mrs Quan Tran, who was the first Vietnamese refugee to settle in Wollongong and who founded the Illawarra Indochinese social support group. Fleeing conflict in search of safety, she, like so many others, made the brave and incredibly difficult journey to Australia. Her courage, like that of thousands of others, continues to inspire people today. These are the stories that remind us of the strength found in hope and in the pursuit of freedom.

We also remembered the millions of lives lost during the Vietnam War and those who tragically died trying to flee the conflict. Their memories remain with us all. Over the past five decades, the Vietnamese Community in Wollongong, which is now led by Teresa Tran OAM and Phong Le OAM, has played a vital role in supporting not only our local community, the Vietnamese community, but also our Vietnam veterans, who they call their heroes. To the veterans who were present on the day: thank you for your service, your sacrifice and the continued bonds of friendship you've built with the Vietnamese community.

Last week, in this chamber, I spoke about the grassroots sporting clubs in my electorate—volunteer run, community backed clubs—the Coomera Colts, the Helensvale Pacific Pines Hawks, the Legends Football Club and the Southport Labrador Cricket Club, who are all seeking shovel-ready funding support to build inclusive changeroom facilities, particularly for female players. This was triggered because on 2 June I wrote to Minister Wells, the Minister for Sport, asking for her bipartisan support to progress projects that I had committed to prior to the recent election. Fortunately, after she hadn't responded for 51 days, my speech seemed to have awoken the minister from her slumber, and she then replied to my letter 56 days after I wrote it. What did she say? Well, she didn't mention a willingness to meet the clubs or to meet with me and didn't even really offer a way that this funding could be achieved through her office.

She simply pushed us to a government website and suggested that they apply for future grants. In fact, one thing that I thought was particularly interesting was the paragraph where it says: 'She encourages the clubs to consider fundraising through the Australian Sports Foundation. All donations of $2 or more are tax deductible.' Well, those $2 donations won't go a huge way to the $1.5 million project, the $550,000 project— (Time expired)

Movember's The real face of men's health in Australia report last year showed that suicide is the leading cause of death among men aged 15 to 44 years and that the average rate of male premature death in rural electorate is 3.5 times higher than those in inner metro areas. Efforts are being made to break down unhealthy masculine stereotypes of stoicism and bravado to encourage men to access health services and to seek help, particularly important for addressing mental health concerns. We also know health professionals and educators need to be better equipped to engage boys and men in frank and open discussions about their health and wellbeing. That's why Labor's commitment of $32 million to advance men's mental health is a vital investment.

I congratulate Professor James Smith from the Flinders University campus in Darwin, in my electorate, for recently being awarded an Australian Research Council Mid-Career Industry Fellowship. James will identify the best strategies for engaging vulnerable and marginalised boys and young men in health and social services, including, of course, mental health services.

I want to acknowledge the work of the member for Hunter, Dan Repacholi, as the Special Envoy for Men's Health. He's doing a sterling job and he's really bringing more attention to this area of vital need.

On behalf of the people of Kooyong, I wish to honour the life and legacy of my predecessor, who was the member for Kooyong from 1994 to 2010, Petro Georgiou, AO. As a senior adviser to Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, Petro was instrumental in the introduction of multicultural policies, the acceptance of Vietnamese refugees to this country after the fall of Saigon and the founding of SBS. They are initiatives that continue to enrich our society today.

In his parliamentary career, Petro stood against racism, against mandatory detention and against the harsh treatment of asylum seekers. He often challenged his own party, the Liberal Party, to uphold the values of fairness and of humanity. He fought for reforms to draconian antiterrorism legislation and protections for Indigenous Australians.

In our community, he was known as a principled man who had the courage to speak truth to power. His friends and colleagues described him as a man of great warmth, wit and humility. Petro Georgiou changed Australia for the better. May we honour him in this place not only in memory but in action by never forgetting the power of principle and compassion in public life

We have some extraordinary young people in the electorate of Chisholm, and I absolutely love visiting the marvellous schools in Chisholm, whether it be for mock parliaments, Q&A sessions, leadership forums or just to attend assemblies and say hello. These schools are nurturing some of our brightest stars and future leaders. Some of my recent visits include a mock parliament at Wattle Park Primary School and Q&A sessions at Huntingtower school and Brentwood Secondary College. I've also attended a teacher leadership event at Sacre Coeur, which happens to be my old school, as well as a year 10 politics class at Avila College. I'm constantly amazed and impressed by the knowledge and the questions from students at both primary and secondary schools in Chisholm.

We have a young hero in our electorate, Maxwell Chang, one of the 300 young leaders to have been selected to attend the National Leadership Forum here at Parliament House in September, and I had the pleasure of meeting him, recently, in my electorate office. Maxwell is currently studying law and commerce at Deakin University, and he is a vice-chancellor's scholar. He participates in local initiatives, like the Gardiners Creek parkrun and cultivating community at Burwood Brickworks, and he is serving as the youngest member, representing the under-21 demographic, on the Shaping Whitehorse Community Panel. It was terrific to meet Maxwell. I look forward to hearing about how he gets on at the National Leadership Forum later this year.

It's humbling to be returned for a second term as the Independent member for Fowler, to continue giving voice to one of the most diverse and hardworking electorates in the country. Over the past few weeks, I've been back on the ground—not that I had left it!—from visiting ASSIDA, in Liverpool, where Theophile Elongo and his team are supporting newly arrived migrants and refugees, to seeing the dedication of our local St Vinnies in Mount Pritchard—the top revenue-earning store in the country, believe it or not, with all proceeds going back into local services. I joined the Liverpool night van team to provide food and sleeping bags to people sleeping rough—a reminder of the growing need in our community.

I also spent time with the Chipping Norton Chargers Football Club, a grassroots club working hard to give young people, especially girls, access to sport. But they need support. I call on both state and federal governments to invest in proper change facilities, to help grow female participation in Fowler and beyond.

Our community speaks over 100 languages, and we all want the same thing: opportunity, dignity and a fair go. Our community shows up every day. We do the work and we support each other, and I'll keep doing everything I can in this place to ensure Fowler is not left behind.

I rise to recognise Holly Oliver of Avoca Beach for her contributions to the Central Coast community, particularly in supporting young people through her involvement with Scouts NSW and Scouts Australia.

Holly is the group leader at the 1st Avoca Beach Scout Group and is also the Regional Commissioner for Scouts Australia. By day, Holly is a regional health, safety and environment manager for a multinational food company. Holly moved to the Central Coast with her family in 2018 and decided to join the local scouts to better integrate and understand her new community, as well as to give back. A scout for 15 years prior, Holly has used her expertise from her day job to assist in her roles with Scouts Australia.

Scouts Australia has embraced a diverse, inclusive approach and proudly celebrates 50 years of participation by girls and women. At its core, scouting is about developing well-rounded individuals. Through the youth led, adult supported philosophy, young members set their own goals, plan activities and review their progress. Scouts Australia fosters resilience, leadership and confidence in a fun, adventurous and supportive environment.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Holly for all of her work at the 1st Avoca Beach Scouts Group and, more broadly, in her role in Scouts Australia. Scouts Australia is a tremendous organisation with so much history supporting communities right across Australia.

Do you know of any service you have to pay for twice? Well, in towns across Durack that's exactly what is happening when it's time to see a doctor. Councils are being forced to spend millions of ratepayer dollars just to get and keep a GP in their town, meaning locals are paying once through their rates and again when they visit the doctor.

Now, this does not happen in the city. The Prime Minister has repeated that, under Labor, all you need is a Medicare card. In regional WA that is simply not true. Bulk-billing is down, out-of-pocket costs are up, and towns like Northampton, in my electorate, now don't even have their own GP. How can Medicare work when there's no-one to hand your card to?

A Western Australian Local Government Association report dated August 2024 lays it bare: 92 per cent of council spending to support general practice comes from towns with fewer than 5,000 people. In the WA Wheatbelt alone, local governments are spending over $4 million a year just to keep the doctors in town. The so-called healthcare system in regional WA is in crisis. I've written to the Minister for Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, urging him to act, because health care is a state and Commonwealth responsibility; it is not our local governments' responsibility. Basic care should not depend on your postcode. It's time for governments to step up and stop relying upon rural and regional ratepayers to fill the gap. (Time expired)

This morning I was joined by the Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, the member for Dobell, for the opening of a new Medicare mental health centre in Tuggeranong, in the heart of my electorate of Bean. It was great to meet the staff and partners who have made this centre possible. The welcoming centre is staffed by a multidisciplinary care team, which provides care specific to each person who visits the centre. The centre can be accessed by anyone, with no appointment, referral or mental health treatment plan needed. Critically, it can be accessed at no cost. All that is needed is a Medicare card. My constituents will now be able to access critical mental health supports for free, close to other community amenities.

This delivery from the Albanese government is allied with work to deliver a perinatal wellbeing centre in Tuggeranong, an urgent care clinic in Woden and, last year, an eating disorders clinic in the Molonglo Valley. I am committed to ensuring that the people of Bean continue to get access to real, on-the-ground services which make a meaningful difference to their lives, and this centre will have a real and lasting impact on the lives of thousands of Canberrans, not just constituents of Bean.

One of the things I love about Casey is our amazing local environment. We are surrounded by rolling hills, lush forests and fertile farmland dotted with vineyards, orchards and crops. Our environment only exists today because it was cared for by generations before us, and it is so important that we continue to pass that knowledge on to the next generation. That's why I was so proud to join students at Wandin Yallock Primary School last Friday for their annual tree-planting day. We worked together to plant native and indigenous plants to help increase biodiversity in the school's Nature Play Forest.

The vibe of the students at Wandin Yallock to learn about caring for our environment as part of the ongoing curriculum is thanks to farmer Jill's farm class. With Jill's guidance, students learn about sustainability, growing fresh produce, taking care of animals and looking after the school grounds—all vital life skills for the Yarra Valley. It was great to see the tree-planting day sponsored by local organisations Yarra Valley Toyota and Lilydale Bunnings.

Thank you to farmer Jill and principal Judith Martin for organising this great annual event and for your commitment to ensuring students have the skills to care for our environment for years to come.

Living in Leichhardt, I am fortunate enough to have two World Heritage areas on my doorstop: the mighty, mighty Daintree and, of course, our Great Barrier Reef. I speak today about the reef tourism industry of Far North Queensland. The tourism industry in the Far North actively works to not just promote but actively protect our natural environments that people travel across the world to enjoy. We are quite simply a bucket-list experience. But more than just ensuring a great day out on or below the water, our reef operators act as the eyes of our marine scientists, providing valuable data to assist in developing resilience to climate change. They work actively to thin crown-of-thorns starfish when the numbers get too great, and they work in assisting with coral planting for regeneration. The love and care that they show for this natural wonder of the world is absolutely second to none.

The reef, I'm sure we can agree, is universally loved. People the world over acknowledge its beauty. When people think of Australia, they think of three things: the reef, the bridge and Uluru. People often ask what the best thing they can do to protect the reef is. The answer is simple: come and visit it. Not only will you be ensuring that there are more eyes on the reef but we'll be collecting more data, and you'll also be supporting over 64,000 jobs directly associated with reef tourism. That, my friend, is a bucket-list experience and keeping someone in a job. That's a pretty good day. Be it in Cairns or Port Douglas, the reef fleet is ready to take you out on the trip of a lifetime.

WALLACE () (): I'm proud today to be able to inform the House that a major tourist development in my electorate of Fisher has been recognised as one of the best in Australia and the South Pacific. The Sunshine Coast's Maleny Botanic Gardens & Bird World has been voted by Tripadvisor travellers as the top attraction in Queensland and the 13th top attraction in the South Pacific, being rated alongside some of the world's most recognised attractions, including the Sydney Opera House, the Australian War Memorial and Uluru. I visited the Maleny Botanic Gardens & Bird World, and I can attest that it is a staggeringly beautiful place and a testament to years of hard work by the team. I'd like to congratulate those involved, especially the general manager, Verena Olesch.

This latest accolade in my electorate is a good example to remind everyone that nominations for the 2025 Fisher Community Awards are closing soon, on 17 August. I'm very proud to have established the Fisher Community Awards, now in their eighth year, to recognise those thousands of people who work tirelessly in the Fisher electorate, without any expectation of recognition, to make our community the best in Australia. I continue to be amazed at the range of activities that Fisher residents are involved in and the number of individuals and families that are assisted. As everyone in this House would know, the future doesn't just happen. It's built by people—people who give back, who lead and who give to our community. It's this opportunity to recognise them, and I encourage all Fisher residents to apply.

When we came to government in 2022 the Bureau of Statistics told us that each year about one million Australians didn't fill out prescriptions their doctor said they needed. That's why we're so focused on making medicines cheaper and why this week the Albanese government will introduce laws to deliver on the Prime Minister's promise to make medicines even cheaper and to slash the maximum co-payment for general patients to just $25 a script. The last time it was this low was in 2004, which was 21 years ago. More than five million patients will benefit from this fifth wave of cheaper medicines from our government. It will be good for hip pockets but, importantly, it will be good for health.

It builds on the work we've already done. In just our first three months in government, we've slashed the maximum amount that pensioners would pay for their medicines across a given year by 25 per cent. It has also delivered 73 million additional free scripts, saving pensioners over half a billion dollars. It's the biggest cut to the cost of medicines in the history of the PBS. Labor created the PBS, and we will always back it in, because cheaper medicines are good for the health of our nation.

Thousands of people that call Townsville home are about to have their lives thrown into turmoil with the impending closure of Glencore Copper Refineries. Thousands of people could lose their jobs and find it hard to put food on the table, pay rent, pay for their mortgage, pay for schooling and pay medical bills, but all of this is preventable. The people of North Queensland have been begging the Labor Prime Minister for help, asking for him to intervene to support this refinery, but it's all fallen on deaf ears.

Not everywhere has it fallen on deaf ears. In Tasmania the Prime Minister was happy to support the smelter, but that was only because there was a state election happening. The Prime Minister was happy to bail out his Labor mates down in Tassie but won't support the people of North Queensland. This is politics before people. People are going to lose their jobs. I can't understand why this prime minister wouldn't be engaging to prevent this from happening. Even last night the committee that was set up to look at the long-term future of our refineries was voted down by this Labor prime minister. A future made in Australia is more of a bumper sticker now than a reality. This prime minister is happy to pick a fight with those who ask him a question but won't pick up responsibility to help those in North Queensland.

My community campaigned hard to get a new post office after the closure of one at the Westfield Marion shopping centre. Its location near a major transport hub and a major shopping precinct made it a very busy and important local service, so I was thrilled to open a new post office last month, across the road on Morphett Road at Warradale. Post offices provide really important services for local communities. While we may now send and receive fewer letters, there are many other vital services that post offices provide. The growth of online shopping has meant the growing importance of parcel delivery. The city of Marion recorded a seven per cent year-on-year increase in online shopping volumes in 2024, compared to South Australia at 4.9 per cent and two per cent nationally. We love to shop.

The new Warradale post office has a 24/7 parcel locker service so your parcel is safe and secure and also available for collection at your convenience. I heard from many locals, particularly older residents, who very much valued the ability to pay a hard-copy bill in cash to a person behind the counter and receive a hard-copy receipt. For people who are not confident with IT and are worried about being scammed, this is a really great service. Many thanks to the previous minister for communications and the new minister for hearing my community and providing this important new facility.

I rise to congratulate outstanding individuals from my electorate who have been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in this year's King's Birthday honours. These awards celebrate Australians who have gone above and beyond for their communities, and I'm proud to say I have many of those people in my community.

Edward Gilroy OAM from Narellan Vale was recognised for his outstanding service to the community through many years of involvement in civic and volunteer organisations, including Macarthur Lions Club, St Johns Anglican Church and the Camden Library, amongst others. A devoted father of four, grandfather of 10 and great-grandfather of 15, Ted continued to serve the community into his 90s. I was saddened to hear of his passing just a few weeks ago, and I extend my deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.

Evelyn McDonald OAM of Wollondilly was recognised for her decades of dedicated volunteer service. She was a founding member and inaugural treasurer of Wollondilly Riding for the Disabled. She's also volunteered for Picton meals on wheels for over 20 years, Tahmoor Primary School P&C and gave nine years as treasurer of the Wollondilly Pony Club.

Kylie Purcell from Harrington Park dedicated years to supporting families of premature and sick newborns within Miracle Babies Foundation, and June Roots OAM from Penrith has been honoured for her decades of community service across a range of local causes. Deidre Tronson from Werombi was honoured for science education and research, inspiring young people in STEM.

We've now heard first speeches from all of the new Labor members, and they have been crackers. There have been common themes throughout them all—those of humility, service and a love for doorknocking. From the member for Leichhardt up in Far North Queensland down to the member for Braddon in Tasmania, across to the west with the member for Bullwinkel and across to the east with the member for Bonner, they have all spoken about their love of doorknocking. That's because it deeply connects us to our community. We get out there. We talk to people. We find out what they are concerned about.

One of the things that the community said was their No. 1 priority was the cost of living, so it's great that in this fortnight in parliament that is exactly what we're delivering on. We are delivering on cheaper medicines by reducing PBS medications down to $25, we're delivering a 20 per cent cut to student debt, and we're also guaranteeing penalty rates because we know so many people struggle to pay the bills and rely on their penalty rates to be able to do so. We're saying to Middle Australia that 'the PBS cut is for you', we're saying to young Australians that 'that cut to student debt is for you', and we're saying to workers that 'we've got your back with penalty rates'.

I'm glad the Prime Minister and the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government are here, because I want to talk about road funding. It's the No. 1 issue in my electorate of Wannon. When we were in government, we allocated $60 million to the Princes Highway between Warrnambool and Port Fairy. It's a key, crucial bit of road that not only allows people to travel to and from work but also enables the very important industries—dairy, timber—to be able to get to market.

That $60 million has finally been invested into the Princes Highway between Warrnambool and Port Fairy. The Victorian state government sat on that money for an eternity. We welcome the fact that it's been spent, but I know the Prime Minister would agree with me that, if you're going to do a job, do it properly. I say this to the Victorian state government, and I would ask the Prime Minister and the minister for infrastructure to take it up with them. The job that they have done on that bit of road hasn't been done properly. They're having to go back time and time again to fix potholes. They didn't finish the job properly. It means that my constituents are having to fix flat tires and broken rims, and our industry is penalised. I say this to the pair of you: make sure they do— (Time expired)

Let's call it for what it is, the opposition leader has failed as a leader. She talks about moving on from culture wars, about constructive disagreement, but her actions—or a lack of them—tell a very different story. When the Liberals try to strip the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags from official proceedings and roll back welcome to country ceremonies, she says nothing. That's not leadership; that's fear. Meanwhile, corrosive white-anting within her own caucus is chewing through what little authority she has left. When members of her own party, like the member for Canning, vote to abandon net zero, she stays silent. On the back foot, she frantically suggests a working group, only to have Senator Canavan mock the idea for all to hear. In his own words, 'the coalition are irrelevant', and they don't need a working group to tell us that.

The world is moving forward. Investors are moving towards clean energy. The jobs of the future are here, and where's Sussan Ley? She's hiding behind a slogan—no vision, no backbone, no plan. (Time expired)

In accordance with standing order 43, the time for members' statements has concluded.

I want to acknowledge my friend, Prime Minister Feleti of Tuvalu, who has joined us on the floor today, along with Foreign Minister Panapa. We had a very successful meeting earlier today. Australia and Tuvalu share a very special bond through our Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union treaty. This is a historic treaty between two proud sovereign nations. It has given life to our new partnership, and I look forward to continuing the engagement, through the Pacific Islands Forum, which will meet in September this year, and to continuing to engage constructively with my friend, with whom we have a shared objective of working towards lifting up economic opportunity in Tuvalu.

But, of course, also, for the Prime Minister, climate change isn't anything theoretical. It is literally an existential challenge to the very existence of his island nation, and I wish him and the people of Tuvalu all the very best.

I likewise welcome our distinguished guests from Tuvalu and the important work of the Pacific Islands Forum and say: to all of us in this chamber, you are very welcome indeed.

My question is to the Prime Minister. In March 2022 there were almost 60,000 Australians on the Home Care Packages waiting list. The now health minister said that waiting list was 'a national disgrace'. But, Prime Minister, under Labor, the Home Care Packages waiting list has skyrocketed, with more than 87,000 Australians now waiting. If a waiting list of 60,000 was a national disgrace, what words describe Labor's crisis of more than 87,000 today?

I'll ask the minister to supplement but I'll say this: we introduced and passed through this parliament on a bipartisan basis the most significant reforms to aged care this century. We did that just last year, and we did that after a royal commission described aged care in one word in its interim report, and that one word was 'neglect'. When we went to the 2022 election saying that we would put the nurses back into 'nursing home', we were mocked by those opposite. Today, 99 per cent of the time, there is a nurse in an aged-care facility. That is a good thing.

We have been working through all of these issues, including the reform to both residential and home aged care. We have been working through that and making an enormous difference, and it has been positive. With the ageing of the population, we have put in additional investment after what was a period of a decade of neglect by the former government.

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question. Over the last five years, we have, as a country, pretty much doubled the number of home-care packages in the system, from about 150,000 to a little more than 300,000, and we will need to continue increasing those home-care package numbers vary significantly for, really, as long as any of us are in this parliament, because the oldest of the baby boomers, we know, are now pretty much hitting the average age of entry to the Home Care Packages system and in a few years time will hit to the average age of entry into the residential aged-care system. That is why, particularly under the leadership of former minister Wells in this area, we had to compress pretty much a decade of reform into just three years—not helped of course by the budget cuts that the opposition leader initiated as the minister for aged care through the 2016 MYEFO that actually took money out of aged care and didn't redeploy it to reform but actually just returned it to general revenue, obviously contributing to the situation that led to the royal commission in the first place. So it doesn't really sound very nice in the opposition leader's mouth to complain about the situation in aged care that we have had to fix over the last three years after a decade not just of neglect but of actual cuts initiated again by the now opposition leader when she had responsibility for this portfolio.

Honourable members interjecting—

When the House comes to order, we'll hear from the honourable member for Griffith.

My question is for the Prime Minister. How is the Albanese Labor government delivering on its commitment to cut student debt, and what is the impact on young Australian TAFE and university students?

I thank the member for Griffith for her question—my favourite member for Griffith for some time, it must be said. And I'm pleased that that comment has got bipartisan support across this chamber. We are very pleased that the first piece of legislation to pass this House was, as we said we would do, when I launched the policy in Adelaide in the electorate of Sturt last November to cut student debt by 20 per cent. This will cut the debt of three million Australians by an average of $5½ thousand each, and it will make reforming the system to make repayments fairer as well, making that long-term difference.

Last week I met with some young Australians here in Parliament House who went through exactly what difference it would make to them. Emma from the University of Canberra will save $8,000. Alex from Monash uni is saving more than $20,000. But, importantly as well, Jennifer, Izzy and Lauren came in from the Canberra Institute of Technology. They have saved tens of thousands of dollars between them on their TAFE courses because of course they're getting some access to free TAFE, but, in addition to that, it has made an enormous difference.

Jennifer said: 'I am now so relieved I'll be saving about $8,000 from $40,000 of debt. It makes such a huge difference. I feel such a huge weight off my shoulders, and I really feel I can focus on my course, finishing my course, and getting into my industry.' Izzy said: 'When I looked at the amount I had to pay, it really was scary to look at, but I knew I had the opportunity to get a VET loan to do what I am passionate about. Now, with the 20 per cent cut in student debt, it's really opened up many doors and opportunities.' And Lauren said: 'The 20 per cent means quite a bit to me, as I am currently trying to save my first home. This makes an enormous difference.'

Cutting student debt represents a practical difference for their futures, and that's precisely what I said during the election campaign when I said no-one held back and no-one left behind. This is opening up opportunities for Australians to undertake a university or a TAFE course but also not penalising them to do so. It is a question of intergenerational equity. I'm very pleased that it has now passed the House and will pass the Senate later today.

My question is to the Prime Minister. On 28 February, the Prime Minister told Australians, 'Under Labor all you'll need to see a GP is your Medicare card, not your credit card,' but on TV this morning, the health minister said, 'We never said there would be 100 per cent bulk-billing.' Prime Minister, how many Australians have had to use their credit card to see a GP since the day you promised they wouldn't need to?

I am absolutely delighted to talk about Medicare, because what the member opposite has said is to quote us at the Launceston launch in the electorate of Bass when we launched our tripling of the bulk-billing incentive for all Australians. That followed our previous budget, where we tripled the bulk-billing incentive for concession cardholders. That has resulted in 90 per cent of those concession cardholders seeing a doctor for free with bulk-billing.

Opposition members interjecting—

Order, members on my left! We are just going to pause for a second. We are not just going to have this free-for-all at the beginning of question time. We are going to allow people to ask questions in silence and then give respect to the person answering the question as well. We are not going to continue this way. We are getting into good habits early.

This $8.5 billion investment in Medicare we said at the time would lift bulk-billing rates for every patient to 90 per cent by 2030, cutting costs for Australians, improving care and supporting GPs. That is the policy that we announced. You might remember, Mr Speaker, that before I finished that speech in the electorate of Bass with the now member for Bass—

The Prime Minister will pause and I will hear from the Leader of the Opposition.

Mr Speaker, the point of order is on relevance. I know the Prime Minister is now saying his promise had terms and conditions, but the question is: how many Australians had to use their credit card to see a doctor?

Resume your seat. I am just going to remind the Leader of the Opposition that she can raise points of order but it has to be pretty clear what the point of order is, not adding extra material to her statements. The Prime Minister was asked about his comments. He is talking about the announcement, about what the question was and he is giving context to the House—and I am listening carefully—about the electorate he was in and what he said about this announcement. So he couldn't be more directly relevant. I am sure he will continue to make sure he is.

I certainly will, Mr Speaker. You may well recall that policy being matched almost before I finished my speech. At the time we put out written documentation. We had costed policies. I'm not surprised that the opposition don't recognise this territory, but we had costed policies of $8.5 billion to lift bulk-billing rates to 90 per cent by 2030. The timeline hasn't changed, the investment hasn't changed and the modelling is the same. The question is: have the coalition changed their position? When I made the announcement on the date that the member suggested, they said they would back it—and now it appears that they don't back it. Now it appears they don't support it, which isn't surprising given that when they came into office last time, as we reminded people once or twice during the election campaign, they tried to abolish bulk-billing altogether by introducing a Medicare co-payment. One of the big differences in this chamber is that we on this side value Medicare; those on that side are led by someone who said, 'If you don't pay for it, you don't value it.' Well, we value Medicare. We will defend Medicare, and they will always undermine it.

My question is to the Minister for Education. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to deliver on its commitment to help Australians with student debt, and what has been the response?

I thank the magnificent member for Melbourne for her question. There are 35,000 people in the electorate of Melbourne who are particular happy this afternoon, because we have just voted to cut their student debt by 20 per cent. As I said yesterday, young people don't always see something for them on the ballot paper, but they did this year and they voted for it in their millions. On 3 May, Australia voted to cut student debt by 20 per cent, and, today, so did we. We promised that this would be the first bill that we introduced into this new parliament, and, last week, we did that. About an hour and a half ago, we passed that legislation through this House, and now it heads to the Senate. As the Prime Minister just said, this will help three million Australians. A lot of those are young Australians just out of TAFE, just out of university, maybe just out of home—certainly just getting started. They're teachers, nurses, tradies, doctors, paramedics, midwives, vets, social workers, engineers, architects, IT workers and lots more. The average HECS debt today is about 27 grand. What that means is that, when this legislation passes, it will cut their debt by about 5½ grand. If you've got a debt today of 50 grand—and there are lots of people in that boat—it will cut your debt by $10,000. That's a big deal.

And it's not the only thing that this legislation does. It also makes structural changes to the way the repayment system works to make it fairer and to help Australians with the cost of living. It lifts the minimum amount that you have to earn before you start repaying your student debt from $54,000 to $67,000, so you start paying off your uni degree when uni starts to pay off for you. It also reduces the minimum amount that you have to repay every year. If you earn 70 grand a year, it will reduce the amount that you repay every year by $1,300. That's real cost-of-living help. It means more money in your pocket, not the government's, when you need it. It's something that Bruce Chapman, the architect of HECS, has described as the most important thing that's happened to the system in 35 years.

This is all happening because of this prime minister, because in November last year he promised to cut student debt by 20 per cent and because, on 3 May, Australians voted for this in their millions. Today, because of what we have just done here, we are one step closer to making this a reality.

I am pleased to inform the House that present in the gallery today are students participating in Regional Development Australia Central West's TEN4TEN Leadership Dialogue who are being hosted by the honourable member for Calare. I'm also advised that present in the gallery today is Mr Jason Falinski, the former member for Mackellar. Welcome back to question time.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

My question is for the Deputy Prime Minister. Last week the US Navy told congress that its submarine production continues to be around half the level needed for the US to be able to supply Virginia class submarines to Australia by 2032. Given the real risk that the US won't be able to double its production in time, what is the government's alternative plan to ensure that Australia has the capability it needs, and, if we don't have an alternative plan, why not?

I thank the member for her question. When we signed the optimal pathway with the United States and the United Kingdom, we were aware of the challenges of US production and sustainment of Virginias and the need to lift that production to see more Virginias in the water for the US Navy in order to create the space whereby Australia would be able to acquire Virginia class submarines from the United States in the early 2030s as part of the pathway to Australia acquiring a nuclear powered submarine capability.

To put that in context, what we saw going back and forth in terms of the way in which the coalition managed our future submarine acquisition in the decade that they were in power really left us with a capability gap, which is being filled by the acquisition of those Virginia class submarines in the early 2030s. That goes to the very question of what a former member for Wentworth often talks about, which is whether or not there should be a plan B, and, indeed, the former member for Wentworth was part of what was going on with the coalition, as one of the three prime ministers who were part of that government. The issue with that government then was that they were completely focused on and obsessed with plan Bs. They were in and out of a deal with Japan, then in and out of a deal with France, and it took the better part of the entirety of their government before they ended up settling on the arrangement with the United States and with the United Kingdom through AUKUS.

When you consider that acquiring a nuclear powered submarine capability is a challenge that is measured in decades, if you are focused on a plan B—and there is always a chopping and changing—then that is not a decision to walk down the path of plan B; that is a decision not to have a capability at all. I mean, unless you stick to a plan for longer than a couple of years—which the coalition were unable to do, which the former member for Wentworth was unable to do—then you don't get a capability at all.

My question is to the Assistant Treasurer. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to help young Australians pay off their student debts faster and get ahead?

I thank the member for Deakin for his question. As a former schoolteacher I know that the member for Deakin understands firsthand the transformative power of education. His experience is an asset to this parliament—and I'm sure his time as a teacher also prepares him well for the raucous nature of the House! The member was elected by the people of Deakin to deliver real cost-of-living relief for his electorate and to deliver a 20 per cent cut to HECS debts for the more than 23,000 students in his community who will benefit from the bill that passed the House just over an hour ago. Those 23,000 students in the member's electorate of Deakin join more than 28,000 in my own electorate of Fraser and three million Australians around the country who are set to benefit from the wiping of $16 billion of student debt by our government.

The Prime Minister said that a re-elected Albanese Labor government would wipe 20 per cent of all student debts. He said this would be the first bill we would introduce in the new parliament. And guess what? That's exactly what we've done. Last week Minister Clare introduced the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025 to the House. Once the law passes, the ATO will start implementing the measure to wipe debts on the basis of what they were on 1 June 2025, before indexation. Beneficiaries don't need to do a thing. The ATO will text you when your debt has been reduced.

In addition to last year's changes to indexation, the Albanese government is removing around $20 billion in student debt. But we're not stopping there. We also pledged to make it easier for people with student debt to enter the housing market by asking regulators to review lending rules. That work is done. APRA and ASIC have finalised the guidance the Treasurer requested in February. APRA has now made amendments to guidance to banks to remove HELP debt from debt-to-income reporting and also to clarify that it may be reasonable for banks to omit HELP debt from serviceability assessments where a borrower is expected to pay off their HELP debt within 12 months.

ASIC has updated its regulatory guidance to acknowledge the income-contingent nature of HELP payments. This will help thousands of students and graduates across the country who have invested in their education and now want to invest in a home. We're tackling the housing challenge on all fronts. That's how the Australian government is helping young Australians pay off their debt, enter the housing market and build their future.

The Manager of Opposition Business?

The minister was reading extensively from a document there. I'd ask him to table the document.

Was the minister reading from confidential documents?

Honourable members interjecting—

Order! I want to nip this in the bud. I don't want any more of this 'stop reading'. Everyone reads in this place. I read documents all the time. I read speeches out. We just don't need that, particularly on ministers and people who are reading questions. It's a two-way street, so we're not going to have that anymore.

My question is to the Prime Minister. On 28 February—

Honourable members interjecting—

Order!

The member for Chisholm is warned. We're going to start the question again. The member for Lindsay is going to be heard in silence. She's going to be given that respect. And we're not going to have any comments, because I'd like—

The member for Spence! Order! We're going to hear from the member for Lindsay. She'll begin her question.

My question is to the Prime Minister. On 28 February, the Prime Minister promised Australians that, to see a GP, all they would need is their Medicare card, not their credit card. Is that still the Prime Minister's position?

I thank the member for her question, and I encourage the opposition, over the next three years, to double down and keep digging when it comes to Medicare and to keep criticising the policy that they themselves adopted on that very day—on that very day! We were somewhat surprised, I must say, in Launceston, that, when we came off stage and before I even did any discussion with the journalists after we launched the policy and gave them the documentation, the opposition had already agreed to that policy and matched it. If they read the documents that we released on that day, what they would see is it was fully costed—$8.5 billion over the forwards—that it was due to come into operation later this year, that it would provide for bulk-billing rates to rise to 90 per cent by 2030 and that it was based upon the experience that we'd had at the previous budget, where we introduced the bulk-billing incentive, tripling it. The largest investment at the time.

Well, there can only be one point of order that the member's going to take: on relevance. She asked the question about the Prime Minister's statement that he made on 28 February. He's talking exactly about that statement and about what he announced. I fail to see how there could possibly be a question on relevance. You want a yes/no answer; I can't give you that. I'll give you one more chance, given that I've said the Prime Minister is being directly relevant.

I am still going to say on relevance, because I asked him specifically if his position was that Australians would still only need their Medicare card, not their—

Resume your seat.

Opposition members interjecting—

I know, but this is—you would like a direct answer to that, Member for Lindsay. You'd like a yes/no to that, right? Well, I can't—

Honourable members interjecting—

Order! It's the same thing. I can't help you with that, because the standing orders don't allow me to direct the Prime Minister to answer the question how you'd like it to be answered. But, if you're asking a question about a statement and the Prime Minister's reading the statement about that and he's not talking about anything else, he's being very directly relevant. I've got a list here, Leader of the Opposition, of all Speakers that have refused to take points of order. We can go through that list, but, at this stage, I'm just giving everyone fair warning: unless it's about the person not being on topic—not because you don't like the answer—I'll start to not take the points of order. While the Prime Minister is giving direct conference, I want everyone to be crystal clear moving forward.

I did show my Medicare card quite a bit during the election campaign. You might have noticed. For those opposite who wanted a yes-or-no answer, you know what the people of Australia answered on 3 May? They answered yes. They answered yes to saving Medicare. They answered yes to increasing bulk-billing. They answered yes to another 50 urgent care clinics on Medicare. They answered yes to increased mental health care. They answered yes to increased youth mental health facilities as well. They answered yes to the idea that we value Medicare, and they said no to the idea that, if you don't pay for it, you don't value it. They said a direct no to the ideology put forward by those opposite, and they said, 'Yes, we do judge a society by how it looks after the most vulnerable.' At Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, whether it was Kerry Packer after he had a heart attack, myself after I had a serious car accident or my mum, an invalid pensioner, we got the same treatment because of Medicare.

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. How is the Albanese Labor government's cheaper medicines policy delivering more choice, lower costs and better health care for women across Australia?

Thank you to the member for Newcastle. On more than one occasion, she has reminded me that you can't be serious about strengthening Medicare if you're not serious about supporting women's health. Women consume about 60 per cent of health services in this country, often not because they're sick but because they're women looking after their reproductive health and, by extension, supporting the reproductive decisions the broader family makes, or because they're going through menopause or perimenopause. A number of Senate inquiries in the last term of parliament lifted the lid on the years of neglect of supporting women in those areas of our healthcare system. There had not been a new oral contraceptive pill added to the PBS for more than 30 years or a new endometriosis medicine added to the PBS for more than 30 years, and there had not been a new menopause hormone treatment added for more than 20 years. This is not because they hadn't come to market; they just hadn't been added to the PBS, forcing women to pay top dollar for those new cutting-edge medicines.

We changed that. In the last several months, we've added three new contraceptive pills, three new menopause hormone treatments and two new endometriosis medicines onto the PBS, saving women millions and millions of dollars that, frankly, they shouldn't be having to shell out in the first place. For example, the endometriosis medicine, Ryeqo, was costing women $3,000 a year—that cutting-edge, highly effective treatment for endometriosis. Now, they pay barely one-tenth of that cost. But we are determined to do more because, to the Prime Minister's comments, the Australian people said 'yes' to even cheaper medicines, and so, from 1 January, the maximum cost of a script will be slashed to $25—the same rate it was all the way back in 2004.

This morning, the Prime Minister, Assistant Minister McBride and I met a young woman, Cara, who already in her early years is grappling with a number of chronic health conditions. She is on a number of medicines, and they really do put a dent in her household budget. One of those medicines is Slinda, a highly effective contraceptive pill that tens of thousands of women have been using for months and months and years and years and have been paying top dollar for. We added it to the PBS earlier this year. Before that, women were paying $320 a year for that cutting-edge medicine. From the first of January, they'll pay just $75, a three-quarter cut in the price of that medicine. The reason why we are going so hard on making medicines even cheaper is not just for the hip pocket. It's a benefit to the cost of living, but it is also so important for health. We are trying to support Australians in making sure they can fill every single script that their doctor says is important to keep them healthy.

My question is to the Prime Minister. How many Australians today are using their credit card to see a GP?

The answer to that, because of those opposite and their undermining of the health system, is too many. Too many is the answer, which is why we want 90 per cent by 2030 to just use this little card here, this piece of green and gold plastic.

A point of order on the use of props. You've been very strict on this side of the House. He's missing one of his props. He didn't bring up the credit card, as well.

The member for Lindsay used a similar tactic yesterday. I'm sure the Prime Minister will look after that card carefully and will continue with his answer.

I will because it's valuable. It's valuable, and everyone on this side of the House values their Medicare card. I'll tell you what: every Australian values their Medicare card as well—except perhaps some of those over there. Now, you can imagine the tactics committee meeting this morning sitting around and going, 'I know where they're vulnerable: Medicare. We think there's a bit of doubt out there in the community about their attitude towards public health care, because they never want to talk about it. They never raise it. I mean, has the Prime Minister got a Medicare card?' So that's why I brought it in—to confirm that that's the case!

I'll tell you what: for the 1½ million Australians who've been to the not 50 but 87 urgent care clinics, all they have needed is their Medicare card, and one-third of those have been under the age of 15.

The Leader of the Opposition on a point of order?

On relevance: it was a very tight question. How many Australians today are using their credit card to see a doctor? Perhaps the Prime Minister would undertake to come back with those figures if he doesn't have them, but he does need to acknowledge the—

Order. Resume your seat. Yes, it was a tight question, and I believe the Prime Minister answered it directly the way he gave an answer to it. Perhaps, if he wants to give further information regarding numbers or information, it may assist the Leader of the Opposition, but he just needs to be directly relevant to the Western, which he is very much doing.

I am giving some numbers here to assist the opposition: 1.5 million is the number of Australians that have been to Medicare urgent care clinics. Ninety-four: that's the number that support Medicare urgent care clinics. Twenty-seven million: that is the number of Australians who support Medicare. All of us here support bulk-billing. The truth is that, at the election campaign, like at other times, we have campaigned to strengthen Medicare. That is what we have done since we came into office in 2022.

Those opposite, when they came into office the last time government changed—and we have no doubt that the same thing would have occurred again as well—had an attempt to introduce the Medicare copayment and abolish bulk-billing altogether. We had $50 billion ripped out of the public hospital system. We had a failure to train enough GPs. We had a complete failure when it comes to aged care, summed up by that one word: neglect. We on this side of the chamber are very proud that Labor created Medicare. We'll strengthen Medicare. That's what we do each and every day. In the legislation that we have, of course, been talking about this week for cheaper medicines, that's a part of our strengthening Medicare. (Time expired)

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. How is acting on climate change and harnessing Australian sun and wind in our national interest? What other policies is the government being asked to consider, and why is unity on this issue so important?

Thanks to my honourable friend for the question, and congratulations to her on her resounding re-election. The honourable member asked me about harnessing renewable energy, and that's what Australian households are doing every day, particularly under the Albanese government's Cheaper Home Batteries Program. I think the House might need an update on how that's going. I can tell the member and the House that 16,302 households have now taken up cheaper home batteries in the last four weeks. The policy's been operating four weeks today—16,302 households. And, as the House might have determined by now, that number is increasing by about 1,000 houses a day. That means that those households that are putting on the cheaper home batteries are benefiting, but so is the whole grid and the whole country, because we are building storage. In fact, those more than 16,000 batteries amount to 280 megawatt-hours of storage in our grid. That's two Hornsdale big batteries that we have added just in the last four weeks. That's good for the grid. That's good for everyone. That puts downward pressure on prices everywhere.

The member asked me about alternatives and the need for unity, and of course that's very important. Indeed, both houses are being provided with alternatives at the moment. Last night there was a vote in the Senate. One Nation called on a vote opposing net zero. Now, One Nation voted for that—that was their motion—two coalition senators voted for it, two coalition senators voted against it and 22 coalition senators were outside playing Candy Crush! They didn't want anything to do with it. That's what you want—a bit of moral clarity about the big issues facing our country. Asked are they for net zero or against net zero, two are for, two are against and 22 didn't know. Those twos cancelled each other out. It was a net zero impact on the vote from those opposite! That's the sort of impact we see from the leadership and the team opposite.

I'm going to do something slightly unusual. I'm going to approvingly quote a member opposite. The member for Lindsay, just before question time, was asked about this, and she said: 'Well, this is groundhog day.' She's a hundred per cent right, because we have seen all this before. Nine years in office and they couldn't land an energy policy with 22 different goes. For nine years, we had the National Energy Guarantee, and we had $3 million for a coal-fired power station which couldn't even deliver a feasibility study. They announced the winner of the feasibility study two days before opening the tender for the feasibility study. That was the sort of approach that those opposite took for nine years. Now, three years later, they are no better. In fact, they are worse. They can't even discuss the pathway to net zero because they can't agree on the destination. It just goes to show you they haven't learnt the lesson from nine years of delay, denial and dysfunction, and they would do it all again.

Before I call the member for Cowper, I would like to recognise the Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon, who I'm told is in the gallery today. He was a former member and former minister in this place.

My question is to the Minister for Small Business. This government's economic mismanagement has delivered a record number of small-business insolvencies that are now double the levels seen in 2020 and 34,000 job losses in the last quarter alone. Will the minister admit this government's economic agenda has failed small business?

I thank the member opposite for his question, because it gives me an opportunity to really talk about small business—something that I'm passionate about and something that the members on this side of the House are all passionate about as well.

As I said yesterday, small businesses operate right across the country. They are everyone from your local Indian grocer to your hairdresser and the place that you go to get your lunch. I'm pleased to report that, since we took office, since this Albanese Labor government took office in 2022, there are 800,000 more new small businesses operating right across Australia. They comprise female led businesses—around 35 per cent are female led—and 40 per cent on average are led by migrants, people who are aspirational, who come to this country and who see starting up a small business as a way of making a life for themselves and for their families. Small businesses employ more than five million Australians, and they contribute more than $590 billion to our nation's economy every single year.

I'll remind the member opposite that this is the government that, last term, introduced the very first National Small Business Strategy, which guides the ways in which we will work with state and local governments to address those issues for small business.

Member for Cowper, on a point of order?

It's on relevance. The question was very tight. It was in relation to this government's economic mismanagement, insolvencies and job losses.

The minister was asked about the government's agenda and, in particular, details of that. She is providing relevant information. I'm going to make sure that her remarks are directly relevant to the question she was asked.

Though I repeated it three times, I'll repeat it again. There are 800,000 more small businesses since this government took office in 2022. In our first term, we set our priorities for small business, and they were to help them grow and to give them a level playing field. I'll remind the House again, as I mentioned yesterday, that last week I convened our very first small-business roundtable to feed into our reform agenda. I will continue listening to small businesses right across Australia, across the width and breadth of the diverse sectors they represent.

The Albanese Labor government backs small business. Have a look at the members behind me. Small businesses operate in every single city and every single town across Australia, including in the outer suburbs, represented here on this side of the House. We will continue with our agenda to back small business, because small business backs Australia.

My question is to the Treasurer. What progress has been made in the fight against inflation?

I'm grateful to the member for Pearce for her question but even more grateful to her community for sending her here to represent them in this place. The member for Pearce is an absolute champion from and for the west. Tomorrow we will get new inflation numbers for the June quarter and the month of June, and they'll attract a lot of attention and analysis. But what we already know is that we have made very substantial and now sustained progress together as Australians in the fight against inflation.

When we came to office, headline inflation was multiples of what it is now. It was much higher; it was accelerating, and interest rates were already rising. Inflation had a six in front of it under those opposite, and now it has a two in front of it. Whatever the quarterly or monthly fluctuations, the direction of travel for inflation has been really clear. Both headline and underlying inflation are now back in the Reserve Bank's target band for the first time since 2021, and this progress has given the Reserve Bank the confidence to cut interest rates twice already this year. The Reserve Bank governor has said that more rate relief is a question of timing, not a question of direction. Underlying inflation in our economy is already half or almost half of what we inherited, and any headline inflation number tomorrow with a two in front of it will confirm that we have been in the Reserve Bank's target band for a full year.

Unlike other countries, we've made this progress on inflation without paying for it with substantially higher unemployment. In fact, this government has been able to get inflation down while presiding over the lowest average unemployment rate in the last half a century. No major advanced economy has achieved what Australia has—inflation in the low twos, unemployment in the low fours and three years of continuous economic growth. While inflation has been coming down in Australia, it's been going up in the US, Canada, the UK and New Zealand.

Inflation is down; real wages are growing again, and unemployment is low. We've delivered two surpluses; we've got the debt down, and interest rates have come down twice already this year. We know there is more work to do. We know the global environment is uncertain. We know that there are persistent structural issues in our economy, and we know that people are still under pressure. That's why we're rolling out more cost-of-living relief this month. It's why we're legislating help with student debt this week, and it's why responsible economic management has been and will continue to be a defining feature of this Albanese Labor government.

My question is to the Prime Minister. Young people around the world want a say in the environment they will inherit. The ICJ has now affirmed that nations have a legal obligation to prevent climate harm, and our productivity and economy are being battered by successive climate fuelled events. Despite this, the government's defining action so far is to recklessly accelerate warming by approving new gas extraction to 2070. This negates any other policy. A minimum target of 75 by '35 and methane abatement is urgently needed. Will you be ambitious?

On behalf of the government, I thank the honourable member for her question. Her position is very well-established, and the crossbench have been very strong in their views. In this government, we set our targets following a very rigorous process, which is outlined by the Climate Change Act, which, to be fair, members on the crossbench voted for. The Climate Change Act outlines world's best practice for setting a target: the government receives advice from the Climate Change Authority, considers it, considers the economic impact, considers the science, considers how that target might be achieved and then announces the target. The UK are taking a very similar approach.

The target the government sets will be two things. It will be, importantly, achievable. I say to honourable members, as I've said elsewhere, it's very important that a target be able to be achieved. It is not a useful contribution to the debate to set a target without outlining how the country can actually achieve that target. Yes, ambition is very important, but so is achievability. Both those measures will be reflected in the target that the government announces, following the receipt of the Climate Change Authority advice, which we have not yet received. We will follow the rigorous process outlined in the Climate Change Act.

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Women. How is the Albanese Labor government supporting Australian women? What attitudes about women are standing in the way?

I thank very much the member for Swan for the question. It is fantastic to see so many women of diverse backgrounds here in this chamber, in particular the member for Swan—science, engineering and over a decade in the mining industry.

Since Labor came to government, the gender pay gap is at a record low, with women on average earning $217.40 more per week than they did in May 2022. We've also seen more women participating in the workforce than ever before. Supporting women doesn't just have a social benefit; we know that it has an economic benefit as well. It's why we've made gender equality an object of the Fair Work Act, why we've expanded paid parental leave to six months by 2026 and why we've introduced 10 days of paid domestic and family violence leave.

These changes are possible when you have women around the table empowered to make decisions, and that hasn't always been the case. Let's not forget that it was a little over 10 years ago now that former prime minister Abbott appointed only one woman to cabinet and crowned himself minister for women. Thankfully, under this prime minister that attitude within government is a thing of the past.

I wish I could say the same of those opposite. Just today, we had the member for Longman claiming that quotas are a ridiculous practice and that men tend to be more drawn to vocations that involve maths and physical exertion. And I go on to quote the member for Longman, 'Women, in the main, tend to be drawn to careers that involve women and care, like hairdressing, nursing, social work and the like.' What an absolute crock! What a crock! People used to think that women were not drawn to this place. We have so many talented women in this place with a range of backgrounds, from engineers to doctors, to CEOs, to paralympians and even to pilots, including among those sitting opposite to me. This is exactly the attitude, Member for Longman, that keeps wages for women low and stops them from putting their hands up to learn a trade or work in STEM or represent their communities in this place.

Those opposite simply do not get it. Those opposite are living decades in the past. First, it's net zero, and, now, it is your attitudes towards women. Well, I'm here to tell them that it is 2025. Climate change is real, and gender equality is a very good thing for this country.

My question is to the Minister for Emergency Management. Category D funding was made available to primary producers on 4 July for the New South Wales Mid North Coast and Hunter regions devastated by the May floods. Minister, why is category D funding still unavailable for the many flood impacted small businesses trying to recover, rebuild and restart, a funding recommendation made to governments at the same time as that for primary producers?

I thank the member for the question, and I also thank her for her hospitality towards me, the Prime Minister, the Premier and various other New South Wales ministers in her electorate and also the electorate of Cowper.

The flood that we've seen there is obviously devastating to the community, and recovery is a long-term situation. I've been through it directly with my own community. We know recovery isn't days and weeks; it's months and years, which is why we've worked really hard and really closely with the New South Wales government on a whole range of support and funding opportunities in that local community. Initially, we allowed 19 councils access to $1 million for a clean-up fund. We've allowed disaster recovery payments across 19 LGAs, including disaster recovery allowance, which is income support, across 12 LGAs. We've expended over $212 million on a whole range of income supports—over 170,000 applications across those 19 LGAs. Category D funding was available to rural landholders—up to $10,000 to help with clean-up. There have been a range of other support measures put in place, including concessional loans and freight subsidies for primary producers.

We have worked really closely with the New South Wales government on a range of supports, including $25,000 grant supports for small businesses. To date, we've expended around $300 million with the New South Wales government on a range of supports across those 19 LGAs. We've said from day one that we would continue to work with local communities; with local councils; with the state government; and with local, state and federal members in the area to ensure that supports continue over a period of time. As I've said directly to you and the member for Cowper, we stand ready, willing and able to work with New South Wales, particularly on this.

I haven't given anyone the call. Less than 30 seconds ago, the minister was talking about category D funding, which she was specifically asked about. You're going to have to have more than the point of relevance on that. She was asked a question on category D funding, and she's giving information to the House. As a courtesy, I'll give the point of order.

Speaker, I take your point, but it is a point on relevance. I say this because I get the real empathy that the minister has for this, but the question was relating to category D and small business, which is very well—

Honourable members interjecting—

Resume your seat. She has one minute left to go. The minister was being completely, directly relevant. I warn the House again: if this continues, I just won't take the points of order.

There are currently $25,000 grants available to small businesses. The recovery coordinator on the ground there has said from day one that he wants to ensure that as many small businesses as possible register so that data and evidence can be provided to the New South Wales government if there are any additional supports needed. The Prime Minister and I were on the ground during the initial event and in the days following, and I've been there in the week since that.

I know firsthand what this means in local communities. I know the widespread impact, and I know that communities are going to be doing it tough for a period of time. We remain committed to working with the local council; with the state government; and with local, state and federal members to ensure that we get this recovery phase right, and we will continue to work with the New South Wales government on that.

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Industry and Innovation. How is the Albanese Labor government making the economy more resilient while providing good jobs as part of the government's Future Made in Australia agenda?

I thank the member for Lingiari for her question and congratulate her on being the first Aboriginal person to sit in the Speaker's chair this week. Well done.

Creating jobs and industries that support them is one of the golden threads that run through the history of the Australian Labor Party. From Curtin and Chifley's full employment and creation of the car industry to the Hawke economic reforms and the Button industry plan to Prime Minister Albanese's vision for a future made in Australia, it's all about creating jobs and supporting families. That's why we're committed to seizing the opportunities from the global move to net zero.

We know the best renewable energy resources are in Australia. Nearly every critical mineral needed to power the clean energy economy of the 21st century resides in Australia. We've got copper, zinc, bauxite and cobalt, and we've got lithium in abundance. We're great at mining these resources, but the Australian people demand more. They want us to value add to them where possible and create well-paid highly skilled manufacturing industries, and the Albanese Labor government is backing this vision with our transformational policy agenda: the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund, production tax credits for renewable hydrogen and critical minerals, $2 billion for Australia's aluminium smelters and $1 billion for the Green Iron Investment Fund.

Green iron is the foundation for the future for the global iron trade, and it's a generational opportunity to make Australia more prosperous, thereby reducing global emissions. It was a key priority for Prime Minister Albanese's visit to China. The Albanese government understands that the world is changing, and that's why we're taking action. We recognise the opportunities that are in front of us and are committed to seizing the future to support high-growth cutting edge industries. Sadly, that support is not bipartisan. This week we saw the coalition's climate change clown show back in town. Speaking of one of them—

Opposition members interjecting—

I withdraw!

Order! I've got two members on their feet. The member for Wannon was first. The minister's withdrawn that comment. I'm going to say to him that that is completely unacceptable. It's not helpful in debate. We had that last week as well, on that side. I'm just going to draw a line in the sand: we're not commenting on people. Member for Wannon, a point of order?

It goes to relevance. The question was very specific. It asked about what the Labor Party was doing in this area—it said nothing about the coalition—and only a clown would answer like that.

Member for Wannon, I just said we're not having that. We're drawing a line in the sand. You were standing there at the dispatch box when I specifically referenced what happened before. You'll leave the chamber under standing order 94(a). That is next level, and you should know better.

The member for Wannon then left the chamber.

I hope everyone's really clear. Good. The minister wasn't asked about alternative approaches and policies in his question. He was asked about how the government is making the industry more resilient regarding employment, so he's going to return to that question and not talk about the opposition.

Thank you, Speaker. As I was saying, our plan makes sure that Australians benefit from the global race to net zero. It's all about jobs, jobs and jobs, which is the golden thread of the Labor Party. A Future Made in Australia is about seizing those job opportunities, particularly in regional communities like the member for Lingiari's and mine. It's about creating a more resilient economy, increasing our sovereignty and independence. The truth is the Albanese government is getting on with the job and delivering for the Australian people. That's what people expect of their government: not climate wars but a future made in Australia.

My question is to the Minister for Resources. Australia is the world's second biggest exporter of global emissions after Russia. Last week the International Court of Justice made it clear that Australia has international legal responsibility for its fossil fuel production, regardless of where the coal or gas is ultimately burned. Will the government stand up to coal and gas corporations and phase out these dangerous fossil fuels that are supercharging the climate crisis?

I thank the member for her question on this occasion. I refer to the member's question. I would just like to point out the importance of Australia's role in regional energy security. This is something that is perhaps not as well understood as it could be or even should be. Australia indeed does export gas, and it does export coal. It also exports iron ore. It exports gold. It exports lithium. It exports a great many things that are essential to our economy, and indeed the three greatest exports of this country are iron ore, coal and gas, which add to harbour prosperity and support regional communities, which people on this side of the chamber realise, as do those on the other side.

It will remain integral to the economy for many years to come, and it will remain very important to hundreds of thousands of families around this country, as the breadwinners and sometimes their partners go and participate in this industry, whether it be in fly-in, fly-out communities or drive-in, drive-out communities, right around the country. Really importantly, and the question around energy—

I need to be consistent with everyone. The minister is being directly relevant to the question. I know you're not happy with the answer, Member for Ryan, but you simply just can't have a situation where, 'I don't like the answer; I'm going to take a point of relevance.'

The question was about emissions. It was about scope 3 emissions and the effect—

Resume your seat.

In relation to gas, it will remain a very important part of Australia's economy for some time to come. You would have seen—and everyone in this House would have seen—the Future gas strategy, which the government will pursue. It is an important part of our role in not only providing fuel and security to Australians and Australian industry but equally ensuring we play our role in helping to provide the energy security for the region.

I might add that countries in this region—Japan, Korea and many others—adopted net zero targets well before this country did, well before those opposite, when they were in government, eventually got there. Now, of course, they're trying to move back from that. Nonetheless, this government, on this side, is committed to net zero emissions, just like the government of Japan, the government of Korea and many others are. Our fuels that we export to those communities will be a really important part of their transition. Transition pathways are going to be different for every country. In Australia, we will be able to transition more quickly, because of the natural resources available to us through wind and solar. The vast spaces we have enable that. That is not the case for our friends in Japan and Korea, and countries like them, where they simply do not have those abundant renewable resources, so, in the meantime, we'll support them through our export industry, and that will be a really important part of Australia's participation in regional energy security.

My question is to the Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories. How is the Albanese Labor government delivering cost-of-living relief to people living in the regions? What threats are there to delivering important cost-of-living relief?

I want to thank the member for his question and for the work he does in the community, but I also want to congratulate him on being appointed Special Envoy for Men's Health, a really important subject, particularly across rural and regional Australia, and I look forward to welcoming him to the mighty Eden-Monaro next week.

As the minister for regional development, I engage with communities right across the country, and I love seeing the diversity in our regions, the opportunities and the challenges that are unique to each of them. The Albanese Labor government is focused on dealing with the cost-of-living pressures for people right across the country, particularly in our regions—no matter your postcode—because regional communities benefited from the tax cut we delivered in our first term, with another two tax cuts to follow. It puts more money back in our community's pockets. That's a tax cut for every taxpayer up and down the income scale. We know regional people work hard for their money, and we want to support them to earn more and to keep more of what they earn.

At the recent election, Australians had a clear choice: the Albanese government, who had legislated tax cuts and a range of other cost-of-living supports versus those opposite, who committed to raising taxes. If they'd won, those opposite would be in here right now raising taxes for hardworking regional Australians, they'd be weakening the PBS, they'd be continuing to stall on investment in housing and they'd be putting a nuclear reactor in the backyards of Aussies across the country. Instead, regional Australia voted for a strong Labor team, which includes the member for Leichhardt, the member for Gilmore, the member for Lingiari, the members for Ballarat, Bendigo, Braddon, Bass, Bullwinkel and many, many more.

We have made medicines cheaper, we've made the largest investment in bulk-billing and we've got 31 urgent care clinics open in our regions, as part of our 87 that we've already opened across the country.

Yes, Leader of the Opposition, all you need at an urgent care clinic as a Medicare card. There's one open in the member for Hunter's electorate in Cessnock, which has seen more than 20,000 presentations.

We've helped more than 30,000 people in regional Australia into home ownership, through our regional home buyers guarantee. And I personally know that, as a small-business owner, when you're an apprentice, every dollar counts—which is why we are delivering a $10,000 incentive payment to construction apprentices across the country.

In the first week of this new term, we've introduced bills to cut student debt by 20 per cent, and we're protecting the penalty rates of regional workers across the country. We have a lot to be proud of in cost-of-living relief that we've delivered for regional Australia, and we'll continue to do that in the next three years. Let's hope those opposite have learned a lesson and don't get in the way this time round.

My question is to the Prime Minister. On the front page of the Age today, it is reported that multiple CFMEU officials received gold bracelets as kickbacks from underworld crime figures. Also today, on the front page of the Courier-Mail, the CFMEU is openly threatening the Queensland parliament.

Can the Prime Minister advise the House what instructions his government has given to his hand-picked CFMEU administrator, Mark Irving, regarding the lawless conduct of this union and its members across the country?

I thank the member for his question. Of course in the last parliament, in 2022, the first question I got was about the CFMEU and construction, from the then Leader of the Opposition. So it's taken a little bit longer, but it's the same pattern. But the difference is that my government has acted, unlike the former government. So, unlike when I stood here as Prime Minister in 2022, after a period of three terms of the coalition, three terms in which clearly we have seen the evidence of corruption by some people in the CFMEU construction branch grow—we saw the power of people like John Setka grow beyond his state boundaries in Victoria—we acted.

We intervened, we shut them down, they've been sacked, they got removed. And that is absolutely critical, because it's consistent with my government's approach, which is twofold. One is that trade unionists overwhelmingly are motivated by helping out issues like occupational health and safety; by helping out the wages and conditions of working class people, of making sure that they get their fair share in areas like construction and mining; and it's about workers going home to their families at the end of the day. The role that unions have played in that has been critical. And that is why it is so disgusting and abhorrent that a small number of people have chosen to abuse their position to engage in conduct which is criminal.

Criminal conduct should be subject to criminal penalties. That's not the instruction of anyone; that's called the law. That's called the law. When those opposite raise the question about administrators, they remind people that we've put administrators in—when they had secretaries like John Setka running the show and did absolutely nothing about it.

My question is to the Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel. How is the Albanese Labor government addressing the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide?

I thank the member for Corangamite for her question and acknowledge her great advocacy for the veterans across her electorate and region. I've had the great pleasure of being able to meet many of the RSLs in her area, and it's been great to work with her on the progress of the hub that'll be going into her region as well. The member for Corangamite, like our entire government, is committed to providing the service and supports to the veteran community that they not only need but deserve. That is so critically important.

When we came into government we inherited a circumstance where DVA was critically underfunded and underresourced. Indeed, to give credit to my predecessor, the member for Calare, who sits on the crossbench, he was calling it out, even when they were in government. So, over the past three years we have been able to achieve a great deal together. We've eliminated that claims backlog that we inherited because of the underresourcing of DVA.

We've also got down to acting on all the recommendations contained in the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide's interim report. Critically, we have passed the Veterans' Entitlements, Treatment and Support (Simplification and Harmonisation) Act, moving three different complex pieces of legislation that support our veterans into, from the middle of next year, one system, so it's easier for veterans and families to know what they're entitled to, easier for advocates to support them and quicker for the Department of Veterans' Affairs to process those claims and get veterans and their families the support that they need and that they deserve.

Crucially, when we received the final report of the royal commission in September last year we acted swiftly. By December we had provided the government's formal response, agreeing—or agreeing in principle—to 104 of the 122 recommendations, noting 17 of those recommendations for further work and establishing a taskforce in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to work across government on how government would go about implementing these recommendations for our veteran community.

Now we're building on what the Albanese government did in its first term. Beginning earlier this year, we legislated the establishment of the Defence and Veterans' Services Commission. This implements recommendation 122 of the royal commission, which the royal commission said was its most important recommendation. We've also appointed the interim commissioner into that role. The Department of Veterans' Affairs has been undertaking the consultation needed on co-design for a new wellbeing agency to be established within the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

When we were in opposition we campaigned for the royal commission to be established, and we will work tirelessly now to ensure that the government's response to that royal commission will be implemented so that our nation's veterans continue to receive the supports—and receive even more supports—that they need and deserve.

My question is to the Prime Minister. Your government has placed more than 14,000 sanctions against Russian individuals and entities as well as sanctioning trade with Russia for their invasion of Ukraine. Netanyahu's genocidal assault on Palestine now means that more than two million people are at critical risk of starvation. Will you commit to applying equivalent sanctions to Israel as you imposed on Russia?

I thank the member for her question. Of course, we don't sanction a state; we sanction individuals. And my government has sanctioned individuals. We've sanctioned the Minister for National Security and we have sanctioned the Minister for Finance. We have done so in part based on some of the comments that have been made by them as ministers, people who were on the fringes of Israeli politics but are now a part of the Netanyahu government.

The Minister for National Security said this on 27 July:

… the only thing you should be sending to Gaza is shells to bomb, conquer, encourage emigration and win the war.

That is what they had to say. The range of comments that have been made, including by a soldier who killed a young Palestinian boy, are reprehensible. There are the comments of the Minister for Finance, who has said on 6 May that Gaza will be totally destroyed and its Palestinian population 'will leave in great numbers to third countries'. On 21 April, he said: 'We need to eliminate the problem of Gaza.' On 5 February, he said:

Now, with God's help, we will work to permanently bury the dangerous idea of a Palestinian state.

We don't take these issues lightly. Also, what we don't do is try to secure some domestic political advantage and damage social cohesion in this country, which, frankly, some of the actions of the Greens political have done. What we do is act in a principled way and in a way that is consistent. We condemn Hamas for their actions and we condemn what is occurring in Gaza in breach of international law. That is the way that responsible, adult governments act. That's the way that middle powers can have influence, and that's the way in which we can have a constructive role in what I want to see, which is an end to killing, whether it's of Israelis or of Palestinians. I also want to see the creation of a two-state solution where both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security with prosperity.

We'll continue to work with other leaders of like-minded countries around the world with that objective, but I do say that Australians want two things. First, they want innocent people to stop losing their lives. The second thing they want—and I say this directly to the member and her party—is not to have conflict brought here in order to secure some sort of partisan political advantage. They also don't want the agency of those people who are responsible for wrongdoing to be dismissed by suggestions which are simply untrue and that seek to gain a short-term domestic political advantage.

I am a friend of Israel and I am a friend of the Palestinian people. I think that overwhelmingly has been the position of Australia for a long period of time, with our bipartisan support for a two-state solution. I'll continue to do what I can as Australia's Prime Minister to achieve that end.

My question is to the Minister for Communications. How is the Albanese Labor government ensuring that more Australian families and businesses can access affordable high-speed internet?

I thank the member for Bennelong for his question and I welcome him back to this place, where I'm sure he will continue to do very good things.

The Albanese government's broadband philosophy is simple: we want it reliable, we want it affordable and we want it fast. These are the essential ingredients to boost productivity, create jobs and foster innovation. High-speed connectivity isn't a nice-to-have in 2025; it is a must-have. The only way to keep delivering quality broadband to more and more Australians is through our investment in the NBN—the publicly owned NBN. At the 2022 election, we committed to fund NBN Co to upgrade an additional 1.5 million homes to fibre to the premises. Those upgrades are on track to be completed by year's end, and this will mean that 90 per cent of the NBN fixed-line footprint will be able to access speeds of up to one gigabit per second.

But there is still more to do, and that's why the government is contributing up to $3 billion for NBN Co to upgrade the final 622,000 premises within the fixed-line footprint from fibre to the node to faster technology. That means ripping up the old coalition copper and replacing it with high-speed, futureproof fibre. The economic benefit of these investments is clear. Having access to faster broadband could save consumers more than a hundred hours of travel time and $2,850 in costs per year. Labor has always envisaged a full-fibre NBN within the fixed-line network, and now we are making that a reality.

Of course, the same cannot be said for those opposite. The coalition opposed the NBN at its inception, calling it a video entertainment system, and then tried to hobble it while in government. Because of those opposite we are still saddled with a large number of fibre-to-the-node connections—the coalition copper—and are spending billions of dollars to undo the opposition's short-sightedness.

Sadly, nothing has changed when it comes to their connectivity policy. This is not a serious opposition. You only need to look at the media statement released by the coalition just last Tuesday, where they couldn't even name the right technology. The coalition media release said the Albanese government committed another $3 billion for the NBN, with a further roll out of fibre to the node, in January. Here's the thing, though: we're getting rid of fibre to the node, the coalition copper. We are ripping it up and we are replacing it with futureproof fibre to the premises. The Australian economy as whole will also benefit from scrapping the coalition copper, with a suggested cumulative GDP uplift of $10.4 billion over the next decade, because the Albanese government is finishing the job of building the publicly owned NBN.

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.

These documents are tabled in accordance with the list circulated to honourable members earlier today. Full details of the documents will be recorded in the Votes and Proceedings.

I have received a letter from the honourable member for Page proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

This Government's continued neglect of regional Australia.

I call upon those honourable members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

I look forward to talking to this matter of public importance. What I'm going to point out today, which is quite obvious when you look at electoral results from the last election, is the dichotomy between city and country Australia. I acknowledge the result opposite, the result of the Labor Party at the last election and the increased number of seats that they obtained. It's quite obvious they picked up a lot of seats, the majority of them in city Australia. They did very well in that sense, but it's very interesting to observe that that was on a very low primary vote. The primary vote for the Labor Party at the last federal election was 34 per cent and for the coalition parties it was 31 per cent, so there was not a big difference in primary vote, but they did very well with preferencing.

I highlight to them that I think this large majority is very much built on a house of cards. As I said, there's been a dichotomy between the city and the country. I am going to give a bit of a shout-out later to some of my Nationals country MPs who are new members, but I point out to my colleagues in the Liberal Party how well the regional Liberal Party did as well, with their members and the number of new members—the member for Monash, the member for Grey and the member for Forrest as well. There are many more.

I want to highlight that, if you'd said to the Labor Party in 2007, 'You're going to win a bigger majority in 2025; write down the seats that you're going to have in 2025 with as large a majority as you got in 2007,' there would be six seats—or friendly teal-type Independents—that the Labor Party would write down on that list. They are the seats of Flynn, Dawson and Capricornia; my own seat of Page; and the seats of Lyne and New England that were held by teal-type Independents. They would write them down, because that's what happened in 2007. In the National Party in 2007 we had under 10 House of Reps seats, and over the next two elections, in 2010 and 2013, we won back all of those six seats that I just mentioned. The interesting thing is, as with the Liberal Party when they've won between seven and 30 seats in the country, especially in regional areas, we haven't lost any of those six seats. I don't say that with any hubris and I don't say that with any arrogance. I'm just saying that it's an interesting dichotomy—the differences in the city and regional Australia right now—and I think there are some real reasons for that.

I also want to acknowledge that we've seen a great assault from the teals on some city seats and seen them have success in the city. I acknowledge my friend and colleague in Cowper who had a huge assault from a teal Independent. It was roughly $1½ billion, probably more, from the teal Independent there, and my colleague got a swing to him in that seat. I also acknowledge we had a great candidate in Bendigo. We got a swing of nearly 10 per cent to that candidate for us in Bendigo, giving the member for Bendigo a great fright. It's interesting. I don't say it with any hubris; I just say it as a factual electoral result.

I want to give a shout-out, before I go on, to three new MPs in this House. The first one, a good friend of mine, is Alison Penfold, the new member for Lyne. Alison's had a really tough introduction to this place. Within days of her becoming member-elect—not even the sworn-in member, not even declared through the Australian Electoral Commission—her electorate had a natural disaster of great proportion. I went down to see her about a week later, after the water had receded, and she was doing it tough. Her community was doing it tough, and I want to give her a shout-out. She emotionally connected to them, advocated for them and was in the mud with them from day one, and I have great respect for her advocacy and her emotional connection to her community. She was under great duress not only because of the disaster it was but because she had no office support given she was only the member-elect.

I want to give a shout-out, too, to David Batt, the new member for Hinkler. He was a late starter for this; the previous member retired. I went up and spent a day pre-polling with David. I was there for about five minutes and knew he was going to win with the reception that he was getting during pre-polling. Handing out flyers for him was a great joy because it was very easy. He has come into this place, and when he talks about his community—there's a percentage of retirees in the seat of Hinkler—he tells me he has pensioners in his electorate that are turning the fridge off at night because they can't afford their energy bills with the increases that havehappened there in the past three years. He's got a big fight, and he's here to have that fight for them.

The last one is the new member for Parkes—the boilermaker from the bush! I've spent a few days with him in his electorate. He travelled 36,000 kilometres—if you look at the size of his electorate, that's not hard to do—and doorknocked 24,000 homes. He had some interesting experiences. There was a staffy dog in Dubbo that had him jumping over a fence, and in Broken Hill there was a goat that chased him out of the gate as well. He's more nimble and more fleet of foot since he's been a candidate as well. I give them a big shout-out because of the great regional MPs they will be.

We know, on this side, that regional Australia is the economic powerhouse of this nation. It's great to see some new members opposite—well, it's not great to see that you won your seats, necessarily, but it's great to see that you're here. I'll tell you if you don't know—you may well know this, and I humbly apologise if you already know this—regional Australia is the economic powerhouse of this nation. We export about $650 billion worth of stuff overseas every year. Over two-thirds of that is from the bush, from regional Australia. Those exports include coal, which we're not ashamed of; iron ore; gas; and food. Regional Australia is the economic powerhouse of this nation. We're proud of that. We're here to advocate very strongly for it.

There are some things this government has done in the previous parliament which are why I think the results are very different in the bush from the cities. They cut infrastructure spending straightaway. The Roads of Strategic Importance program, the Building Better Regions Fund, the LRCI program and the Stronger Communities Program were all dumped. We had great disappointment in my room—and, I know, in those of some of my Liberal colleagues—when the minister for the environment took water out of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and took money out of our communities, who are growing food to feed us and to feed the rest of the world. She took water out of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, which was a great disappointment.

They took away our doctors. I mean, seriously? You have doctor ratios in some of the city suburbs of one doctor to every 500 or 600 people. There are communities in the bush that have one doctor for every 5,000 or 6,000 people. There was a program we had called the distribution priority area and, if you were foreign trained or had a Commonwealth scholarship, you had to do times in areas that were more remote. They abolished it almost straightaway. We lost doctors overnight. You can literally live in Rose Bay and have a practice in Hornsby and qualify now under the distribution priority area classification. Our people know this. The government bans industries. They ban things that we do in the bush. They banned live exports, which was devastating to some of the communities in our patch as well.

There are lots of other things, too, that are a great shame. Some of our state Labor colleagues are at fault for this. We now import more fish into Australia than we fish ourselves. We're surrounded by a coastline. Again, it's because of the environmental policy of those opposite who think fishing is bad. I know that the member for Gippsland is passionate about hardwood timber. We do forestry very sustainably, but, under the Victorian state government, for example, you can't do it at all now. So we are now importing hardwood from overseas. Our communities know this because they work in these environments, they work in these industries and they see that those opposite are sanctimonious. It's a sanctimony.

There's also a little bit of hypocrisy. With the renewable energy rollout, where's all that happening? It's all happening in the regions. I have an example that I've mentioned in this chamber before. The member for Warringah had a proposal from a climate change group in Warringah to put a hectare of solar panels and six wind turbines on North Head. I said, 'Good on them!' They wanted to walk their talk. The member, when approached by the local newspaper, said it wouldn't be environmentally or culturally—the area's too sensitive for that.

An honourable member: Oh, really?

Really. Then, when we say we have issues with the rollout in our communities, she has the hide to say that we're scaremongering. This is the sanctimony and the hypocrisy that we hear from this government, the teal crossbenchers and the Greens crossbenchers. Our voters and our communities in regional Australia get it. They know that's what's happening. There is this big dichotomy. Regional Australians have worked this lot out. They know that the government are not on their side. They know that the government don't support what we do and don't like some of the things that we export. Regional Australians have worked out this Labor government.

It's a pleasure to be here to talk about the things that this government is doing for regional and rural Australia. I know it's frustrating for those opposite, because regional and rural Australians vote for Labor members. If they didn't, half of us wouldn't be here. I live in regional Australia. I come from a small community—smaller than the community of many of those opposite. I have a family that's working hard in a small business in regional Australia. I am one of the many people that come to this place from farms, from small businesses and from regional communities right across the country. It is an inconvenient truth for those opposite that regional people vote for Labor people. They vote Labor members in.

An opposition member: Shame!

They value Labor policies. I hear the member opposite say, 'Shame!' I'm sure his children with HECS debts are valuing the fact that the Labor Party is here cutting 20 per cent off HECS debts. I'm sure, as a former construction worker, his former apprentices would have appreciated $10,000 incentives on construction trades. I know the many apprentices that we've employed—or my husband or my brother, who were apprentices too—would have valued that extra help in their pockets. That's what we do on this side of the House, because we're not here to govern for a sliver of people. We don't pull out a colour coded spreadsheet and say, 'What value do we get out of giving taxpayer funds to certain electorates in the country?' On this side of the House, we govern for all Australians, we have policies for all Australians and we value the services available for all Australians. Regional Australia is much, much more than roads or bridges or infrastructure. Yes, they are incredibly important. It's not just about a grant program that you can pork-barrel to get things in your electorate. I understand that may have been the lay of the land previously, but it's not how we do it.

Investing in people, investing in skills and training, investing in services and supporting towns and communities when they're going through a really tough time is incredibly important too. So is access to services. For such a long period of time, when those opposite were in government, they didn't value the services that our community wanted. If they did, they wouldn't have cut Medicare; they wouldn't have frozen Medicare rebates. They would have supported more doctors training in our regions, which is exactly what we do on this side of the House. We have made the largest investment in health care in our regions ever. Out of the 87 urgent care clinics our government has already delivered, 31 are in the regions. We're investing in rural medical schools to help ensure that more medical students can train and live in regional and rural communities because we know, and the data tells us, that if they train in a region they'll stay in a region.

There's a $90 million investment to help address healthcare shortages right across our regions. We've got incentives for doctors and nurse practitioners, and we will waive their HECS debts if they come and work in rural and regional Australia. We're supporting prac payments, because we know that it is incredibly important to support people who are training to come and deliver services and get their training in our regions. As I said, we're supporting apprentices with that $10,000 incentive, which is incredibly important.

We've also committed to establishing a $1 billion Building Early Education Fund to build more childcare centres in regional Australia.

I hear the former shadow minister laughing. You were in government for nine long years. You sat on these benches, and you knew there was a childcare shortage, but you did zilch, nothing, zero.

Have you got a point of order?

Yes. The minister should direct her comments through you, Chair.

Sorry, Deputy Speaker. Those opposite did nothing—zilch, zero, zip—on childcare investments. On this side of the House, we value early childhood education, so much so that we spent $3.6 billion investing in wage increases in the sector, because it's not good enough just to say we want to build more; we've got to put the human resources in. We want to make sure it's an industry that you can have a career in, that people value and that people want to join. I've got a niece who's 21, now. She did her cert III while she was still in high school. She now works in early education. As a 21-year-old, she's second-in-charge of her centre. We value the work that she and many other people like her do, and we will continue to support it.

Regional communities benefited from tax cuts. That's incredibly important, because, in regional communities, every extra dollar goes back into the small businesses that our people run. They are the people that sponsor the local sporting groups. They are the people who give P&C raffle prizes. They are the people giving an opportunity to other members of our community by employing them. We want to see regional people succeed, and that's why we've given a tax cut right up and down the tax scale and will continue to support small businesses.

We've got a Cheaper Home Batteries Program. In my electorate, Ray from Braidwood recently got in touch. He said that this home battery system that he's already put in has lowered his electricity bill. In the first month since he had his battery installed, his bill dropped to $22. It's also helped him change his usage habits, so he can make better use of his electricity during off-peak periods. Instead of supporting regional Australians like Ray, those opposite are busy reviewing net zero. They're out of touch and out of reality.

Speaking of utilities—and we just heard the Minister for Communications talk about the NBN—they're so incredibly important to drive productivity for rural Australians. Whether you work from home, whether you've got a small business, whether you need to access health care or whether you're studying, it is incredibly important to have connectivity. But, when those opposite were in government, there was a deliberate underinvestment in communications. Instead of narrowing that communications and technology divide, they widened it, because they didn't understand the importance of keeping people in our regions connected, whether it was to services or to family and friends. Instead, we've invested $5.4 billion to expand full-fibre NBN access to 2.1 million premises across the nation, almost a million in our region.

We've also said we will introduce a universal outdoor mobile obligation, requiring telcos to provide access to mobile voice and SMS almost everywhere in the country. It will have huge benefits for regional and remote Australia, particular during emergencies and disasters. Instead of being something that those opposite jumped on—I would've thought connectivity was something that we may have agreement on—they said: 'No, we're not particularly interested. We think the universal obligation on home phones is enough.' That is gobsmacking to me for many reasons. Perhaps, when that comes into this House, we'll see bipartisanship support on that. We know that it is vital for regional Australia to stay connected during the tough times.

Unfortunately, far too many of our regional communities have been through the devastation of disaster. What they want after a disaster is to know that they can be better prepared for the next one. We introduced the Disaster Ready Fund in 2022. It's a five-year program of $1 billion dollars and it's all about reducing disaster risk and building resilience across Australian community. I've seen the devastating impact of bushfires in my own community and I know how important it is to reduce that disaster risk. We've got to strengthen our emergency management and disaster recovery capabilities. So we set up the National Emergency Management Agency to ensure that there was a more coordinated approach.

The Albanese Labor government is delivering record investments in regional communities, whether it's through transparent grant programs, including the Growing Regions Program and the Regional Precincts and Partnerships Program. We're also increasing the Roads to Recovery Program from $500 million to $1 billion a year. Every council across the country will get more road funding. Those opposite didn't do that at all. We've increased the road black spots funding program to $150 million a year, improving some of the most dangerous stretches of roads, and we've launched the new Safer Local Roads and Infrastructure Program—$200 million a year.

Our regions are fast-growing and diverse, and we value what our people do in the regions, whomever their local member is. Most importantly, we have said a strong regional aviation sector is critical, and that's why we are supporting Rex. These opposite failed regional Australia when they had the opportunity. On this side of the House we're delivering for all Australians. (Time expired)

I want to note in Hansard my great disappointment in the behaviour of the government benches the last time I spoke, the other night—I know you were in the chair, Deputy Speaker Claydon—when I was talking about the suffering in regional Australia. Those in the House laughed. They laughed at the suffering of those in regional Australia. I want to note that was incredibly disappointing.

I have been surveying Mallee voters and have well over 5,000 responses so far. I note, for any cynics listening, that the people answering this survey identify as voters from all political persuasions. I remind those opposite that these are the voices of thousands of Mallee voters, not echo chambers, not small focus groups. Mallee voters are saying, in their thousands, that they are under pressure with the higher cost of living. For over 88 per cent of respondents, it has got worse.

What's contributing to these living-cost pressures? They say no. 1 is groceries. The Nationals have continued to take a strong stance on the major supermarkets and fought hard for a coalition position that the divestiture powers are a big stick which remains on the table if supermarkets abuse their market power. The Albanese government continues to sit on its hands about grocery prices. The no. 2 on the Mallee survey for cost-of-living pressures is residents' energy bills. Who would have thought? Thousands of my voters say energy prices are putting immense pressure on their budgets. Yet, Minister Bowen parrots that renewables are the cheapest form of energy.

The latest CSIRO GenCost report has been manipulated—and now found out. But do you know which figures were also manipulated? They were household power bills. Regional Australian voters have the lived and documented experience that energy prices are going up. Worse still, they are being railroaded and threatened with now $12,000 fines if they refuse to allow Transmission Company Victoria onto their private property—their farms.

Third highest in living-cost pressures is council rates. My constituents' views come from Victoria, where the Victorian Labor government imposes rate capping. I moved a motion on Monday on the financial sustainability of councils, particularly in regional areas. The Albanese government must restart the local government inquiry in this House, with a committee which must deliver recommendations that the Albanese government acts on to improve the sustainability of our councils. Regional councils are picking up essential services as victims of cost shifting from state and federal governments, because they passionately believe that their local residents deserve services and they don't want to see them miss out.

Councils have stepped in to provide services to vulnerable seniors, or they are even abandoning them because they cannot afford to deliver those services any longer. Of the Mallee survey respondents who rely on home-care services, 43 per cent said those services are hard to access in regional Australia. A further 24 per cent added that they cannot afford those needed services. Forty-six per cent of those needing residential aged care have concerns about the cost. In Mallee, almost 50 per cent—49 per cent to be exact—cannot access childcare services. Childcare deserts persist in Mallee, despite what the government say they are doing to address it. Unsurprisingly, 73 per cent of Mallee constituents also rate our roads as being in poor condition—not medium condition but poor condition. That speaks to the rate increases and struggles that councils have maintaining roads, but also to Labor's neglect of the regions.

The Albanese Labor government has neglected Mallee, giving us zero regional Housing Support Program funding, and, of my 12 councils in Mallee, giving only one funding through the Growing Regions or the partnerships and precincts program. Minister King did not once set foot in my electorate during the 47th Parliament. That's what the neglect of regional Australia looks like—a dangerous deterioration of roads; the neglect of aged-care, home-care and childcare services; and an Albanese Labor government that not only raids our regions for taxes and railroads farmers for energy projects but has the hide to laugh about it in this place.

I'd like to begin by thanking the member for Page for moving this motion today because it gives me as a proud regional member of parliament the opportunity to strongly reject it. The Albanese government is backing in rapidly growing regions like mine. Labor understand the importance of regions, and we will always support them. So here's what we are doing, in my electorate of Corangamite alone.

We're delivering critical investment to build a better future for locals—from major road improvements to massive rail duplications, and from new facilities for football and netball clubs to new learning centres for schools. We're supporting men's sheds and community houses; building new swimming pools; supporting surf lifesaving clubs and food relief services; and supporting farmers and primary producers. From the $318 million upgrade of the Barwon Heads Road to upgrades of Grubb Road in Ocean Grove, we're building the roads we need now and for the future. During the election campaign, we committed $5.4 million to upgrade the Drysdale Hawks netball courts, and $1 million in support to ensure Grovedale netball courts are fit for purpose.

We're also restoring integrity in grants programs, with the $600 million Growing Regions Program and the $400 million Regional Precincts and Partnerships Program. On top of that, the Albanese government is progressively increasing the Roads to Recovery funding from $500 million to $1 billion per year over the next five years, delivering much-needed road upgrades across the region. And more than $3.3 million in federal funding has been provided to improve safety at 11 crash-prone sites across the Surf Coast and broader Geelong region. These sites are dangerous. There have been several serious accidents at these sites. Our government recognise this and we are acting.

We are also strengthening Medicare for regional Australians. Our government is rolling out Medicare mental health hubs and urgent care clinics across our country, including one right in the heart of my electorate in Torquay. Bulk-billing rates are on the up, enabling more people to see a GP without it impacting their bank balance. Medicare billing data shows that, under the Albanese government, we are reviving bulk-billing. Locals in regional Australia have had an additional 586,003 visits to a GP just in the past year. That's a fact. Incentives to ensure we have more GPs and nurses in our regions are underway. So, no matter how much the opposition tries to spin it, the data speaks for itself.

We also know that free TAFE is changing lives for so many people across my region and regional Australia. Australians are embracing this opportunity and embarking on a new journey as builders, electricians and workers in the aged-care and broader care sector. Data from the states and territories shows that, from January 2023 to March this year, there were more than 170,000 courses completed. It also finds there have been more than 650,000 free TAFE enrolments in the same period. TAFE is opening doors to new careers and giving Australians the chance to find secure, well-paid work—and, in regions, this matters.

For women and families, our government is expanding the Paid Parental Leave scheme to 24 weeks and then 26 weeks for parents, with super payments included. It's a policy that is truly life changing and a clear example of how Labor governments are prepared to support families not just in cities but in our regions. It doesn't matter if they live in metro Melbourne or St Leonards in my electorate, this policy will make a positive difference to the lives of so many families.

The Albanese government is committed to a better NBN, protecting penalty rates for regional workers, reducing student debt in our regions and providing access for cheaper child care in our regions. We are committed to forging a future that opens the door to opportunities for families not just across the Bellarine and Surf Coast in Geelong in my area of Corangamite but across our nation. It's a future where workers are supported, communities are connected, infrastructure is actually delivered and our manufacturing industries are revitalised.

Regional Australia is on life support, and this Labor government is standing by and watching it flatline. Capricornia is not a burden. We are not a cost. We are a cornerstone of this nation's prosperity. We mine the minerals, we grow the food and we export the energy that powers our economy, yet, despite all we contribute, Labor treats regional Australians like second-class citizens. Since coming to government, Labor has turned its back on the regions. It's turned its back on the people who show up, work hard and keep this country moving.

Investment into Capricornia ground to a halt the moment Labor took office. As the member of Capricornia, I'm proud to have delivered over $7 billion in vital infrastructure projects for our region under the coalition government. This included $568 million for Rookwood Weir, $251 million for Walkerston Bypass and the $80 million Rockhampton-Yeppoon upgrade. These weren't vanity projects. These were smart, strategic investments which have unlocked growth, boosted productivity and created jobs and are saving lives on our roads.

But what did Labor do? In their very first budget, they tried to axe the Rockhampton Ring Road, one the largest and most important infrastructure projects our region has ever seen. This project spans 17.4 kilometres and includes 18 bridges and the new 453-metre Fitzroy River crossing. It will divert over 2,500 heavy vehicles away from our city streets, away from four school zones and away from 19 sets of traffic lights. It is transformational, But Labor want to axe it. It was only due to the fierce outcry from our local community, small businesses and industry leaders that Labor was forced to backtrack. But let's be clear. The intention was there. The knife was drawn, and Capricornia would have been the casualty.

This is not an isolated case. Labor's track record is now a pattern—a pattern of neglect. Nationwide, Labor has cut, delayed or scrapped over $30 billion in infrastructure, and it's regional communities like mine of Capricornia that are paying the price.

They didn't stop at infrastructure. They also axed the Building Better Regions Fund, a program that delivered funding for vital community projects across Capricornia, from disability housing to sports clubs to community halls. They scrapped the community development grants, the Stronger Communities program and other successful coalition initiatives that backed local people with local solutions. Labor replaced these programs with—nothing: not reform, not redesign but nothing. What message does this send to the regions? It tells us we don't matter. It tells us we're not a priority. It's not just roads and infrastructure; it's the very fabric of daily life in Capricornia that is unravelling.

We are in a struggle-to-survive crisis. The Salvation Army's Social Justice Stocktake reveals the depth of the crisis in my electorate, with 82 per cent of people identifying housing affordability and homelessness as major issues. Nearly half say the crisis is affecting them personally. At least 547 people in Capricornia are currently sleeping rough. We're also short by 3,500 homes to meet current demand. One local disability service in our region was able to build two purpose-built homes with $1 million from the Building Better Regions Fund. These homes are now giving people with disability dignity, independence and safety.

Access to health care is worsening, too. In Capricornia just 9.4 per cent of GP clinics bulk-bill. That's forcing people into emergency departments for basic care. And for those living with disability, Labor has made things even harder. Buried deep in the NDIA's annual pricing review is a devastating change: a 50 per cent cut to travel reimbursements for allied health professionals. That might be manageable in the suburbs of Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane, but in regional Queensland it is a disaster. Whether a provider drives for 20 minutes or for two hours, the rebate is the same. Already we've had providers confirm that they will no longer be able to travel to the smaller towns—not because they don't care but because Labor's policy makes it financially impossible. The consequences are devastating: fewer visits, fewer services and more vulnerable people left behind.

This is not a policy adjustment. It is a wrecking ball taken to disability care in the bush. Labor governs for the cities, for the inner suburbs. The people in places like Capricornia are the ones who keep the lights on, literally. We produce, we export, we contribute. Yet under Labor we are ignored—ignored on housing, ignored on health, ignored on roads and ignored on disability service. This isn't accidental. It's deliberate. And the people of Capricornia are sick of being treated like an afterthought. Regional Australians deserve more than patronising platitudes. We deserve investment. We deserve respect— (Time expired)

I'm so proud to be representing my community in federal parliament for this third term, and I'm extremely proud of what the Albanese Labor government has delivered for my electorate of Gilmore since coming to government. On the south coast of New South Wales we've had some really tough times, with bushfires, floods and the COVID lockdowns, but I've always stood by my community to ensure that people receive the support needed to recover and to be more prepared for future disasters.

Born and bred on a dairy farm near Nowra, I understand the needs of regional, rural and coastal communities, from Kiama to Moruya. I'm always out and about talking with people across my diverse electorate, so I get it. I understand that people are doing it tough. That's why I'm so pleased that this government is taking unprecedented steps to help ease cost-of-living pressures—more than 64,000 taxpayers in Gilmore receiving another tax cut. Almost 14,000 people in Gilmore will have their student debt slashed by 20 per cent. I'm really proud to have delivered the Batemans Bay Medicare urgent-care clinic, which has already seen around 17,000 patients. Affordable, accessible health care is top of mind for people in Gilmore, which is why I fought so hard for a second Medicare urgent-care clinic in Nowra that will take pressure off the busy Shoalhaven Hospital emergency department. And it's the reason we're extending the opening hours at the Batemans Bay urgent-care clinic from 6 am to midnight.

The Albanese Labor government is investing in health, education and housing and creating more regional jobs through the Future Made in Australia plan. This is really great for young people and families in Gilmore because we're making it easier to buy or rent a home; training more tradies with free TAFE; and investing in every stage of education, including putting all public schools in New South Wales on a path to full and fair funding.

As a mum of four young adults, all of whom attended local public schools, I know how important it is to get a good education right from the start, which is why we're supporting our young people from early child care right through to university. We're injecting $529 million to establish new childcare services and increase the capacity of existing services in regional areas—and I'm already starting to see new services popping up across my electorate. Importantly, families on the South Coast will have greater access to early childhood education and care with the introduction of the three-day guarantee from January 2026. Commonwealth prac payments for nurses, teachers and social workers mean students in my electorate will have more money in their pockets while they learn.

I am immensely proud of the road projects that are progressing in Gilmore, including the Jervis Bay flyover, the Milton Ulladulla bypass, the Nowra bypass and the duplication of the Princes Highway from Jervis Bay Road to Hawken Road. I've delivered more than $1 billion in federal funding for Shoalhaven roads, which will improve safety and livability for local residents.

I have worked with communities to deliver really important services such as headspace Kiama; the magnificent Gerringong Surf Life Saving Club; the Malua Bay Beach reserve; and Jindelara Cottage, which provides disability accommodation at Ulladulla.

I've secured funds for the nation's first birthing-on-country facility at Nowra, delivered the spectacular new Mogo Local Aboriginal Land Council building and provided grants for local Indigenous rangers and our many wonderful Waminda women's programs.

Living on the coast, of course I really love the outdoors, and I'm thrilled to have delivered funds to complete the Mogo mountain bike trails, the Huskisson mangrove boardwalk and the Observation Point upgrade at Batemans Bay. And I've worked really hard for many years to secure a federal grant for the Shoalhaven riverfront precinct—which was announced when the Prime Minister visited Nowra in February.

Ongoing support from this government means we have new fire stations at Lake Conjola and Manyana, and work is under way on the Eurobodalla regional co-located emergency services precinct. Federal funds continue to flow to defence facilities at HMAS Albatross and HMAS Creswell, and to the defence industry, including a $313 million contract with Sikorsky Australia to maintain the MH-60R Seahawk helicopter fleet.

After years of neglect, I'm proud to say the Albanese Labor government is helping local families, building local communities and supporting local jobs in Gilmore.

A huge proportion of Australia's wealth is created in regional Australia, and that's just the nature of our economy. A lot of it's in mining. A lot of it's in agriculture. And that wealth creates tax dollars for this nation and always has. It's what this nation really has been built on—the sheep's back, but then the mining industry and, more recently, other agricultural crops. So the tax base for Australia really does rely, in large part, on what is created in the regions. My observation of this government is that most of what the Labor Party talks about is distribution of taxpayer dollars. I think you won an election on it. Congratulations—and that's fantastic. So my advice is don't attack the industries and the regions that provide those tax dollars if you want to continue to distribute it.

We're not!

It's exactly what's happening.

I'm a proud regional Australian. I come from greater Shepparton in the great Goulburn Valley. It's a place where entrepreneurial spirit thrives because, for waves and waves of generations, people have come there because there was work available and you could build a business. What those people wanted was to have the government help them build businesses and then get out of the way, not over-regulate and not distribute the proceeds of their hard work.

We've got things like the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and additions to that which have made it harder for agricultural industries to operate. We've got regulations on mining, and the Minerals Council hates what this government is doing around industrial relations.

Industrial relations are also affecting agriculture, because of attempted changes to the PALM scheme. The fact is that the Labor Party didn't go ahead with the agricultural visa, which would have been critically important to expanding our regional industries. So again, I say: if you want to keep redistributing these tax dollars, don't attack the industries and the regions which provide them.

I'm going to finish on a positive note, because I think there's an opportunity for us to expand regional Australia. But it will take some willpower and it will take some understanding about what we want our nation to look like in the future.

In my maiden speech, I talked about the crisis I think there is around population balance in Australia. I don't think we've got the balance right. I did mentioned the example of Germany. Germany is an interesting case, because it's got 80 million people, but its biggest city is Berlin, which has 3 million people. It has got a lot of regional cities surrounding a manufacturing sector, and it's all linked by rail. I think we've got an opportunity to do that in Australia, but it's going to take some vision, and it's going to take a stop in this endless sprawl of our three largest cities of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. I don't think that's good for society; I think it's better when we're all part of a smaller community.

What it means is that rail has to be prioritised. I wasn't in this place before 2022, but the then coalition government was very committed to rail, and they delivered stage 3 of the Shepparton rail project. Well, they delivered the funding for it; I should say that. They delivered 80 per cent of the funding for it. The Victorian government, to their credit, came up with the plan which is going to mean nine return services from Shepparton to Melbourne. The then coalition government delivered the funding for the project.

I mention this because it's emblematic of some of the things that happen between state governments and federal governments. The Victorian government took the money and said, 'We are going to deliver this by the end of 2023.' I'm sick of doing videos in front of passing loops and level crossings, in 2025, saying, 'When is the Victorian government going to deliver this project?' Because it hasn't been delivered yet. If someone's got some information about when this project is going to be delivered, I would love it.

The idea is that we can grow regional Australia, with investment in infrastructure. That's what the former deputy prime minister—who is here in the chamber—did when he allocated that 80 per cent funding for the Shepparton to Melbourne stage 3 project. But the Victorian government has not delivered it, and that has been replicated across Australia. Again, if you want these tax dollars to keep coming in, look after the industries and the regions that provide them.

I rise today as the proud member for Bullwinkel. I've just delivered my first speech, where I committed my support for all areas of my electorate: the foothills, the hills and the regional areas—the beautiful, vibrant regional areas where the towns of Northam, York, Toodyay and Beverley are based.

I have over four decades in caring for communities as a registered nurse and now, as their voice in parliament, I find the assertion that the Labor government is failing regional Australia not only deeply misguided but frankly insulting. It's insulting to the significant progress that we have made. The Albanese Labor government's vision for regional Australia is clear and unwavering. We are building strong, connected communities, driving economic growth and enhancing wellbeing, and we know that vibrant communities, like Northam in my electorate, are not just a part of Australia's future, they are at its very heart.

I would like to make two points. Firstly, on trade and diversification, which is vital for regional jobs and prosperity. This government has actively worked to stabilise our relationship with China, lifting nearly $20 billion in trade impediments which were caused—I think we all remember why—and were critical for our wine, barley, beef and lobster industries. This directly benefits our primary producers across WA and, in particular, barley for the farmers of Bullwinkel. Farmer Chris told me that barley, his crop, dropped in value to zero overnight when the markets were axed. He lost $50,000- to $60,000 there and then.

This government is also aggressively diversifying and strengthening ties with existing partners, like India, and forging new relationships with key markets, such as the United Arab Emirates. Our new trade agreement with the UAE, for example, means reduced and zero tariffs for WA exports like beef, chickpeas, seafood and, in Bullwinkel, sheep meat—new markets for sheep meat. This is what we're doing. We're creating new opportunities. We're not failing our regions at all.

Secondly, on investing in our people and essential services—because regional development is also about investing in our people through skills, training and vital services—I have worked in health in regional and remote areas for decades. In health this government has made the single largest investment in bulk-billing, aiming for nine out of 10 visits to be bulk-billed by 2030. We have delivered 31 urgent care clinics in the regions out of the 87 that we delivered, and we're going to deliver 50 more, including one in Bullwinkel. We're strengthening Medicare with a $606 million investment to deliver more doctors, with 50 per cent of additional GP traineeship places specifically for regional and rural areas. This includes $248 million for salary incentives for junior doctors to specialise in GPs and rural generalists, rewarding doctors for going regional. Since November 2023, Australians in regional, rural and remote areas have seen nearly 2.5 million additional bulk-billed GP visits.

I was so proud to attend the opening of a Medicare mental health clinic in the township of Northam, in the western wheat belt, with the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care last year. We have located that mental health clinic specifically in a rural area for regional people, in the township of Northam. It's co-located with Holyoake drug and alcohol abuse services. You just need your Medicare card. You don't need a referral. You don't need an appointment. You simply walk in. This is what we're doing for mental health care of people in regional Australia.

Let's contrast this with the opposition's plan. The only plan I heard at the election for the regions was to build a nuclear reactor with no consultation in a water-deficient area on top of a geologically unstable, discontinued coalmine in Collie. (Time expired)

It's been another day, and another trucking company has gone to the wall. Unfortunately yesterday another transport group went belly up—47 trucks. This is a pattern which is happening more and more, and these regional transport companies are doing it really, really tough. What has Labor done to respond to this? They've put in place a truckies tax, put in place high energy costs and slashed road and infrastructure funding. This is placing such a burden on our transport companies. At 10 past nine this morning I took a call from Peter Rodney. Peter has a trucking company in Wagga Wagga, in my hometown. It also has depots in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. He said:

Mate, I can see this country stopping unless someone in these government departments don't get off and keep people back to work or stop giving people money and get them to go to work to get their money.

Well, I can tell you. I'll make a prediction: over the next 10 years transport will be one third of what it is today.

And they just don't come to work or they apply for things and they just don't turn up.

They're filling out paperwork, so they can say "oh, we can go back to the government, we'll just get more money sitting around and doing nothing".

That sounds rather cynical, but, unfortunately, it's the truth. Mr Rodney wants to have more workload. His company is a doer. They've got 138 prime movers. They operate all over the eastern states, particularly. However, over the last 10 years they've continued to downsize, and that trend has been exacerbated in the last three years under the Labor government, unfortunately. In addition to reducing their fleet size because of staff shortages, they've had to reduce their customer base to ensure they're able to continue providing quality service delivery. The work within the sector exists, but staff do not. They've got so many trucks just backed up to the fence in their depots.

As I said, it's a situation that has occurred more and more over the past three years. Big Rigs, the trusted voice of the transport industry, had this to say on 1 May in the article 'Record insolvencies in transport sector, but there are lifelines':

Mounting financial pressure is pushing more Australian transport and logistics operators to the brink, as insolvencies in the sector accelerate, says a leading business recovery and insolvency firm.

Jirsch Sutherland said a combination of rising costs, labour shortages, regulatory burdens and falling asset values is driving more businesses to restructure or wind down.

The latest ASIC data reveals a sharp upward trend in insolvencies within Australia's transport, postal and warehousing sector. They rose from 196 in 2021-2022 to 347 in 2022-2023—

Bear in mind Labor took over in May 2022—

and 495 in 2023-2024—a 153 per cent increase in just two years.

As of April 6 this year, 535 insolvencies had already been recorded, representing a 173 per cent increase compared to 2021-2022 and putting the industry on track for another record year—

but that's not the record year they would like. Ian Hyman, the CEO of Hymans Valuers and Auctioneers, said:

Government regulation is getting worse: industry collective bargaining, unrestrained union behaviour, abolition of employee restraint clauses and a myriad of other government-related controls create roadblocks to efficient and well managed operations. It's all going to make life even harder—

particularly in regional Australia.

The nation stops without trucking, because trucks deliver all of the food and all of the goods. They are the lifeblood of our areas, particularly in regional Australia. When you take into account the road infrastructure funding cutbacks, the fuel prices and all of the things that are unfortunately being inflicted upon this sector, it doesn't bode well for the trucking industry or for regional Australia. You've got companies that are family owned and companies that have been generationally owned—they've been there for decades—going to the wall, and it's on Labor's watch. Something has to give. Peter Rodney wants more work, he wants more staff and he wants to see light at the end of the tunnel, but, unfortunately, all he sees is roadblocks that are being put there by the Labor government. Shame.

Earlier today we passed the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025. I am from regional Tasmania, and I want to speak today about how the Albanese Labor government is working with and supporting regional Australia through university study hubs, just one of the many areas we are developing to support regional Australia.

On 17 July I officially opened Study King Island in Currie. It was one of 12 new regional university study hubs across Australia announced as part of cohort 4 in 2024 and is one of three hubs in Tasmania, all in regional areas, funded through the Australian government's Regional University Study Hubs program.

The support that this hub provides makes it possible for students to remain in their local community while undertaking further studies. The hub supports students to study online courses at any territory provider throughout Australia. The hub is a game changer for students on King Island to get a degree and get ahead in their careers while staying on the island close to home with their friends, family and community. Already the hub is supporting 10 students, and it was only opened a couple of weeks ago. There is more work being done to encourage more students.

Facilities available at the hub include computers, high-speed internet and breakout spaces as well as academic skills and administrative support. Currently, only 22 per cent of young people on King Island have a bachelor's degree or higher. We know that university participation goes up where university study hubs are established. Study King Island is a prime example of how our study hubs can help regional and remote students achieve academic success in tertiary education. It is operated by West Coast Heritage. It also built on the success of the existing hub, Study Hub West Coast. They are operating two sites, in Smithton and in Zeehan. Study Hub West Coast has supported over 330 students since opening, and they are all in regional Tasmania.

The Regional University Study Hubs program takes an innovative approach to improving access to tertiary education for regional and remote students. The program aims to improve and support diversity and equity of access and participation and to help students achieve their academic goals without having to leave their community. The program is community embedded, with communities like King Island leading the design, development and operation of each hub to ensure that they meet the needs of the local community. The most popular courses among students at regional university study hubs are in areas such as health, at 34 per cent, and education, at 17 per cent. Those are two lots of skills that we desperately need to have in regional Australia.

The expansion of the Regional University Study Hubs program is helping to remove barriers and allowing for students to access high-quality tertiary education. Priority action 1 of the Australian Universities Accord interim report is to extend visible local access to tertiary education by creating additional regional university study hubs and establish a similar concept for suburban metropolitan locations. In response, the Australian government is investing $66.9 million to more than double the number of university study hubs across the country in outer suburbs and in our regions.

The government has committed to a target recommended by the Australian Universities Accord for 80 per cent of the working-age population to have a tertiary level qualification by 2050. Initiatives like the Regional University Study Hubs can play an important role in reaching that target and assisting particularly our regional students—and a number of those are mature-age students—to access university study within their areas so that they don't have to go further away. The university study hubs open up the doors of opportunity for young people to get an education that's closer to home.

I'll have a lot more to say on regional Australia at the next opportunity, because there is a whole lot more to say about how we are assisting regional Australia through many, many various ways and means. A number of the previous speakers on this side have spoken about how we are assisting with that, but I wanted to focus on the university study hubs and education as a result of cutting the student debt bill that we have passed today.

Time for this discussion has now concluded.

The Speaker has received advice from the Chief Opposition Whip nominating members to be members of certain committees.

by leave—I move:

That Members be appointed as members of certain committees in accordance with the following list:

Standing Committee on Appropriations and Administration—Ms Aldred, Mr Pasin, Ms Penfold and Mr R Wilson.

Standing Committee on Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water—Ms Boele, Mr Boyce, Mr Kennedy and Ms Steggall.

Standing Committee on Communications, the Arts and Sport—Ms Aldred, Ms Penfold, Ms Steggall and Mr Venning.

Standing Committee on Economics—Mr Kennedy, Mr Pike, Ms Spender and Mr Violi.

Standing Committee on Education—Mr Birrell, Ms Chaney, Ms McKenzie and Mr Rebello.

Standing Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations, Skills and Training—Ms Le, Mr Small, Mr Violi and Mr Young.

Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability—Mr Birrell, Mr Caldwell, Dr M Ryan and Dr Scamps.

Standing Committee on Industry, Innovation and Science—Ms Boele, Ms Landry, Mr McCormack and Mr Venning.

Standing Committee on Petitions—Mr L O'Brien, Mr Rebello and Mr Wallace.

Standing Committee on Primary Industries—Mr Chaffey, Ms Landry, Ms Sharkie and Mr Venning.

Committee of Privileges and Members' Interests—Mr McCormack, Mr Small, Mr Wallace, Mr Wilkie and Mr R Wilson.

Standing Committee on Procedure—Mr L O'Brien, Mr Rebello and Mr Small.

Publications Committee—Ms Aldred, Mr Batt and Mr Small.

Standing Committee on Regional Development, Infrastructure and Transport—Dr Haines, Mr Joyce, Ms Penfold and Mr Venning.

Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs—Ms Chaney, Mr Hamilton, Mr McCormack and Mr Thompson.

Joint Committee on the Broadcasting of Parliamentary Proceedings—Mr Batt and Mr Pike.

Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services—Mr Hamilton and Mr Violi.

Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights—Mr Rebello and Dr M Ryan.

Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement—Mr Batt and Mr L O'Brien.

Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Anti-Corruption Commission—Mr Conaghan and Dr Haines.

Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit—Ms Aldred, Mr Joyce, Mr Kennedy and Mr Young.

Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works—Mr Willcox and Mr R Wilson.

Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs—Mr Chaffey and Mr Venning.

Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters—Mr Caldwell and Mr R Wilson.

Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade—Mr Batt, Mr Boyce, Mr Hamilton, Mr McCormack, Mr Rebello, Ms Spender, Mr Thompson and Mr Wallace.

Joint Standing Committee on Implementation of the National Redress Scheme—Ms McKenzie and Mr L O'Brien.

Joint Standing Committee on Migration—Mr Caldwell, Ms Le and Mr Pike.

Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories—Mr Caldwell and Mr Pike.

Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme—Ms Le and Mr Thompson.

Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia—Mr Thompson and Mr Willcox.

Joint Standing Committee on the Parliamentary Library—Mr Pasin and Mr Small.

Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth—Ms Sharkie and Mr R Wilson.

Joint Standing Committee on Treaties—Ms McKenzie, Ms Penfold and Mr Pike.

Question agreed to.

Before I give the call to the honourable member for Monash, I remind the House that this is the honourable member's first speech. I ask the House to extend to her all of the usual courtesies.

Thank you, Deputy Speaker, for granting me the call. It is my life's greatest privilege to rise as the member for Monash and an honour to address the House on behalf of my community.

I am the 1,246th Australian elected to this place since Federation. My dad, Ken Aldred, was the 660th. It is 50 years since my dad first rose to speak in this place, in the old parliament. It is nearly a decade since his passing, which remains my deepest trauma and my longest grief. I know that he wouldn't have missed today for quids. My dad's views on the world could be complicated. His love for me was not. While people are sometimes quick to associate my interest in politics with following in my dad's footsteps, they forget to acknowledge my mum's influence, too. My mum, Margie, is a former teacher who ran a number of small businesses over the years, and I would be lucky to count myself as inheriting a fraction of her empathy and charm.

I am the second member for Monash elected to this place. I acknowledge my predecessor, Russell Broadbent, and his wife, Bronwyn, for their service over two and a half decades to the people of Corinella, McMillan and Monash. I know that my predecessor will be best remembered by many colleagues for his eloquent and ineffaceable speech in 2009 after the Black Saturday bushfires, where his words reflected the acute grief of impacted communities such as Jindivick. While we spent the last two years as opponents, the fact is that we were good friends for 20, and it was a privilege to support him over that time. Russell and Bronwyn Broadbent are good people. I wish them well.

I know that I am visiting this place by the grace and goodwill of the people of Monash. Monash is part of the great Gippsland region, where Australia's richest soil meets sea adjoining the world's best beaches. In Monash, it's calloused hands and boots, not suits, that build national progress brick by brick. From dredge to boiler room, paddock to milking shed, harvester to timber yard, workshop to shopfront, I honour these great Australians. Our national success rides on their shoulders.

We are Gippslanders. We are farmers, veterans, tradies and teachers. We are Dorothy Mackellar's thirsty paddocks, sweeping plains and ragged mountain ranges. We are her droughts and flooding rains. People in Monash give back, put in and help out. They look you in the face when you walk down the street, whether you're a friend or a stranger. We don't ask for special treatment—just a fair go, reward for effort and a better tomorrow for the next generation.

Monash is a big electorate. You need to know every blade of grass, the agricultural shows, the community halls, the RSLs, the footy teams and netball clubs, the Rotary and Lions clubs, the chambers of commerce, the men's sheds and the CWA to the CFA. The spirit of volunteerism was born in Australian regions, and we couldn't survive without it. I am proud to come from a region that grows, makes and manufactures things. Victoria succeeds when our region thrives. Families and businesses depend on us to turn on the lights, run water through their taps and put food on the table. Our local resources fuel national economies.

There are many people in the Monash electorate who have taken me under their wing or at least made time to teach me a thing or two. One of those people is Aunty Cheryl Drayton, a Gunaikurnai elder from Drouin. A dairy farmer for many years, Aunty Cheryl is a practical person who likes to get to the point. A cuppa with Aunty Cheryl over the years on the topics we've canvassed has been more valuable than any conference or classroom. She is deeply committed to closing the education and employment gap for her community in Monash, and I commit myself to doing everything I possibly can to support her from this place and back home.

Monash is named after someone who, in my view, is Australia's greatest-ever citizen—General Sir John Monash. Monash was, as Roland Perry's brilliant book says, 'The outsider who won a war.' He was the first person in 200 years to be knighted on the battlefield by a British monarch. Back home, Australia owes him several debts of gratitude. As inaugural chair of the State Electricity Commission in the Latrobe Valley, Monash helped set up Victoria as a manufacturing powerhouse, thanks to the cheap and reliable electricity of those once four, now three, power stations. I honour the contribution of all Latrobe Valley power station workers and their families to our great state of Victoria.

John Monash was a Jewish man. I made time last year to visit the synagogue he was president of in St Kilda. The latent antisemitism of his time could not dim Monash's achievements, despite early efforts to do so. It is tragically ironic that Monash's beloved city and the state that he gave so much to are today in the grips of the oldest hatred in time. This is an offence against Australian values. This is a stain on our good national character. There are not many synagogues in the Monash electorate, as the rabbi at Monash's old shul remarked during my visit, which makes it especially important for regional Australians to stand up and condemn in the strongest terms possible what is happening to our Jewish community right now. I am with you.

There are many people to thank for my journey here. From the Goodings of Moe to the Wakefields of Nilma North and the Cantwells of Korumburra, I am blessed to have benefited from the love and support of many families across Monash. I thank my campaign team, led by the magnificent Gary Blackwood and brilliant Matt Green, with wonderful support from the Hon. Alan Brown, including Andrew Ronalds, Julie Pike, Toni Wakefield, Cara Carter, Jenny Hammett, Sean Dignum, Jeremy Curtis, Tony, Lisa, Kate, Vicki, Harvey, Ash, Leon, Harry, Marney, Kim, Alyce and all of the Monash Liberal Party supporters without whom I simply would not be here. I acknowledge the support of Philip Davis, Stuart Smith and Ben Zerbe too.

I thank my friend and state colleague the member for Narracan, Wayne Farnham, and all of my Victorian Senate colleagues, but especially my patron senator Jane Hume for her limitless support. I am honoured by the presence in the gallery today of my dear friend the Hon. Judith Troeth.

Sussan Ley visited Monash a number of times during the campaign. Whether it was a food bank, a small business or a dairy farm, she was there. She'd also ring me: 'Hi, it's Sussan—just checking in.' In netball parlance, that was a 'here if you need', and it meant a lot to me.

My supporters were there for me every day I was a candidate, which spanned about 18 months—or 538 days if you're counting!—with many of them spent traversing every highway and dirt road across Monash in a 22-seater, big blue bus that had a few nicknames, including the 'Monash express', even though my journey here was not. My Jack Russell terrier would often be riding shotgun in his Liberal-blue bandana.

Above all, it is to my family that I owe my deepest gratitude: my mum, Margie; as well as James and Philippa, Lucy and Phil, John and Sonia, plus the little ones I am aunty to. You are my everything.

It was not an easy campaign, with Labor on the national ascendancy, one of the most cashed-up teal campaigns in the country and a long-term incumbent recontesting. To succeed with a swing to the Liberal Party is a privilege.

I will not meet the opportunity in front of me with reticence. There are many local priorities that I want to achieve on behalf of my community. I will continue to do what I have a track record of doing, and that is push as hard as I possibly can to help get a new West Gippsland Hospital delivered.

During the last few years, I've worked with local communities in Inverloch and Phillip Island who are staring down the barrel of coastal inundation. They cannot afford to wait years for mitigation; their homes will disappear. They face a problem which many other coastal communities are grappling with, which is why I believe we need a national framework to address coastal inundation across Australia.

The Prime Minister was once a transport minister who said nearly a decade and a half ago that he believed that 'Infrastructure is the critical enabler of productivity.' I agree. But, in regions like mine, roads and infrastructure still lag generations behind. It's about levelling up opportunities for manufacturers and primary producers who depend on getting their products to market competitively. I'll work with anyone who's prepared to walk the talk on making that investment. But our regions are tired of inaction.

I'm not a veteran, but I am passionately committed to improving the lives of those who are. Local veterans, led by Bill and including Ben and Lindsay, Lyn, Bob and Christine, have taken the time to share their experiences with me, to my profound gratitude. We must properly address the care and sufficient repatriation to civilian life of those who sign up and are forever changed by that call to serve. I commit myself now, until the end of my time in this place, to that effort.

My family moved to Upper Beaconsfield when I was around 12. My parents ran a small business. I saw them work around the clock, with lean margins and high stress. I wanted to help them so much that I left school at 15 to work full-time as a farm hand. I later went back and completed school. But carting hay in 40-degree heat and doing feed runs in the freezing rain, fixing fences and digging out drains taught me more than I learned from the three university degrees that followed. It taught me about hard work, about patience earnt from the monotony of doing things properly, and those lessons have seldom failed me in the years since.

It is where my passion for small and family businesses was ignited and why I have dedicated such a huge chunk of my working life to being a voice for mum-and-dad operators. It's small-business people who get out of bed every morning and put their house on the line just to give someone else a shot at a job. It's small-business owners who give young people their first opportunity in the workplace. And it's small-business owners who so often put their hands up to help out at our service clubs and put their hands back in their own pockets again and again to sustain our local sporting teams, even in tough times. It's where innovation thrives without the constraints of corporate bureaucracy. But the fact is, Australian small-business people have never worked longer days for less reward or faced more risk and red tape.

While I may have grown up in a Liberal household, I am not a hater of the Labor Party. In fact, my parents instilled in me a clear understanding that political opponents are not enemies, that while we have different—sometimes markedly opposite—views on policy we all love Australia, and that there are good people on both sides. There are Labor people who have been very generous to me. While I won't embarrass them, I would like to acknowledge the Hon. Martin Ferguson for his ongoing commitment to the Gippsland region, which I really just see as an extension of his old-school Labor values in support of blue-collar workers and regional jobs. Those values seem a bit out of vogue these days.

During the election I had an older couple from the La Trobe Valley approach me at a listening post outside the little IGA in Trafalgar. 'We're lifelong Labor voters; I've been a worker all my life,' the gentleman said. 'But we're going to vote for you, which means we're going to vote Liberal for the first time,' the lady added. That couple at the IGA didn't so much feel as though they had left the Labor Party as that the Labor Party had left them, by forgetting their history and ignoring their future. I say to that couple, and the many others in my community who shared similar sentiments with me: I will not let you down.

I express my deep concern that as a country we are losing the ability to respectfully disagree with one another on big national issues. Our democracy depends on the premise that we should have big contests, because the ultimate responsibility of government is great. Voters should have a clear choice, and arguments on policy should be made boldly, not timidly. We need to change the tone of Australian political discourse, and as a newcomer to this place I commit to doing my small part constructively, boldly and respectfully in this regard. I will not be shy about speaking up for regional industries that employ people. I believe that strong businesses sustain strong communities. I am particularly passionate about our timber towns, farmers and small businesses. These people take great pride in their craftsmanship, environmental stewardship and community. They do not deserve to have a referendum on their future cast in faraway places that are immune to the outcome.

I'm a proud jack-of-all-trades. As a millennial—by the skin of my teeth, I might add!—I have benefited from the breadth of several careers. As a passionate Gippslander, I've thrown myself into many community organisations over the years. From local hospital and community aged-care boards, plus organisations like Lifeline Gippsland, tertiary education boards and chairing the Gippsland United basketball league, I've seen the transformational impact of what community volunteers mean to regional Australia. I've gleaned many insights from the brilliance of others I've had the privilege of sharing a conversation with. I owe everyone I've worked with in those various roles a huge debt for the generosity of their shared knowledge. One of my greatest honours was as founding CEO of the Committee for Gippsland. Anyone that's started something from nothing can relate to the small celebrations of getting a phone line connected or a sign painted. Having been appointed to that role at the age of 27, I will remain forever grateful to those who took a chance on a young person with a few big ideas but few rungs on the ladder.

As one of our greatest prime ministers John Howard once said, the Liberal Party is 'a broad church', but I like to think of it as a large family—loud, boisterous with bold arguments and real contests that those outside the family may not always understand but they're always for each other when it counts. We are, though, the only party to aspire to represent Australians from all walks of life—every part of society whether you live in the city or the country; no matter if you're an entrepreneur or an employee; no matter who you love; or whether you are newly arrived to our shores, an eighth-generation Australian or part of the oldest continuing culture in the world. The Liberal Party stands for you.

I'm a Liberal whose instincts will always stretch to the empowerment of the individual. You will find in me someone who will protect your right to worship in a manner your beliefs instruct, just as I will stand for your right to love the person you choose. I believe in the rights of the individual and in free enterprise unencumbered by the temptation of government overreach. My Liberal Party does not prescribe the format of your family or curtail the rights of small business in favour of big corporations. My Liberal Party leads on the economy, with a focus on growth and productivity. My liberal values led me to join the party in year 12 and volunteer at every election since, because I believe deeply in what we represent even if the principles by which we seek to govern are not always perfectly enlivened.

I do worry that Australia is losing its way. We are off-course, we are leaving people behind and we are on the wrong track. Australia used to be a leader in the OECD on productivity, yet we now lag in the late teens of the top 20. We now have more than half of the Australian public relying on governments for most of their income. There needs to be some tough national conversations ahead.

My most recent experience working in the private sector with a focus on technology and cybersecurity provided a modern, clear-eye view of the world as it is. The pace and scale of technology innovation is accelerating beyond the regional streets of our OECD neighbourhood and across the globe. We will either keep up or be left behind. The cost of falling behind has profound ramifications for jobs, primary production, medical advancements, cybersecurity and defence. We live in an uncertain Asia-Pacific region, where our security partners like Japan are more important than ever. I am particularly enthusiastic about Aukus Pillar II and the opportunities that presents to Australian SME businesses to contribute their world-class innovation in specialised areas of cyber and technology.

I recognise that each day I spend in this place is a day closer to when I will leave. I plan to make each day count by advancing the cause for which I am here, a passionate belief in the purpose and potential of the people of Monash. To my electorate, I asked for your trust and confidence. You have given me the opportunity of a lifetime. I will work my heart out for you.

I thank the House.

Before I call the honourable member for Grey, I remind the House that this is the honourable member's first speech, and I ask the House to extend to him the usual courtesies.

I want to take you back 10 years. I was in the B-double, harvest time at Wallaroo silos. I'd emptied my A trailer, and the drive-over-hopper broke down. I could either break up my truck and waste hours in productivity or back the B-double down the length of a very long bunker—not such an easy task when you have 50 onlookers waiting for you to fail.

Well, I did it. And today, I'm here in this chamber rising to a new challenge—fighting for the people in my electorate of Grey. It is with humility and a deep sense of gratitude that I rise today as the elected representative of the enormous electorate of Grey. Covering more than 92 per cent of South Australia, equivalent to seven Englands, bigger than New South Wales, yet home to just 10 per cent of the state's population, Grey is stunningly beautiful and staggeringly diverse. It is an electorate of incredibly beautiful, enormous contribution and, sadly, ongoing decline. It is also the place I am proud to call home.

Let me paint you a picture of Grey: from the dramatic cliffs of the Great Australian Bight and the endless horizons of the Nullarbor to the APY Lands—home to the world's oldest continuing civilisation; from the jagged remarkable mountains and ancient craters of the Flinders Ranges to the world-leading riesling vineyards of the Clare Valley; from the golden wheat crops and white sandy beaches of the Yorke and Eyre peninsulas to the market gardens of the Adelaide Plains and the opal fields of Coober Pedy; and from Roxby Downs's vast copper and uranium reserves to Asia's seafood capital in Port Lincoln, which the largest commercial fishing fleet in the southern hemisphere calls home. This is Grey, a land that shares state borders with WA, the Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales, stretching from desert to ocean and from ancient lands to productive farms.

The electorate of Grey was established in 1903, named after Sir George Grey. He was the Governor of South Australia from 1841 to 1845, and then, later, the Prime Minister of New Zealand. Grey was carved out to represent the productive of heart of South Australia. For over a century, it has contributed so much to feed, to power and to build modern Australia. But this extraordinary place has a story of transformation and not all of it is good.

Grey was not always this big. When I was young, I wasn't from Grey. The border was north of our farm, while Two Wells, now the southern part of the electorate, was a 45-minute drive from Adelaide and felt like a distant country town. Today, Two Wells is becoming a suburb, swallowed by Adelaide's growth corridor. When the electorate of Grey was established in 1903, representing regional, rural and remote South Australia, who would have thought that one day it would include suburbs of Adelaide? Well, that day has come and the only good news now is that Grey cannot get any bigger.

From the outside looking in, the fact that Grey has grown to cover 92.3 per cent of South Australia might seem positive. In reality, it tells a much more concerning story. Grey is the most diverse electorate in Australia in the sense that it is not the biggest, but it has the most towns and the most polling places. There are no cities or large towns in Grey. The fact that parts of Grey are becoming metropolitan is symptomatic of the shift towards a big metropolitan Australia, where regional, rural and remote communities are left to wither. It also highlights South Australia's status as the most centralised state in Australia and, potentially, the world.

With the exception of just one term, Grey has been held by the Labor Party from Federation until 1993, nearly a century, representing the industrial working class of regional South Australia—the steel city of Whyalla, the lead and previous zinc smelter of Port Pirie, and the previous railyards and power station in Port Augusta. In over 120 years, I am only the fourth Liberal member, following in the footsteps of Don Jessop, Barry Wakelin and my hard-working, respected predecessor, Rowan Ramsey. One could say that this political transformation represents the brilliance of Rowan Ramsey and Barry Wakelin, which, of course, is true. But, importantly, it represents a fundamental change in the make-up of Australia's priorities and values. It's a recognition that regional Australia demands a different approach—one that understands our unique challenges and celebrates our extraordinary contributions. The most heartbreaking symbol of this decline is the collapse of the roaring trade between the iron triangle of Whyalla, Port Augusta and Port Pirie. That trade is now gone, and it highlights the devastating decline of South Australia's manufacturing heart—a decline that represents lost jobs, lost skills and, therefore, population decline.

I grew up on a farm between Bute and Wokurna. Wokurna was once an active little town and home to its own football club, but in 1966 Wokurna was unable to field a team. They therefore merged with the nearby town of Mundoora. The mighty Mundoora-Wokurna Football Club won premierships in '69, '70, '71 and '78. In 1984, they, too, were unable to field a team, and Mundoora merged with the nearby big town of Port Broughton, dropping Wokurna altogether and becoming the Broughton-Mundoora Eagles. Now, in 2025, the mighty Eagles no longer play in Mundoora. The whole history is lost.

This is a story which has played out a thousand times across rural Australia. If we don't act, we keep losing these communities not to natural decline but to policy neglect. The personal cost of this runs deep. I had to leave home to go to school, to get a tertiary education and to see out my potential. Take my sisters, for example—a specialist doctor, a diplomat and an engineer. No, this is not the start of a joke! With my brother, James, included, we have somehow become a family of overachievers. So well done and thank you to mum and dad for raising us the way that you did. My three sisters all left home for their schooling and never had the opportunity to return. While I have been fortunate enough to come back—and I thank my brother, James, for the opportunity to have a career off the farm—it is not acceptable that motivated and talented people in towns like Wokurna, Wasleys, Warooka or Whyalla can't achieve their full potential unless they move away. What about the community? It is said that it takes a village to raise a child, and we are raising the best children—community minded economic contributors. But, too often, we go off and we contribute to metropolitan communities. Agglomeration and the rural metropolitan brain drain is as strong today as ever. These are the communities that raise us and, too often, lose us.

To build a house, or to build a home, you need solid foundations. I think this is analogous to society. It is well and good to exploit opportunities in artificial intelligence and in the space industry, but if you don't have access to quality education, child care or health care, it all starts to crumble. If you're a small-business owner and you're trying to employ people, but your local community does not have child care, it is very difficult to recruit. If your child has a disability or if you yourself have specialty healthcare needs, you will move. Everyone in this chamber is familiar with the Indigenous health gap, something which is very important to all of us.

I want to highlight another gap that is widening—the metropolitan-rural health gap. Let me give you a heartbreaking example of what this means in human terms in Grey. Birthing facilities are no longer available in most of the hospitals in my electorate, so you're often shipped away at 36 weeks, at your own expense, to stay in a hotel or B & B, often in Adelaide. How does one look after their business or support their family in this situation? In this day and age, this is unacceptable. No wonder people leave the regions.

But those statistics about decline don't show what we actually contribute to this nation. With such a small population, the beautiful Eyre peninsula alone generates $4 billion of gross regional product through ag, seafood, mining and minerals. It is set to be the epicentre of the state's industrial renaissance, through not just a continuation of ag and seafood but also the expansion of mining and critical mineral industries such as copper, graphite and rare earth resources that the world so desperately needs.

Port Linc remains Asia's seafood capital, exporting premium seafood to the world. Olympic Dam produces enough copper to wire a city the size of Sydney every year. In my neck of the woods, the Yorke Peninsula in the mid-north—now the most populous part of the electorate—we feed the world, exporting the lion's share of our grain, legumes, hay, beef, lamb, pork and, of course, wine. They're all thriving despite these challenges. On a per-capita basis, we in regional South Australia provide so much to our wealthy society—more than 25 per cent of the state's GDP—but we don't get our fair share back.

We provide this nation and the world with food, energy, minerals and so much more. Yet many of us have to drive two hours to see a doctor, four hours to see a specialist or eight hours to get a tertiary education. Here's the mathematics of inequality: Grey generates enormous export revenue per person compared to what we receive in federal and state spending. We are the backbone holding up the prosperity that funds hospitals, schools and infrastructure, predominantly in our major cities. But, despite that, the policies that are made in this building often work against the very regions that power this country.

Nowhere is that clearer than our current approach to energy. In Grey, bad energy policy isn't just an inconvenience; it's a threat to livelihoods. We need to talk about energy versus emissions in the same way we talk about inflation versus unemployment—with a dual mandate. The Reserve Bank of Australia balances both when they set the price of money. Yet, when it comes to energy, all we talk about is emissions. In my electorate, we are suffering more than anywhere else because of this lopsided approach. If you live in the suburbs, all you feel is an increase in energy bills and the cost of goods. But if you work in an energy-intensive industry, the industries that create value and generate tax revenue, your jobs are now at risk.

Yet, despite all these challenges, I am optimistic, and the spirit of Grey will endure. Towns like Bute, my own incredible small community, still punch well above their weight. With a population of just 200 people, Bute boasts a Lions Club of 30 active members. That's more than one in seven volunteering to serve their community, not to mention the CFS, the footy club, the netball club, the basketball club, the Progress Association and the Men's Shed. In many city suburbs, you can't find one in 70. When emergencies strike—bushfires, road accidents—it's volunteers from our communities who respond and risk their lives. In Bute, we don't wait for the health department or council to step in; we roll up our sleeves and we get it done.

That's the kind of spirit we need more of in this country, not less. Remember JFK:

Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.

This is why I couldn't stay away and why regional Australia and common sense deserves better representation in this place. I did not come here to play politics. I came to help restore a sense of fairness, of balance and of practical thinking to how this country is governed. I came to represent not just the people who voted for me but everyone in Grey and every regional Australian who feels they've been left behind in the rush towards a big metropolitan Australia.

On the election, there are over a thousand people I need to thank, especially those who helped me man the 144 polling places—yes, 144! A special thanks to my committee, including Richard Daley, Rowan Ramsay and my beautiful fiancee, Bonnie. Bonnie and I represent both tradition and innovation. Bonnie, raised in Crystal Brook and Port Pirie, runs a thriving digital marketing agency employing seven people. I am the youngest of five to Therese, a physiotherapist, and Max, a farmer, who serve their communities locally and more broadly—in dad's case, chairing grain industry boards. Raised on a farm near Bute, we produce thousands of tonnes of grain to feed people across the world. Now, that kind of work teaches you how things really work. If you ignore the root problem, you don't just lose a crop; you lose income for 24 months. You risk losing the whole business. That's a lesson we need to remember here in this House. Stop treating symptoms, and start solving problems.

I'm not only a farmer; I've worked in engineering, economics and strategy across big business and government. I've balanced budgets, managed teams of 20 people, helped close $700 million deals and created jobs, not just talked about them. I've advised government departments and ASX50 companies, their executives and their board members whilst never missing a harvest at home, because that's where my heart and my values remain.

For democracy to truly work, we need a diverse representation in this place. We cannot only have lawyers, unionists and political staffers making decisions for all Australians. Whilst I respect those professions, diverse experience is what ensures fair representation. We need people who understand how a balance sheet works, how a small business operates, how a farm functions and how regional communities survive and thrive. Together, Bonnie and I represent the next generation of regional leadership—people who choose to stay, who choose to build, and who choose to fight for the future of regional, rural and remote Australia.

I want to be very clear about why I'm here. I believe in practical policy, not political theatre. I believe government should fix problems, not just manage headlines. I believe in economic responsibility, because without a strong economy everything else falls over. I believe in opportunity for all Australians, independent of their race, religion or postcode. I believe that a smart country doesn't just export commodities; it adds value, supports families, invests in education and leads in innovation. I believe we must govern with Australians, not just for them—and especially not to them. Too often, governments do what they think is right for people, without ever considering whether it will actually work. That's how we end up with good intentions and bad results. That's how we end up with programs that spend billions but achieve nothing. This is especially true when it comes to Indigenous affairs. In a country as wealthy and developed as ours, the continuing struggle of many First Nations should shame us all. But shame alone changes nothing. We need practical action that tackles root causes, not just symbolic gestures that treat symptoms.

I know that being in this place is a huge privilege, and I don't take that lightly. The people of Grey sent me here to get results—not to grandstand, not to score points and not to waste time. We must build the infrastructure that connects, not isolates, our regions. Roads, rail, power and water are the arteries of economic life. We must support industries that add value not just extract it. We must ensure our kids in the country can get the same quality of education and health care as kids in the city. We must recognise that regional Australia is not just the nation's quarry and farm. We are communities with the same aspirations, the same rights and the same potential as any suburb in Sydney or Melbourne. We must stop pretending that a one-size-fits-all approach to policy will work in a country as vast and diverse as ours.

Australia is the lucky country, but luck runs out. I don't want us to just be lucky. I want us to be smart. We have the institutions. We have the resources. We have the people. What we need now is the courage—the courage to act, to lead and to build the kind of country our grandchildren will be proud of. We in this chamber need to lead with conviction, the grit and the determination to rise to every challenge that comes our way. Just like I backed the B-double down the bunker all those years ago, I'm backing the people of Grey, and I won't let them down.

Thank you.

I rise today to express my profound thanks to the people of the electorate of Flinders for re-electing me to represent them in the Australian parliament on 3 May. The election in Flinders was hard fought, with seven candidates representing the Liberal Party—that's me—the Labor Party, the Greens, One Nation, Climate 200 and the Trumpet of Patriots, although the Trumpet of Patriots candidate gave up his commission when he realised his preferences were going to the Climate 200 candidate. I thank the good folk of Flinders for their trust—47,375 constituents put a '1' next to my mine.

The second-highest number of primary votes, 25,622, went to the Australian Labor Party candidate, Sarah Race, who has continued to pursue her passion for democracy as an electorate officer of Senator Jana Stewart, based in Reservoir. I worked with Sarah for years as she served on the Mornington Peninsula council, pursuing her passion for gender and Indigenous causes, and I trust she will continue to have an impact in that domain through her work with the good senator. I take a moment here to recognise her and her campaign companion in chief, member of the Victorian Legislative Council Tom McIntosh, who both acted in good grace, passion and honesty through the campaign and most especially through the prepoll period. I recognise and thank all other candidates for their participation in the election: Mike Brown of One Nation, Jason Smart of the Trumpets, later an Independent, Adam Frogley of Heidelberg for the Greens, Joseph Toscano of Brunswick, spokesperson of the Anarchist Media Institute, and Ben Smith as the Climate 200 funded candidate.

Flinders is without a doubt the most beautiful electorate in the country. Her residents are defined by their entrepreneurial spirit, volunteerism and community concern for one another. She should be hard fought over and hard won, and she was indeed this time.

Flinders is regularly characterised as an electorate which always votes for the more conservative side of politics, but this is a false representation. It should be remembered that Flinders has had at least two ALP members in the past, with the election of Bob Chynoweth from March 1983 to December 1984 and Keith Ewert between October 1952 and May 1954. Similarly, the state seat of Nepean, which, unlike the state seats of Hastings and Mornington, has always fallen entirely within the borders of the federal seat of Flinders, was the state Labor government's most marginal seat between 2018 and 2022, held by a margin of just 0.9 per cent or 767 votes. So, when the good folk of Flinders make a decision between left and right at the ballot box, it is fair to say that they do so with experience of both sides of government.

They have less experience, however, with the candidates who today comprise part of the crossbench in this place, formed and funded by the Climate 200 movement. There were 24,406 electors who voted for this movement in Flinders this time and, as a result of the creative deals done with the anarchist candidate, the Greens candidate, the Trumpet of Patriots and, indeed, attempted with One Nation, the Climate 200 candidate moved into second place, despite coming third in primary votes. This was a tactic pursued by the Climate 200 camp around the country, and its success in some seats is a stark message to those of us who represent the parties of government and who defend the integrity of our electoral system.

It is only the parties of government which can implement their promises to an electorate. It is only the parties of government which get to form government, to make the policy which drives this nation and to hold the elected government to account for their decisions and the expenditure of taxpayers' money. It is only the parties of government which understand the difficulty inherent in governing—the need for consultation, negotiation and compromise to reach the best possible outcome for the nation. It is, indeed, when the parties of government collaborate that Australia gets much of its best public policy, as evidenced this week with the passing of legislation earlier today on education relating to early learning and childcare safety.

A $2 million campaign in Flinders, one of the highest-spending anywhere in the country, not only introduced American-style campaigning and cash into our electorate but also sought to deceive the people of Flinders in terms of what a crossbench candidate can achieve. Let it be stated clearly here for the record that a crossbench candidate cannot 'save' a local hospital which is wholly regulated and owned by the state government. A crossbench candidate cannot ban jet skis off the coast of the Mornington Peninsula. A crossbench candidate cannot change parking practices alongside a small local public primary school. Our electorate was vastly misled by a Climate 200 candidate making promises he could never keep, confusing the competence of Canberra with council and state governments alike and, in doing so, increasing the likelihood that those governments will continue to ignore the needs of our local community, a dangerous development as we approach the state election at the end of next year with potentially critical repercussions for our residents.

But that this can happen is, in fact, our source of shame. We have allowed Australian civics education to reach its lowest level in two decades. In February of this year, the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority found that the 2024 assessment revealed that, at years 6 and 10, the percentage of students achieving the 'proficient' standard had declined significantly compared to the previous cycle. In fact, ACARA chairman Derek Scott warned us all:

… this is the lowest percentage of students achieving the proficient standard at either year level since the assessment began.

ACARA found that just 28 per cent of year 10 students met the proficiency standards, compared to 38 per cent when the last test was taken, in 2019. Students in year 6 had also declined 10 points in terms of proficiency—from 53 per cent in 2019 to 43 per cent rated 'proficient' in 2024. This is why I spend so much time delivering what I refer to as 'democracy class' in my electorate. I thank Crib Point Primary School, Rosebud Primary School, Somerville Primary School, Tootgarook Primary School, Mount Eliza Primary School, Somerville Secondary College, Hastings Primary School, Woodleigh School, Sorrento Primary School and Benton Junior College, who have all had me in to deliver a version of 'democracy class'—even in French, as I did at Peninsula Grammar, just for fun!

I find that, in every 'democracy class', children respond with enthusiasm and curiosity, keen to understand how we make decisions that will affect their future. I thank the students of Benton Junior College who last week quizzed me on e-bike laws, electric scooters and road rules, as well as public transport, the education system, social media and generative AI. We need to maintain this level of inquiry from grade 6 through to university and beyond. Australia's democracy is one of the best in the world but will only remain so with an informed voter base.

To that end, civics education is essential to ensure young and older Australians alike understand basic concepts about Australian democracy and institutions. Not only does it help them to make sensible decisions in terms of electing candidates of competence when it comes to fulfilling their functions of parliament and executive office; it also will defend them against foreign interference, extremism, conspiracy theories and misinformation when it comes to public debate. I am so grateful to the Leader of the Opposition, Sussan Ley, for offering me the opportunity to apply myself to education policy and, within it, civics education through the role of shadow assistant minister for education.

The differences between Labor and Liberal were stark in terms of commitment to meeting the needs of my community of Flinders at the last election. The ALP made commitments of some $3 million, and I thank them for these investments and hope the government will in fact fulfil them, even though they were not successful in Flinders. The Liberal Party I represent made almost $1 billion worth of commitments to the people of Flinders, including new change facilities for girls at Crib Point and Sorrento football and netball clubs, wellness and mental health support to our veterans through the Rosebud RSL, an extension of the Mornington Peninsula Trail, the fixing of the roof at the Somerville Scout Hall and improved public transport through the electrification of the Baxter rail. The 25c reduction in excise duty would have been game changing in my electorate, where 83 per cent of our terrain has no access to public transport.

These commitments build upon the billions of dollars of investment which the coalition has made in Flinders over the last five years, including road safety and pedestrian improvements on the Nepean Highway in Mount Martha and in Balnarring; the building of the Bays Comprehensive Cancer Centre and the clinical trials hub in Rosebud; mental health support through increased headspace centres, the Jimmy's Wellness Centre, Kindred Clubhouse and the Rosebud Youth Hub; and the redevelopment of HMAS Cerberus.

I recognise the frustration of my constituents that the election result denies my community immediate access to these improvements, which were carefully costed and included in the plans of a future coalition government, but I can assure them I am doing everything in my power to see these commitments funded and, the week after the election result was known, I met with the shire and our local state MPs to look at alternative sources of funding. I've also written to all relevant ministers in the Australian government, seeking their support for these critical investments in our community infrastructure. I've met with all the groups who would've benefited from these commitments, to map out future collective campaigning activity to keep these projects front of mind. Together, we will keep fighting.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to keep fighting for my community, and I recognise that many of my colleagues from the last parliament are no longer here to fight for theirs. We have lost a depth of talent from our parliamentary benches—the likes of David Coleman, James Stevens, Bridget Archer, Jenny Ware, Peter Dutton, Luke Howarth, Ross Vasta, Bert van Manen and, indeed, my best friend in this place, Keith Wolahan, the former member for Menzies. I have deep respect for so many of my colleagues in this place, both on the left and right of the dispatch box, but my esteem for the former member for Menzies was without par. And I can say, by the way in which members of this place of all political persuasions have made comment to me, his competence and potential impact in this place was recognised by all. Without wishing too much ill will on the current member for Menzies in but his second parliamentary week in the role, I hope you enjoy an effective but short-lived experience in this place, for both my party and our country needs my best friend back.

I recognise, as I have said elsewhere, we have much to do, as a political cause, to regain the trust of the Australian people not just in Menzies, but across the nation—and especially in our metropolitan centres. As the Leader of the Opposition said so clearly in her first address to the nation via the National Press Club:

Over two elections, the Coalition has lost 33 seats in the House of Representatives.

We've lost 8 seats in the Senate.

Our primary vote has fallen by more than 9 per cent in the House.

Our two-party preferred vote is down more than 6 per cent.

And now we hold just 2 of 43 inner metro seats, and 7 of 45 outer metro seats.

When I first worked in this building, during the era of the Howard government, we held 80 seats compared with today's 43, and the number of women in our party room was double the number we have today. We have much work to do to regain the trust of the Australian voting public.

Much has changed since the time when I first worked in this building. Housing now costs roughly 16 times the average annual income, putting the dream of homeownership, on which the Australian social and economic contract is founded, beyond reach. Homelessness now numbers more than 120,000 compared to 95,000 at the turn of the century. Manufacturing no longer employs well over a million Australians; we have become a services oriented economy. Media is now known as 'legacy' if it is radio, television or newspapers. It is no longer the source of knowledge of current affairs, with the last University of Canberra media report finding that 50 per cent of people get their news from largely untested social media sources and more than 25 per cent rely only on social media for news. Indeed, back at the turn of the century, there were no such things as smartphones, Facebook, Instagram or even YouTube. The way Australians live and the premises on which their aspirations are built are affected by broad behavioural and cultural developments driven by technology.

In my maiden speech, I spoke of the differences between my childhood and that of my stepchildren. We would wait for Countdown and haggle over what was for dinner. Today children watch what they want when they want. A family of means will see each child order their own Uber Eats for dinner. And just when you thought things had got wild, someone went and invented ChatGPT.

In my maiden speech I spoke of what felt like 'old person foreboding' at the time. I said:

Everyone here should be concerned for a generation which will one day take its place on these green leather benches without having read The Lord of the Flies, 1984, If This is a Man and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Today, our children search out plot summaries and analysis in seconds on ChatGPT, Grok, Claude, Gemini, Copilot and Mistral—that's if they don't go straight for the movie version on Netflix!

We are at a time of vast and dynamic digital change, and it is having a huge impact on the cultural settings which guide Australian's aspirations and decision-making. It is an exciting time, but it is also a frightening time. Two years ago, having carefully cajoled the education minister into referring an inquiry into the use of generative AI in the Australian education system to the House of Representatives education committee, I asked every witness: 'What skills do we need to make sure we include in the human operating model going forward? We don't want to wash something out in the haste to generative AI without knowing what we're doing.'

A very humbling response came from Dr Michael Kollo, Chief Executive Officer of Evolved Reasoning, who explained that if we were sitting here 150 to 200 years ago, we would be talking about soil concentration, harvest and agricultural topics relating to most of what we did, and 80 per cent of the workforce was out in the fields. Those were the critical components of the human operating model, an understanding of the weather and its impact on seeds growing in the earth. Education is derivative of the human need to survive, first and foremost. The skills we need are ones for young people to survive and find purpose.

I also asked most witnesses if they could choose between sending their adolescent children to prompt engineering school or law school, which would they choose? Most responded they were relieved their children were still in preschool.

I was very grateful for the last term of parliament, albeit frustrated by opposition, and I did not waste a moment in seeking to solve the problems I highlighted in my maiden speech, especially when it concerns the negative aspects of technology. In that speech, I discussed the impact social media was having on young people, and specifically that today's adolescents, connected 24/7 to devices, addled by algorithms and autoplay, were showing signs of stress and, indeed, in some cases, distress. I cited what we were seeing more frequently coming out of Melbourne's eternal COVID-19 lockdown, which was self-control difficulties, impulsivity, family conflict, sleep disturbance, inactivity, concentration impairment and poor language development.

I thank the former leader and the former deputy leader, who is now the Leader of the Liberal Party, for trusting me on the Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society, which examined in detail the damage which some social media platforms have brought to young minds and young lives in Australia. We took evidence across Australian society and heard from sectoral experts, both those involved in the development of social media channels and those who have held them to account, like Frances Haugen, the Meta whistleblower, who accepted my invitation to come to Flinders in March of last year to talk through digital engagement with local secondary school students.

The coalition played a leading role in driving the conclusions of that inquiry and the legislation which followed, which will see the most damaging platforms reject accounts for all Australian profiles of under-16-year-olds from the end of this year. It has also spurred action in terms of more responsible social media, with Meta launching Instagram teen accounts within months of the committee's report being finalised. Instagram teen accounts automatically transitions 13- to 17-year-olds to the new, safer platform, and, in a recent conversation with me, TikTok confirmed that they removed 800,000 young people under 13 years of age from their platform in Australia last year. We know the platforms already have the wherewithal both to design safer platforms and to remove participants under a certain age without recourse to proof-of-age or ID mechanisms.

Little did I realise what a revolution Australia had inspired in terms of social media regulation until I found myself sought after by both the OECD and the president's advisers on a recent trip to France. France, like Australia, has shown deep interest in regulating the negative impacts of screens and digital media on young people and is working with the UK on possible shared measures. It's looking at ways of leading legislation at the European level to build greater protections for young people.

But more importantly is what I heard from the year 6 students at Benton Junior College last week, when I asked them what they thought of the reform. Long gone is the backchat. Half of the students put their hands up and explained to me exactly why it was necessary—to minimise bullying and screen addiction, and improve levels of concentration. This time there was no pushback, and even young people know we're doing them a favour. I'm very proud to have worked with my dear colleague and friend the member for Fisher on this reform. Our drive was sustained by sharing roles on the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security and our fundamental understanding that social media is not only a danger to the mental health of young people but also a vector for extremism and foreign interference.

This term of parliament I will be pursuing many of these issues through the prism of education, early learning and mental health—all related to my key pursuits in the 47th Parliament but now directed to ensuring that this government, that seems to have missed the memo that only 34 per cent of people voted for their return, spends Australian tax dollars wisely and makes adequate fit-for-purpose policy to ensure Australia's safety and prosperity through the lens of these portfolios and my committee contributions. But, above all, I will be in here every day fighting for the good folk of Flinders so that our needs, our perspective, our passions and our purpose are understood by those who make decisions on behalf of the government and whom form plans and policies for the opposition.

To finish, I save the best for last. My thanks goes to those who stood by me throughout our campaign whose hard voluntary work means I get to stand here and fight for Flinders—my FEC and campaign team led by Georgie and Richard; Di; Phil; Marg and Marshall; our volunteer coordinator, Deb, sustained by Bill and Archie; the ever-present Gordon; Chris; Mike; Greg; Chrestyna; Zahra; Rika; Jackie; Sue; Simone; Germaine; Suzie; John; Henry; Finn; Kate; Anthea and Peter; Amanda; Donna; Tim and Corinne; Peter and Kay; Di and Arthur; Cynthia and Andrew; Eithne; Judy; Mattie; Pam and Peter; Rob; Bryan and Carole; David and Tom; Greg and Paula; Rob; Scarlett and Freddie; Jess and Sam; Angus; Robert and Denise; Peter, the patron saint of the peninsula; Elizabeth; Gerry; Jane; Sam; and Sue and the Camp clan, among so many others.

And I most especially thank my remarkable electorate and policy team: Julia, Katie, Rocco, Conor, Matthew and, of course, the mighty Unity Paterson. I express my gratitude to our two sensational state MPs: Chris Crewther, who represents the state seat of Mornington—preceded by his great predecessor who I noticed is with us in the gallery tonight—and Sam Groth, who represents the state seat of Nepean, and our vibrant SECs of Hastings, Nepean and Mornington.

As the teal movement intentionally muddied the waters between Commonwealth and state, all of us standing strongly together shows how well we work to get things done across constitutional boundaries for our community.

I call the honourable member for Goldstein. This is his first speech in this term of parliament. I welcome him back to the chamber and I know all members will be courteous to him.

Take two: honouring the trust afforded as the first to have retaken the same seat lost to an independent—the second chance given, a third term granted, and voters stepping forth to buck history. I give thanks by living out the commitment given nearly a decade ago: that the people of Goldstein know their community is not an inheritance, or a seat to be warmed; it is a trust to be earned in your service. Since last standing two sword lengths away in this chamber, I've lived a political winter. There are times when only the words of Kipling fit:

… force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on'.

None of us wish to live a winter through sickness, family or relationship breakdown, financial loss or public humiliation, but, when these moments present themselves, our choice is only how we respond. To that end, in my first, first speech to the House, I uttered words that would stalk me:

We know people sometimes fall down. That is why we respect the speed at which they seek to pick themselves back up.

When my winter came, it was family, friends, community and professional support that cushioned, that humbled, nurtured and changed me. But we must also never forget that winter is followed by the hope of spring. We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking up at the stars. I am not the first, nor will I be the last, member to have run and won, lost, and then lived. He's mad. He's stark raving bonkers. But I'll let you in on a little secret: all the best people are—enough to return to this place. Perhaps I am the most appreciative.

Uniquely, I am going to thank the people of Goldstein for their decision three years ago, and it is for one simple reason: it was an opportunity for growth. Now, before we go further, I'm quite happy for it to be a oncer. But, as my husband said on the Sunday morning after, 'You need to look at this as a gift'. So, when announcing I was re-contesting, I started by saying that, 'Defeat was a gift, and thanks to the community.' I meant it and, today, I confirm it and thank the former member, Zoe Daniel, for her service too.

I recently said that I'm in the truth bomb phase of my career. For years, our movement has been sold a pup—that voters can be neatly sliced into electoral majority by design. After the marriage law postal survey, the miracle victory and the Voice referendum, we were told electoral riches lay in new heartlands and we should abandon tradition. If you still believe this story, as the only Liberal MP for a city seat, and one of two in inner metro Australia, I have some magic beans I can sell you. I used to joke that Goldstein was a Liberal political island, except for about a kilometre of shared border with the electorate of Higgins. I now love that one kilometre. I now have to drive 50 kilometres to reach another Liberal electorate. It's simple: you can't multiply your vote by dividing Australians. It betrays Menzian liberalism because liberalism has no geography.

Liberalism is the spark of aspiration that compels a young farmhand to milk cows before sunrise so they can save to own their own dairy farm one day. It's the fuel of a young tradie, caffeinated to clock on at seven so they can surf by four. It's the sobriety of a new Australian nurse, late after sunset, so they can own a one-bedder and not face renting in retirement. It's the ambition of two young mates hawking a slice of their start-up to venture capital, in the hope that one day it will list. It's the risk of a CEO reinvesting to navigate competition because they understand change is the only certainty. It's the drive of a mum working in legal, while working from home on Fridays, so they can have independence and career. And it's the energy of her husband and his small business that sponsors the local netball team because his success is tied to a thriving community. It's the teachers like my husband, Ryan, who are inspiring a new generation to open their eyes to a better Australia and future every day. It is the story of millions, in Goldstein and elsewhere, who wake up each morning choosing to take responsibility so that tomorrow will be better for themselves and for others too. They don't want us to solve their problems, but they are counting on us to defend their agency. And, at the last election, we let them down because we were not the bold and courageous Liberals that gave Australians confidence to dare for a better future.

Having lived my winter, it is clear my party is now facing its own. In grief, it is easy to seek out simple solutions when reflection is necessary. Three years ago, I read Doris Kearns Goodwin's Leadership in Turbulent Times, and, yes, a young Teddy Roosevelt's wilderness years held lessons for building the foundations for future success. It started a journey that allowed me to be honest enough that, whatever the driver of our local defeat, there were still things that I needed to learn. It started with listening and it concluded with building.

There were the usual noisy voices on broadcast platforms about what to stand for, but the true genius of Menzies was that he understood and started by standing for the forgotten people, and, from there, what he stood for followed. I found the real kernels were in the quiet conversations in pubs, in Pilates classes, in church halls and on the sidelines of Saturday sports, and this was embodied in every part of our local campaign.

What I am most proud of is that our Goldstein team did this together, because, with me as the community backed Liberal, we built a movement of 3½ thousand people that went from local cafes to our oversubscribed, 800-strong campaign launch to energise a community and defy political gravity—and many are in the gallery today. The victory in Goldstein is theirs. The azure-blue T-shirted volunteers armed with hearty smiles and passion carried me here. They have shown that the path back is not one our parliamentary team can take alone. It relies on rebuilding our movement in Goldstein, Wentworth, Mackellar, Menzies, Aston, Lyons, Dickson, Brisbane, Boothby, Curtin and right across the electorates of this country.

The parliamentary party's job is to lead, and our people will follow if we fight for them when we give them something to fight for and when we are worthy of them fighting for us because we spirit them to a higher purpose of common destiny. To thrive once again, we need to see this moment as our gift, because it will mean we have reconnected and given Australians Liberal hope again.

I did not grow up with a silver spoon, nor under a weatherboard and iron. I grew up in a household of publicans and small-business people. For my father, it was pulling beers, pushing a lawnmower, building fences and bagging the post. For my mother, it was also pulling beers, and cooking at a fryer and greeting at supermarkets. They lived different lives, but the one lesson they shared was work, and this was the simple faith my siblings and I gained—that, if you worked hard, respected your neighbour, played by the rules and loved this country, you'd be rewarded with dignity, opportunity and the chance to live a better life.

The Australian promise was a social contract that there was no entitlement but a fair go. It didn't mean choppy waters didn't come, but it meant that hope and aspiration should guide your decision-making and that the circumstances of your birth should not define the boundaries of your life. It was embodied in the ideals that Menzies described of his modern Liberal movement—that it was 'not the conservative party dying on the last barricade' but 'a lively mind and a forward-looking heart'. It believed in free people, their responsibility and their enterprise, and in respecting tradition and institutions that empower people, families and communities and small business to decide their own futures. That is an agent for progress because human advancement depends on rising living standards and stewards a clean environment to hand to future generations. And this was the promise of Goldstein. As the fourth generation of my family that has lived and worked within the community—it has always lived these values and been a forward-looking modern liberal community that has understood its responsibility to each other.

Goldstein does not want Canberra to run it. But it does not expect Canberra to undermine it either, such as stripping out a hundred million dollars from local infrastructure projects, as occurred over the past three years. It also does not want to live the failure of Canberra's leadership. From the threats of local crime, the rise of antisemitism, financial stress for families and small business, and limited access to affordable housing, Goldstein expects leadership. It believes in our country and wills its success. This is why I continue to want to represent Goldstein and give its values voice in this parliament, because when Goldstein's values influence Australia, we are a better nation.

It is these values that are increasingly under threat. There is an undercurrent in our democracy where too many voters no longer trust the system is working for them. I hear this from Australians at all stages of life. I hear young adults questioning the value of their tertiary education and whether they'll ever be able to get ahead of their debt; whether young workers can afford rent, let alone save a deposit, and then pay off a mortgage and then have a family; whether they have the confidence to chance their hand to start a business or the space in their lives to invest in their community; and whether they stare down their retirement years with confidence. It is the threat of the slow erosion of trust in our institutions, our leadership and even in each other.

I don't wear my faith on my sleeve, but the Good Book's insight that a house divided against itself cannot stand is truer today than ever. I utterly reject the politics that infect too many from the extremities of all sides of the political and the corporate funded Independents, who all share a different vision anchored in the same idea: that we must stand for some but not for all.

Our party's founder called these attempts to pit Australians against each other 'the false wars'. We are all Australians, and nothing is more corrosive to the Australian promise than people no longer believing sacrifice and effort will get them ahead. It is why the unapologetic pursuit of the next chapter of our nation's economic growth remains paramount. Because too many of those we need to create it are moving offshore and the only voices we hear feed resentment over how to carve up shares of a diminishing pie.

It is particularly important for us. If we are to be the party of aspiration, we must always be on the side of the aspiring, which is always the next generation and new Australians, not entrenched interests. These are Goldstein's values and I know these are the values of our party's leader, and I thank her and appreciate her support today.

Power is like the breath that sustains the nation's lungs. When at threat, the central organs breathe in power from the people to protect the whole. For 30 years, Australia has enjoyed a long exhale. But the internationalist era, with the confidence that nations would peacefully trade for the future advancement of humanity, has sunsetted. History has struck back.

We are experiencing the culmination of relaxed and comfortable leadership, and, as Liberals, we must have the courage to tell uncomfortable truths today about what we know is on the horizon. If not, Australians will have no reason to trust us on how to confront them as they are revealed. We are at an inflection point in our nation's history that demands controlled breathing to confront the future with confidence.

The nation is but the sum of its people, and we must always be mindful to nourish the soil of our society, from which future generations draw their strength. Nourishment does not come from fostering the division of identity but investing in our common bonds, knitting the social fabric of family and community, finding our cultural confidence and promoting excellence in education once more. It comes from agreement on a shared common story for our nation, because we cannot expect new Australians to integrate into a story that we cannot tell, and from a belief in Australia and its progress because we can tell a story of Australia that recognises, respects and has reconciled and takes the best of our past to define our future. We can defend our national unity and stridently stand against the poisons of racism, whatever its extremist origins, and particularly the gateway of socialised antisemitism. We must again be the democratic defenders of our values and equal dignity of free people, and we must grasp Menzies' great vision of homes material, homes human and homes spiritual that places home ownership at the centre of public policy. Because when we do, the nucleus of social, economic and political power rebalances from the corridors of this place in Canberra and those of the corporates back to the kitchen tables of this nation. While no-one has a right to the size of a home or a specific suburb, we cannot strengthen families when involuntary distance divides generations and their mutual support.

We must stand for fiscal prudence because borrowing from the future fuels inflation today, taxes tomorrow and indebts those who follow. When residents living with Down syndrome are raising concerns about the NDIS's fiscal trajectory just after 7 am at McKinnon railway station, it says the anxiety is not just economic. We must live limited government because it is a simple truth that big government makes us small citizens, and no society has ever been better because people have been encouraged to take less responsibility. We must be trusted and reliable partners and defenders of our alliances because a world without strong friends is a world where we risk standing defenceless and alone. And we must be advocates for the re-industrialisation of Australia and its farms in the future and an energy mix based on physics and economics because the foundation of our economy is dug and grown. Right now, the source of our next chapter of growth seems utterly foreign, and we're unprepared for the end of the frothy prices of our mineral resources and the realities of artificial intelligence that could displace employment—let alone the flexibilities of a work force that will increasingly be a mix of salaries, side hustles and shared equity. Indeed, our biggest challenge is not capital but an abundance of complacency in a time that demands urgency.

We are now at a pivotal moment for our party, our values and our nation. For our party, coalition and movement, we are now at our lowest ebb since the Albury rebuild eight decades ago. For our values, the vote harvesters are hoping we let the social democratic conformity march unchallenged so the only story sold is the false promise to hand over power for security. And for our nation, it is a choice about the type of people we want to be and whether we carry our inheritance of freedom, prosperity, hope and opportunity forward for a new generation or sit idly by and watch its decline.

On every flank, we are outnumbered. The armies of vested interests have never been stronger, better resourced and ready to finish us off. Organised labour is seeking to suck the remaining initiative out of private enterprise. Organised capital is leveraging their power to bend corporate bureaucrats to their will. Foreign globalists are propping up front groups and corporate candidates who want to de-industrialise Australia for their profit. We are at a Menzian moment, and the gift of defeat is the opportunity of Liberal revival.

We are all that is left to stand up for the public and national interest. If we do not, no-one will. The gravitational pull could not be stronger, the call to Liberal courage could not be heavier and the stakes could not be greater. If Australians do not share our Liberal call to action, it is not their failing; it is ours. We must find that spark and spirit it, nurture it and feed it into a flame. As Harvey Milk once said, 'The only thing they have to look forward to is hope,' because liberalism does not live in the words we say but in the aspirations Australians live. Liberalism lives when Australians sets their sights one angle higher and with a range one step farther to the horizon. The Australian Liberal project is built from a spiritual belief in our shared success and calls for people to not just vote for us today but vote for us tomorrow, because hope is inevitably tempered by the weight of history. Take it from me that history is there to be made. To quote one of my heroes, 'It can be done.' It can be done because it has been done, because it must be done.

At our local campaign launch I said Goldstein was ground zero for the fight for our future. Goldstein found its voice, and the people of Goldstein sent me here to lead, to build, to mobilise and to storm. Our choice now is clear. Will we be the Liberals that honour generations past by handing on a better future than our own? Will we be the Liberals that inspire Australians to turn to each other and see a shared destiny? Will we be the Liberals that strengthen our nation to be sovereign, confident and secure? Will we be the Liberals that build a clean industrial future so prosperity is on our horizon. Will we be the Liberals that side with the young and new Australians who live our daily aspiration? Will we be the Liberals that turn on the lights in a nation for all of us that delivers hope, reward and opportunity to be bold again, to build again, to believe again and to lead again?

As I said to the people of Goldstein, I'm not quite done yet. There are a fair number of people I need to thank. First, I need to thank my campaign team, led by my campaign directors, Ed Davis and Rob Sayer. I still remember the first campaign meeting where we held and mapped out the scale of the plan and what was required. There was a nervousness about the scale of the task, but you both stepped up with Stav Personis, Conan Daley, David Morris, Jase Garbosa, James Loveluck, Roy Rose, Milly Edwards, James O'Collins and Andrew Galway, as well as our regional champions Richard Codran, Judith Eronovitch, Rob Etelling, Jennifer O'Brien, John Gilbert, Deb Gilbert and Peaches the pug, supported by Ben Tialen, Jake Lowry and Billy Allsopp.

To the Goldstein electorate team, including Carson Mumford, Olivia Brooks, Shane Small, Lisa Bond, Hanife Bushby and Gab Street: thank you. But there is no-one I should thank more than my electorate chair, Maree Kidd, who not only willed me to recontest but put her money where her mouth is and stepped up to take on the task of chairing the membership and mobilisation effort.

There are too many volunteers to name, and, without taking anything away from anyone, I particularly want to thank Michael Savva and Robin Savva, Janet Aberdy, Karen Cohen, Helen Rolfe, Linda Mellon, Peter Hirusidanis, Otan Otesha, Janice Cook, Judith Pratt, Fraser Hearst, Tony Armstrong, Galen Sullivan, Maddy Hamilton, Ken Marshall, Suzanne Rumble and Jim Colombo. Thank you to those who helped in their unique ways, from Peter Cantwell and Katia Gidley to Ray Johansen, George Goring, Jacqueline Pascal, Danny Rubrie and Faye Barrow. Thank you to Professor Chris Berg and Professor Sinclair Davidson for their support, as well as to Will Dempsey and Paul Ritchie, who ensured I never put a word wrong.

On such occasions the memory of absent friends is also not far. Nine years ago Jeannette Rawlinson and John Rudden couldn't have foretold the events to come, but their support was important because they supported me regardless of the test yet to be revealed. Thank you also to Mike and Anne for their love. I hope I've made you proud.

To the friends who stuck by me in difficult times, to Blake Kimpthorn and Michael MacNamara; Claire Tobin and Hugh Tobin; Phil Starkins, Emma Duffy and Ryan Lewis; Adrian Barrett and Pat Miller; Jane Starkins and Shaun Levin; Cathy Baker, Susan Craw, Jared Parks, Marty Barr and Jimmy Roche; Henry Gawatillit and John Gawatillit; and Pete Thorn, Kevin Foster, their son Will and their son and my godson, Patrick: thank you for your enduring friendship and love—and, most importantly, thank you for taking care of Ryan.

To the member for Moncrieff: thank you for your friendship in the out years and, particularly, for storing all my stuff in this place. To Senator Andrew Bragg: Braggy, during my interregnum, whenever I got the itch and abstention to probe public servants or to call out recalcitrant super funds or the corruption of corporate housing, you were there to channel my spirit, so thank you.

To Senators James Paterson and Jane Hume: thank you both for being supporters during the down days. While I suspect you both had your private doubts—and that's fine, by the way—you never let it show. To the members for Monash and Berowra: you don't know this, but when I spoke to both of you, to congratulate both of you on your pre-selections seven years apart, you had the kindness to respond with exactly the same set of words, 'I hope to share this journey with you.' And you're sitting right in front of each other. I didn't lose in 2022 just so you could both have this experience. However, I am glad to fulfil your wishes. Specifically to you, Mary—this is such a huge day for you: we have come a long way from level 2 of S block at Monash Caulfield together. I know your family is proud of your achievements, and Ryan and I, as your political family, are cheering you on. I've got a warning for everybody else: get ready; it's Mary time.

To the Leader of the Opposition, Sussan Ley: thank you for being a willing supporter. I still remember when you came to the Hampton bowls club shortly after the 2022 election. I remember your surprise that defeat wasn't in my eyes. I think some of the members opposite are starting to realise that, no matter what they do, that's not going to change. I am sanguine about our moment, but I am excited about your promise.

To my dear friends Trevor Evans and Jason Falinski—I know Jason has eventually found his way to the right spot in the gallery today: we all remember the Monday week after the last election when we sat in my former office amongst boxed memories. We toasted with what could have been our last shared G&T. Since then, we have shared a different journey. There were days I was touched you trusted me to carry your grief in a rant down a phone line, a joke on WhatsApp or an education on woodpeckers; that's specific to Trev. Yes—woodpeckers. You'll never appreciate what it meant to me to be able to pick up the phone and talk through stories, strategy and sadness. Mostly it was Trev talking Jason off the ledge, but that's same old, same old. Thank you for your friendship.

My mother, Linda Morris, stood on Hampton early voting for two weeks straight, and I know she did it because so many people said to me in the community, 'I've met your mum.' And they still do, including Raf Epstein. David Morris capably aided the campaign team every step of the way and continues to do so. To my father, Robert, and to Janet Wilson, who both wished us well and helped in their way from afar: thank you.

But, of course, there is no-one I need to thank more than my husband, Ryan. Every time you walk into this chamber, you end up leading the news. Sorry about that. We were the change that needed to be at a time in times past. And that is the greatest gift that anybody could ever give. Now, I know you have been prepared, somewhat willingly, to give us over again to the community and to the nation, so all I can do is promise that I'll do everything I can to protect our summers on the peninsula, keep our Melbourne and Bayside pads clean and make time for roast pub lunches on Sundays. And, when there is something to celebrate, I'll do my level best to make sure that we do it together. In public life, you never feel as lonely as when you are in defeat. Yet, despite having lived it, in the 17 years we have been together I have never been alone. So thank you for your sacrifice once more, and for sacrificing our time for our country's future. But you also know that, for me to be myself, we need to go through this.

Opposition members interjecting—

What's all the laughing about? There will be another day; it'll come. I love you. I'm blessed to have you in my life, and the nation is blessed for the tolerance and love you give me to serve.

Debate adjourned.

I'm pleased to continue my contribution on this really important legislation and to reaffirm the difference that this is going to make for John who I spoke about earlier. John from Airport West is a local teacher who has a debt of about $27,000 at the moment, but, thanks to this legislation, he's about to see that slashed by over $5,000. This will be life changing for John, and I'm so proud to see this happen. I am proud to be a member of a government that is committed to the transformative power of education.

From next year changes will be implemented to the way universities are funded which will seek to help more people from our suburbs and regions get a chance to go to university, and from 1 July this year we will establish paid prac to support the 68,000 eligible nursing, midwifery, social work and teaching students to help them with their paid prac so they can get that done easily. This in particular is going to benefit Sally, another constituent of mine, who is currently studying nursing at Kangan Institute. Now that she'll get prac payments, she will no longer be faced with the stress of overworking herself as she tries to balance both making sure she can get those bills paid but also studying this incredibly important qualification that we need in our community. This will be life changing for Sally and so many others.

Labor fights for fairness. An essential tenet to our party is its belief in access to opportunity and belief in a pathway in life regardless of economic circumstances. That is why Labor has locked free TAFE into law, expanded the fee-free uni-ready courses and established the Independent Australian Tertiary Commission to drive reform of Australia's tertiary education sector. And then there's our bold agenda to reform early education and care and to fully fund our public primary and secondary schools. We are the party, the government, of education.

We stand in stark contrast to the previous coalition government that seemingly made it its mission to take a sledgehammer to higher education. They gutted the university sector funding. They lowered the HECS repayment threshold and used any opportunity they had to make life harder for low-income students. As their seats started to diminish one by one in capital cities across the country, as their support from young people hit record lows, did they learn to take younger Australians seriously? I'm not quite sure. Throughout the election they attacked this policy, dismissing it as profoundly unfair. They doubled down, seemingly, saying that there was no benefit to be had and, bizarrely, took to the election a commitment to increase student debt. Clearly, the Australian people did see a benefit, particularly young Australians, and voted accordingly.

The people of Maribyrnong put their faith in me and Labor to be progressive and to undertake the reforms necessary to build a better future. This legislation does exactly that. It seeks to reform a tired and frankly unfair system by implementing progressive changes that will make the lives of students just that bit easier. I'm proud to put my voice in support of this legislation and send a clear message to my community that this Albanese Labor government is listening to younger Australians and is working to make their future brighter and fairer. I commend the bill.

In a country that prides itself on giving everyone a fair go, we must confront the growing injustice that is the financial inequality and stress experienced by younger Australians. The rising cost of tertiary education and the mounting burden of student debt are not just economic issues; they are drivers of intergenerational inequity. Unless we address them now, we will leave future generations with fewer opportunities, heavier financial burdens and a diminished ability to shape their own futures. The Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025 before us seeks to address the financial inequality experienced by younger Australians by cutting outstanding student loan debts by 20 per cent, by increasing the minimum repayment thresholds for student loans so people can earn more before they are required to pay off their student debt and by shifting to a marginal repayment system. These measures will no doubt bring relief to many Australians struggling with the cost of living and mounting student debt. Indeed I have heard firsthand from people in my community that the one-off reduction in their student debt will have a tangible impact on their lives, particularly as the cost of living is currently so high. I commend the government for responding to the concerns of a section of our society that is often overlooked.

But, while the measures outlined in this bill are welcome, they are not enough. A one-off reduction in student debts will not fix the systemic issues in our education and educational loan systems. Certainly, it will benefit the three million Australians who already hold student debt, but it will do nothing for the future students, who will face larger debts and longer repayment periods. There is far more work to be done to secure systemic changes, including reducing the cost of undertaking higher education itself, particularly for humanities degrees, where the cost of study has increased significantly since the introduction of the Morrison government's failed Job-ready Graduates Package. Systemic changes include expanding the Commonwealth Prac Payment to cover all students required to undertake pracs as part of their studies, and they include ensuring fairer accounting of HELP debt repayments so indexation is not applied belatedly to debts that have already been paid.

The reforms introduced last year by this government and secured through significant pressure from the crossbench began to address the systemic issues. Those changes included ensuring that the debts don't increase faster than wages by newly indexing debts to the lower of the Consumer Price Index or the Wage Price Index. It also included backdating the changes to undo the devastating indexation rise of 7.1 per cent that was applied in 2023. This was a positive start, but there is still more to be done.

Young people today have been hit by the triple whammy of rising housing costs, rising education costs and high living costs, resulting in growing student debt and housing stress. Significant numbers of students across the country are struggling financially and finding it almost impossible to find affordable accommodation while they study. Based on an analysis of more than 45,000 rental listings, Anglicare Australia's rental affordability snapshot revealed that no rental properties, including share houses, were affordable for a single person receiving the youth allowance. Clearly, there is a severe lack of affordable housing options for young people who are studying while on income support. The 20 per cent cut to student debt in this bill will provide welcome relief for many, but it does not address the root cause or causes of the problem.

To secure a more equitable future for young Australians, we need to ensure that they have access to affordable tertiary education free from crippling debt. A key to reducing repayment times is ensuring that the students accrue less debt in the first place. As a priority, we must reverse the impact of the record-high student fees caused by the job-ready graduates program, as recommended under the Universities Accord. The job-ready graduates program was introduced by the Morrison government in 2020. It increased the cost of law and commerce courses by 28 per cent and saw the cost of humanities subjects more than double. A three-year arts degree is now set to cost a staggering $50,000.

But it doesn't have to be this way. I was shocked recently when I found out that my children, who have EU passports, would be able to study for an undergraduate degree in Ireland essentially for free, with only a contribution required to cover services and exams.

The Australian Universities Accord: final report has clearly articulated the perverse impacts of the Job-ready Graduates Package, stating:

The Job-ready Graduates package needs urgent remediation … Many students have extremely high student contributions resulting in large HELP loans that do not reflect their future earning potential.

Students of history, philosophy, media and culture are now likely to pay twice as much for their degrees as students of science, IT, engineering or health. This is despite humanities degrees being essential to future jobs. At this time of unprecedented change, we should be supporting rather than deterring people from undertaking humanities degrees that promote critical thinking, problem solving, historical understanding, philosophical analysis and communications skills. Indeed, just recently we saw more than a hundred high-profile Australians urge the government to abolish the job-ready graduates scheme and implement an equitable university fee system that does not punish students who choose to study humanities and social sciences.

We must also address the perverse timing of student loan indexation so debts are indexed after the yearly repayments are taken off. Currently, students are facing indexation increases to portions of their study debts that they have already paid. This is due to the Australian Taxation Office practice of applying indexation to loans on 1 June but not processing loan repayments until after tax returns have been processed. Again, the Australian Universities Accord Panel has recommended that indexation be applied later in the year, after the compulsory payments that were made during the previous financial year have been deducted from a student's balance. This is a sensible recommendation that should be implemented as soon as possible.

And we must expand the Commonwealth prac payments to all students required to undertake placements as part of their studies. Currently, numerous degrees with time-consuming work placements are excluded from the payment, including many allied health degrees. Many of these professions, particularly across the health sector, are experiencing serious workforce shortages. They are critical sectors. As the Minister for Education has acknowledged, placement poverty is a real thing. In the words of the Australian Medical Students' Association, 'Nobody should be forced to make a choice between paying the bills and contributing to our healthcare system.' Without extending prac payments to all students that have to undertake them, we risk building a medical and healthcare workforce that is made up of a privileged few who can rely on the bank of mum and dad to get by.

For many students, undergoing their compulsory prac placement means physical exhaustion and financial and emotional stress. It means struggling to pay the rent and struggling to pay the bills. Students who visited Parliament House last week described how, despite needing to work to support themselves through university, they had to give up their part-time jobs to do prac placements. Added to this, some had to pay rent in two places or live in their cars, couch surf or drive hours every day to avoid the added accommodation cost. We are placing our young people in vulnerable, unsafe conditions and putting them under extreme financial distress. We are burning them out before they have even started working in their chosen career.

HECS and related student loan repayments are meant to make higher education accessible and fair, but today they generate more revenue for the government than the petroleum resource rent tax. Clearly, something is deeply wrong with the way we value education, opportunity and future generations. We must address the underlying drivers of escalating higher education debt which are deepening the intergenerational divide and worsening the cost-of-living pressures faced by young Australians.

I'd like to begin by congratulating the Minister for Education for making good on the promise made regarding this policy and cutting student debt by 20 per cent, which was our No. 1 priority at the commencement of the 48th Parliament. That was the promise that was made to the Australian public, to Australian students who had HECS debt, and our commitment at the last federal election. I'm very pleased to see this as the very first bill being debated in this House.

We know that this bill will improve the lives of more than three million Australians who have student debt, and not just them but also their families and their local communities. Whether they're just starting off in their career, saving for a home or juggling a mortgage and a young family, every single dollar counts, and this will go a long way for those people who have a HECS debt.

In my electorate of Adelaide, 37.2 per cent of constituents aged 18 and over have a level of educational attainment of a bachelor's degree or higher, and we have a number of educational institutions in the electorate, including Torrens University, Adelaide University, the University of South Australia and many other institutions. Therefore, I have one of the highest numbers of students in Australia in my electorate—as I said, the university campuses on North Terrace, City West and City East campuses, and of course the third-oldest university in Australia, the University of Adelaide.

Of course, in January 2026 the University of SA and the University of Adelaide will be merging to create a new university, Adelaide University, which will have its flagship campus in the city of Adelaide, right in the heart of my electorate. As the electorate is home to so many educational institutions, I'm constantly hearing from students and from constituents who were students how they are worried about the student debt, including parents, who come to see me to talk about their kids who are studying and how many years it will take for them to pay off the debt. That's why we're making these changes, slashing 20 per cent off every student's debt.

The average student debt today is about $27,600, and this legislation will cut that debt by about $5,520. That's an extra $5,520 for all those students, which will go back into the economy, generating jobs, helping the local economy et cetera. All up, it'll cut student debt by more than $16 billion. The legislation makes it clear that this cut will be backdated to 1 June 2025, before this year's indexation occurred. The policy applies to uni students, vocational education students and some apprentices.

The bill also makes important structural changes to the way the repayment system works. It raises the minimum amount you have to earn before you have to start making repayments from $54,000 and 2024-25 to $67,000 in 2025-26. It also replaces the current repayment system with a new marginal repayment system, and the current system is based on your entire income.

Currently, once you earn above the minimum repayment threshold of $54,000 you pay a percentage of your entire wage as repayment. Under these changes, students and graduates will only pay a percentage of their wage above the minimum repayment threshold. For example, right now if you earn $70,000 you'll pay $1,750 each year, and under these changes you'll pay only about $450. That's a saving of $1,300 per year in payments, which means you can still pay off more if you want to—there's no prevention of that, and no-one can stop you from doing that, and I'm sure some people will pay more. But it is absolutely vital that we as a nation continue to produce world-class health professionals who are working in our health system, who save lives and care for the vulnerable with health issues, as well as teachers to educate the next generation, agriculturists to produce our food and professionals in many other vital fields, all of which have a pathway that leads through tertiary studies. This bill will help this to become a reality.

Many Australians are wary of entering these fields, as they are worried about being able to pay off that student debt. That's what I hear from many people, especially parents who are contemplating, together with their children, the future in year 12 et cetera. I've heard that discussion many times. People are wary because of that debt that they'll accrue during the course of their studies. This will go a long way to removing that barrier and giving people more of an opportunity to study, go on and fill those skills that we require in this nation. The policy absolutely promotes intergenerational fairness, recognising that quality education can change lives and noting that the rising cost of tertiary education over recent decades has coincided with increasing demands for higher qualifications.

I'll give you an example; I mentioned this the other day in debate on the private member's motion. When I left high school, I went on to university. I dropped out very early; I found it very boring. A few years later, I went back to TAFE and found a course that suited me. At the time, the fees for TAFE were approximately $30 a semester. In the last few years I've always been asking what the TAFE fees are, and they've been in the thousands, which would prevent people who are in the situation I was in from going to TAFE. When I was at TAFE I was married with one or two kids—I can't remember how many I had at the time—and a mortgage. I was able to work full time and go to TAFE part time, paying $30 a semester. That is what changed my life. Through the policies of successive governments over the years, we've put up a barrier to that. We've put up a barrier to people wanting to change their lives for the better, because of the costs that are associated with it. So this will go a long way. I think it's important to give people the opportunity to be able to study, which then gives them a pathway to skills that will allow them to fill positions that we need, especially in health, but also in other areas. It will also allow them to turn their lives around.

We know that the easiest way out of poverty is through education. Through research that's been done throughout the world and here in Australia, we know that if you want to turn someone's life around and break the cycle of poverty, it's education that does it. We should be doing everything we can in this place to ensure we put all the levers in place to be able to assist that because, after all, we're here to help people do better in their lives.

We know that to build Australia's future productivity and prosperity, we need to educate and upskill more Australians. We've also locked free TAFE into law, as I spoke about earlier. This landmark policy has already seen more than 650,000 enrolments across the country, with 170 courses already completed. What we'll see through this in TAFE is more engineering skills, more mechanics and more trades, which we desperately need, especially in South Australia with our submarine building and shipbuilding. We will need more trades. I'm very proud that in SA we've set up a TAFE specifically training people for the submarine builds plus the shipbuilds that are taking place. We're going to need to train thousands of people in the near future. This government has also established the Commonwealth Prac Payment from 1 July 2025 to support about 68,000 eligible teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students while they are completing their compulsory practical training at university.

I am so proud that this Albanese Labor government will cut the student debt by 20 per cent. What this means is that the 28,520 students and graduates in my electorate of Adelaide with a HECS or student debt, including VET and TAFE loans, will enjoy an average saving of $5,825 per person. This shows that we on this side of the House are building Australia's future. Most of us in this chamber are aware it takes a lot of time, hard work and sacrifice to save or pay off $5,825.

I rise to speak on the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025. This bill will provide welcome debt relief to many people and make changes to the repayment of student debts. I support this bill because I know that higher education is essential to the success and prosperity of our country and particularly to people in our regions. At this point, though, I want to note that this speech is a statement on the bill and not part of the substantive debate, as the bill has already been passed. The Leader of the House has indicated to me and the House that this practice is unlikely to be repeated. It's important for our democracy that the government holds to that, and I certainly intend to hold the government to that.

Where higher education was once a specialised path for few, today it is required by so many jobs in our society. The landmark Universities Accord review, released in early 2024 and led by Professor Mary O'Kane, concluded that we need to increase the tertiary education attainment rate from the current 60 per cent to 80 per cent of Australians who are in the workforce by 2050. This is a nation-building task. The review makes it clear that we will not achieve this goal and thus fail to unlock the full potential of our workforce and our economy if we don't increase higher education participation rates, especially for disadvantaged groups.

One of these groups is people living in regional Australia. Across most of rural, regional and remote Australia, educational attainment rates fall well below those in the major cities. This exacerbates workforce shortages in our regional communities, limits economic opportunities for individuals and their families and can worsen health and social outcomes. It's clear that, as a country, we need more people to undertake higher education, but it's also clear that the significant cost-of-living barriers are preventing people from taking up the opportunities that higher education brings to both them and the wider community, which brings us to the bill before us in the House today.

The Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025 makes three key changes to the higher education loan, or HELP program—also known as HECS. First, it will provide a 20 per cent reduction of loan balances for all students, regardless of the size of their debt. Second, the bill will increase the repayment threshold so that students will only start to pay their debt off when they're earning more than $67,000, instead of the previous $56,000. Third, the bill makes changes so that repayments are only made on the income earned above the $67,000 repayment threshold and not on the first $67,000 of income. I note that there is not broad agreement on whether the changes to repayment thresholds are absolutely 100 per cent the right way to go in balancing the cost-of-living pressures and sustainable ways to pay off HELP debts.

The changes in this bill will benefit some, but may not benefit all, and we don't know the full impact. This is complicated, and the government has stifled debate on this bill, meaning these matters can't be fully explored in detail. The 20 per cent reduction will provide a one-off much needed debt relief, while the changes to the repayment system could make a difference to those balancing their repayments while the cost of living is so high. It will also reduce the rate of repayment for students earning below the average wage. Despite my desire to have more detail about the impacts of the payment threshold changes, I do welcome and support this bill because ensuring that higher education, whether that be at university or at TAFE, is vital to the prosperity of our community, and nowhere more so than in regional Australia.

In Indi, there are almost 14,000 people with a HELP debt, with an average level of debt of $21,000. This means that the average student or graduate in Indi will receive a $4,200 reduction if this bill passes the parliament. For these people and their families, this will of course be welcome relief. Of course, though, not everyone in Indi has studied at TAFE or university, and tertiary attainment rates are indeed low in my electorate by national standards. But the reality is that we all benefit from our higher education system. When university or TAFE is hard to access or out of reach financially, it can lead to exactly the kinds of workforce shortages people in regional electorates such as mine know all too well. Increasing costs and debt burdens are exacerbating existing barriers to study and discouraging young people or midcareer people from choosing to study.

So I support this bill because it is getting harder to study—right when we need to be making it easier. This bill builds upon reforms made in the previous parliament, such as changes to the indexation of HELP debts. However, there is more work to do. HECS is not fixed yet. I strongly support the member for Kooyong's amendment to change the timing of indexation to deduct compulsory repayments before applying indexation. The current indexation arrangements are unfairly adding thousands of dollars to Australians' debts. It could be fixed and it should be fixed by this government.

Another key recommendation of Mary O'Kane's Universities Accord review was the paid prac placement system that's now being rolled out for a small number of degrees. Those studying to be teachers, nurses, midwives and social workers will receive payments while they undertake compulsory work placements in order to earn their qualifications—a welcome and overdue change. I've made it clear that the government needs to go further and expand prac payments to other areas of study, such as allied health professions and medicine. Last year, I was glad to secure an amendment to ensure a review of the prac payment system is undertaken after three years. This review will specifically look at the possible inclusion of allied health placements. Although I hope that this will happen sooner, it's good that this date is now locked into the calendar.

I'm pushing for more paid placements because I hear from so many people having to choose between study or work. Some are even putting their degrees on hold because weeks and months of unpaid placements are simply not an option when there are mortgages, rents and bills to pay. Last week, I heard from Zac, a mature-age student in Wodonga. Zac is a dental assistant who's now training to become a dentist in the public health system. He's currently completing a placement six hours away in Bairnsdale. Not only is he paying for rent while on placement; he's unable to earn an income. As he says, 'This burns both ends of the candle.' Gemma in Wangaratta is studying diagnostic radiography and works full-time hours to meet her placement requirements. She completes course work and placement work and has an additional job on the weekends. She's had to relocate for three of her four placements, each costing thousands of dollars.

While Gemma is incredibly making it all work, some of her peers are not so fortunate and have had to stop studying because of the pressures of placement requirements. Are we the kind of country that forces students to choose between food and housing or their studies? These are the choices students in Australia are forced to make. It's wrong and fails our next generation of doctors and allied health professionals.

One key outstanding recommendation of the Universities Accord review is a new needs based funding model for universities. This model must recognise the added costs of delivering tertiary education in regional areas. Regional universities in my electorate undertake influential research and drive regional employment and economic development, but the status quo is failing them, their staff and their students, and the government must ensure they're set up to succeed.

I support further reforms to the sector, including to the job-ready graduates program, which has punished students simply because of what they choose to study. While I voted for the bill that implemented the job-ready graduates program because it implemented other important reforms for regional communities, such as the tertiary access payment and regional university study hubs—both of which have been implemented and are going well—I criticised the job-ready graduates program fee structure at the time for its lack of an evidence base. With evidence now showing that Job-ready Graduates has failed to achieve its stated goal, it is more than overdue that we fix this system. Changes like the ones we're debating today will not have their full impact on making higher education more affordable until Job-ready Graduates is addressed.

I support this bill because it will help many people facing cost-of-living pressures in my electorate, and it's a step forward to making our Higher Education Loan Program fairer. However, this is just a step. This parliament must act to make higher education affordable, available and accessible to all Australians, regardless of whether they live in a regional area or come from a low-income background or have other barriers to participation. Studying at university or TAFE should not send you broke.

It's with great pleasure that I rise today to speak in support of this measure to reduce student debt by 20 per cent. This issue featured prominently in the election in my electorate. I was approached by many people in support of this policy, particularly young people, of course. We promised that this would be the first bill that would be introduced to parliament this term after the re-election of the Albanese government, and that's exactly what has happened.

The Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025 will make education more accessible and income contingent loan programs fairer and more affordable. This bill reduces by 20 percent student loan debt that was incurred on or before 1 June 2025. It increases the minimum repayment threshold from $54,435 in 2024-25 to $67,000 in 2025-26. It ensures that people have more money in their take-home pay by smoothing out the time and the pace at which they have to repay debt.

This will have an impact across the broader community as well as in my own electorate. Three million Australians will see their debt reduced by 20 per cent. The average student debt is $27,600, and this legislation will cut that debt by around $5,250. But of course that's the average. There are a significant number of people who have more debt than that, and they will benefit by an even larger amount.

In my own electorate of Fraser, an enormous number, 28,000 people, will benefit from this policy. This assistance will reduce debt, thereby helping with cost of living and enabling more home loan applications. On that issue, I'd like to reinforce the point that complementing this policy in terms of the debt reduction itself is the fact that we as a government have pledged to make it easier for people who have student debt to enter the housing market, by asking regulators to review lending rules. That work is now complete. This will complement the debt reduction in a very important way. APRA and ASIC have finalised guidance that the Treasurer requested in February.

Specifically, that includes guidance from APRA which means there have been amendments to guidance to banks so as to remove HELP debt from debt-to-income reporting and also to clarify that it may be reasonable for banks to omit HELP debt from serviceability assessments where a borrower is expected to pay off their HELP debt within 12 months. ASIC has also updated its regulatory guidance to acknowledge the income-contingent nature of HELP repayments. As I said, these measures will complement the debt reduction and will help thousands of students and graduates across the country who have invested in their education and who now want to invest in their homes.

I want to compliment the Treasurer on his work on this and say that this is a very important additional set of measures. I also note that this bill is part of the broader strategy of the Albanese government to make education more accessible and fair for young people. This builds on the significant work we did in our first term. We established a Commonwealth prac payment to support eligible nursing, midwifery and social work students while completing their practical training. We established free TAFE, a policy that has already seen more than 650,000 students training in important careers like construction, aged care and cybersecurity. And in visits to TAFEs across my electorate I've seen incredible outcomes for students. They're given opportunities for lifetime careers through those measures. We've changed the way HECS is calculated, meaning that it is based on the wage price index or the CPI, whichever is lower. Those indexation changes are an extremely important affordability measure. And we invested $90.6 million to boost the number of skilled workers in the construction and housing sectors.

We took this policy to the election, but I must note that a number of members opposite called it 'profoundly unfair' and said that Australians would see little benefit from this policy. Well, that's not the judgement that Australians made and certainly not the judgement that young Australians made. Could I also cite an expert—indeed, many would say the father or the architect of HECS—Bruce Chapman, who supported this important legislation. He said changing the income repayment threshold is the most important thing that has happened to the system in 35 years. So this is a very important reform—a key reform for young people, for graduates, for people in tertiary education—and, as I said, complemented, importantly, by a number of housing measures.

This change will be implemented by the Australian Taxation Office. Those with HECS debt need not do anything. They will receive a text message when the ATO has completed the work at their end. This will take awhile to process, but once it's done people will get that text message and know that their debt is down by 20 per cent. Once the legislation is passed, the 20 per cent HECS cut for all of those who have a HECS debt will be locked in.

This is one of the key measures that was discussed at the last election. As I said at the beginning of my contribution, this was a policy that featured very prominently in my interactions with people throughout my electorate. It was something that young people felt was very important. It is a measure which increases the affordability of their income-contingent loans but also, when complemented by the measures that the Treasurer ensured would be in place through ASIC and APRA guidance to banks, a measure which helps people with housing affordability. This bill enables young Australians who are building the nation's future to have a better chance to have a home loan, while also providing real cost-of-living help with more money in their pockets.

I support the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025. It's a welcome first step to cut student debt by 20 per cent and ease the cost-of-living pressures for so many of them. But let's be really clear: it's only the first step. Our education system needs much bolder reform to better support all of those undertaking further studies so that they can play a vital role in meeting the skills needs that we know Australia has for the future. They will be the ones who boost our productivity.

We hear a lot, in this place, about the value to Australia of our resources and everything else. Our most valuable asset is our people. Training and educating them has to be the No. 1 priority, and ensuring they have access to those opportunities is incredibly important. My office is full of brilliant young interns—passionate, driven, ambitious and caring—but they're struggling. They're juggling degrees, casual jobs, unaffordable rents and high HECS debts. Their story is not unique; it's the norm for students across Australia and young people. A university education should challenge you intellectually, not cripple you financially.

We know this bill is very welcome, when it comes to reducing the debt by 20 per cent, as of 1 June 2025. It provides an average saving of some $5,500 for students. It does wipe $16 billion in total student debt, so I commend the government for that. By raising the payment threshold, it gives young people, in particular those starting out, the opportunity to get to better employment before having to start repaying debt. And that lower repayment rate does indicate a saving per year. So these are meaningful cost-of-living reliefs for millions of Australians.

But let's be clear: the timing of indexation is highly problematic. It is unconscionable that the ATO can withhold, during the course of the year, the ongoing payments, the HECS repayments for a former student, without applying it to the debt prior to indexation. The student does not have the benefit of the use of those funds, but the ATO does. So there has to be something done about the date of indexation. It is unconscionable that, in every other sector of our lives, it is possible to apply repayments in real-time, but, for some reason, it simply can't be done in relation to HECS repayments.

So, while this is positive, there is still so much more that needs to be done. In fact, I was in this parliament during the 46th parliament, when the job-ready scheme was introduced by the Morrison government. I spoke out loudly against that, because it was so fundamentally unfair to move the dial and to change the payment system—to try and pick winners in that way—and impose on a whole cohort of students an absolutely unreasonable fee structure.

The job-ready graduates scheme is a completely failed policy. It doubled the fees for arts, humanities and social work. It unfairly targeted critical degrees and pushed students into higher debt. Personally, I have two degrees. I have a Bachelor of Arts in media and communications and a Diploma in Law. To me, it was unconscionable that we were changing the dial and making it so much more difficult for students to achieve their goals and to be able to contribute back and that it would make their degrees so much more expensive.

The Universities Accord recommended it be scrapped, but the government has not yet acted. So, before there's too much patting on the back and congratulating itself for this move, it also needs to focus on the rest of the recommendations to make sure they are enacted without delay so that more people are not being crushed by debt.

There's no doubt that the job-ready graduates scheme entrenches inequality and devalues democracy. It's enriching disciplines, and it should be repealed.

As I said, the other issue is that indexation of 1 June. The repayments are held throughout the course of the year and then not applied in real time. When I took the time during the election campaign to explain that to people, they were shocked and horrified. All too often they don't realise that is what's happening. So, if the government really wants a big tick of having acted on this generational inequity and the issue of student debt, then it has to address the issue of timing of indexation. The ATO says it lacks the resources to fix it—with respect, I don't buy that. Where there is a will, there is a way, and it's a question of prioritising the resourcing and correcting this design flaw.

University governance is an issue that is brought to bear for me quite frequently: the integrity we need in university structures. It's all too relevant here in Canberra because of the situation with ANU. I've had a lot of contact from ANU students lately in relation to the changes at ANU and the impacts they are having on students. The ANU restructure is gutting courses, overworking staff and sidelining students. External consultants, instead of students and academics, are making decisions. Education quality must be paramount. If the university needs to make cuts or changes, it must not be at the expense of students.

Funding gaps are an issue. Government contributions per student are down six per cent on pre-JRG levels. The universities over-rely on international student fees, which is problematic, but we saw prior to the last election during the last term of government the use of international students as a political weapon to try and point-score, in the process undermining our university sector and its fiscal sustainability. All in all, we have to be focused on young Australians and how they are facing rising debt and fewer opportunities. We have to make sure there is adequate public investment in higher education to meet the skills demands we know we have.

To summarise, we need to repeal the Job-ready Graduates scheme, fix the HELP loan indexation, lift the youth allowance and improve student welfare. It's quite interesting that in opposition Labor talked a lot about raising the rate of youth allowance, but we saw minimal changes to it during the 47th Parliament, and it's really urgent that it be addressed in this parliament. We need to secure long-term funding for universities and we need to make student housing more accessible.

There's no doubt, as the Treasurer heads into his productivity roundtable, that our best assets are our people. We need to make sure that they are ready and that the workforce has the future skills we know it needs. Ninety per cent of new jobs in the next five years will require tertiary education, so we need a robust and healthy university sector to make sure that we can deliver on that. We know we face shortages in the teaching, nursing, engineering and climate transition sectors, to name just a few. We must invest in education now or we risk falling so short as a nation. There is a global race on for talent and skills. We need to be at the forefront of that race and to attract the smartest and brightest here but retain them as well. Not only must we educate them; we need to make sure they have opportunities here.

As much as I commend the government for this bill, we need further reform, not just relief. We need bold, ambitious reform to build an equitable, future-ready education system. Students deserve more than just short-term relief; they deserve a fair, accessible and supportive education system. There's a lot we need to address regarding education reform and cost-of-living relief, but, unfortunately, that's not all going to be achieved during this debate.

I have to also raise the process around this bill. Whilst I agree that this is urgently needed and I want to see this relief flow to young people and everyone that it will apply to as fast as possible, I cannot commend the process the government has followed in this. We have passed this legislation and now members of the House are been given the opportunity to make statements in relation to it. This means the government is at risk of making a mockery of this parliament. By essentially using its numbers to just flick things through without proper debate, it means that second reading debates and the consideration in detail stage are curtailed—and then we are given the luxury of being able to come and make a statement in relation to legislation that will impact so many people in our communities.

So I urge the government to be mindful of its procedure. So many new MPs come to this place shiny and full of ambition and good principles. Let's make this a chamber of debate where we genuinely look at legislation. If the government needs more time to do its job, then allocate more sitting days to this place so that we do provide the scrutiny and debate necessary for good legislation for the benefit of Australia.

I rise to speak in support of the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025. I ask that you imagine the Gabba stadium in the beautiful electorate of Griffith recently on the evening of 18 July, when the Brisbane Lions played the Western Bulldogs. I ask you to imagine the stadium that night filled with what I can only assume were mostly Lions supporters. Imagine the buzz and the energy of more than 29,000 people who attended that game. The majority of those 29,000 people were winners that night there in that stadium. I ask you to imagine that stadium teeming with people, because this bill will help more people in my electorate of Griffith than even the number of attendees at the Gabba that night. This bill will help over 31,000 people in Griffith, more winners than even a Lions game at the Gabba. This bill will cut the student debt of three million Australians by 20 per cent. It will cut the student debt of more than 31,000 people in Griffith.

In the lead-up to the last election, I had the privilege of doorknocking on almost 15,000 doors personally, and I spoke to thousands of young people in my electorate. I heard time and again what cutting student debt would mean to them, their current household budgets and their ability to move forward with their lives. Indeed, most of those helped by this bill are young Australians just out of uni, just out of TAFE, just out of home and just getting started. They're struggling to pay their rent, trying to save to buy a home or thinking about starting a family. They're nurses, teachers, tradies, doctors, paramedics, engineers, architects, IT workers and AI experts. The average HELP debt today is $27,600. When this legislation passes, that debt will be cut by $5,520. For the people of Griffith with a debt of $50,000, it will be cut by $10,000.

Those opposite would have you believe that this bill is only helping write off the debt of lawyers and doctors. The member for Flinders said as much this morning to this House. This bill will certainly help many of the healthcare workers in Griffith; hospitals are one of the largest industries of employment in my electorate. Diligent, hardworking and caring healthcare workers at the PA, Mater and Greenslopes hospitals are performing daily miracles in a universal healthcare system that is the envy of the world. This bill will provide relief to many of the young healthcare workers in Griffith starting out in their careers—doctors, nurses and paramedics. And I have no doubt this bill will provide debt relief to some of the young lawyers at centres like the Refugee and Immigration Legal Service in South Brisbane, who provide free immigration advice, legal assistance and legal education to immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Queensland.

This bill will also provide relief to people like Marcia, a young resident who lives in West End in Griffith. Marcia said:

I took on a big debt to study psychology because I want to help people, especially those doing it tough.

One of my sisters became a teacher to support the next generation. We didn't choose these paths for the money.

We chose them because we care.

Cutting student debt and raising the threshold is recognition that working-class people who give back shouldn't be punished for getting an education.

As promised, this is the very first bill to be introduced to parliament after the election and, as promised, and as we heard from the Minister for Education, it cuts the student debt of three million Australians by 20 per cent.

When I left school in 1999 and went to university, I studied an arts-education degree with the hopes of becoming a secondary school teacher. I had wanted to be a teacher for as long as I could remember. I worked throughout my study, sometimes full time with an almost full-time study load. While I was thankful to be able to go to university, something neither my parents nor I could ever have afforded to do without what was then a HECS debt, the debt repayments were significant. They kicked in while I was still studying and greatly impacted my ability to support myself and get ahead. This bill addresses that as this bill also raises the minimum amount you have to earn before you have to start making repayments from just over $54,000 in 2024-25 to $67,000 in 2025-26 and it reduces the minimum repayments you have to make. For someone earning $70,000, it will reduce the minimum repayments they have to make by $1,300 a year. That's real cost-of-living help. It's more money in your pocket, not the government's, when you really need it. You can still pay off more if you want to. What this does is make the system fairer. As our education minister said, it means you start paying off your uni degree when university starts to pay off for you.

Like our Minister for Education, I believe education is the most powerful cause for good. As the minister outlined to this House:

A good education changes lives.

A good education system changes countries.

It's changed ours.

We have got a good education system in Australia today.

But the truth is it can be better and it can be fairer.

This bill is part of that. I wasn't able to finish my education degree when I first went to university in the early 2000s. I worked throughout my study, usually full time, to be able to afford my rent, food and bills. I completed all of the coursework for my education degree, but when it came to my final prac I could not afford the six weeks off to be able to undertake it. There was no support for somebody like me to be able to complete the final practicum required for their education degree. My rent, grocery costs and bills would not disappear when my income would have. So, instead, I graduated with an arts degree and it took several years of me saving to be able to return to university to complete my education qualifications. I did this, and I am proud to say that I am now teacher trained.

What I'm also proud of is that, from the start of this month, this government is offering Commonwealth prac payments to support teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students. These payments will help these students who are studying to work in careers to help us. This is another way that this government is supporting young Australians, just like cutting their student debt by 20 per cent through this bill.

Whilst we on this side of the House were promising Australians that we would cut student debt, those opposite were making plans to increase it. Unbelievably, those opposite wanted any Commonwealth prac payments added to a student's HELP debt. With thanks to the people of Australia, including the people of Griffith, this week we are able to fulfil our promise and cut student debt by 20 per cent.

I think April, a student of social work from West End in my electorate of Griffith, summarised it best when she said of this action:

It's not just about individuals, it's investment in our nurses, teachers, our scientists …

We all benefit from this.

We do all benefit from this bill. I am proud that this bill will cut student debt by 20 per cent. I am proud that it will cut the debt of three million Australians. I am proud that it will cut the student debt of an almost-filled Gabba stadium of Griffith residents, more than 31,000, mostly young, people. It will take the weight off their backs, it will help with the cost of living and it will help build Australia's future. I commend this bill to the House.

I will be supporting the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025. I believe it's a very important one, particularly for the many young people of our region who are undertaking tertiary studies. As at 30 June 2024 there were 14,366 people in Calare who had an average HELP debt of $23,349. It's no secret that many of our young Australians are feeling under financial pressure, saddled with more tertiary education debt than previous generations had to contend with, struggling to get a foothold into the housing market. Many young Australians have given up on the great Australian dream of home ownership.

This bill is a significant way to deliver them relief. I have a daughter who's currently studying at university. And while I am pretty certain that she voted Independent at the recent election, I did see her on Prime News welcoming the announcement, as many of her fellow students did. As history shows, the policy did not have bipartisan support when it was announced. It is no longer opposed by the coalition, and I believe that is a good thing. I hope the passage of this bill ushers in a new era of policymaking for young Australians—who are, after all, the future of our nation.

Among the features of this bill, it touches upon the Higher Education Loan Program, as well as Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans and Vocational Education and Training Loans. It will basically provide a one-off 20 per cent reduction in student loan debts incurred on or before 1 June 2025. The bill's fairer repayment system measure involves increasing the minimum repayment threshold for compulsory student loan repayments from $54,435 in 2024-25 to $67,000 in 2025-26 and introducing a marginal repayment system for compulsory student loan repayments, calculated on income above the new threshold.

So, this bill is an important one, as I have stated, and it delivers badly needed relief for students and graduates. But our universities also need support from this government. The university in our electorate of Calare is Charles Sturt University. I have to point out to the House that international student numbers at Charles Sturt University have dropped by 90 per cent since 2019, and it's hit the university hard. It's now burning through its reserves; staff are being laid off. Charles Sturt University runs its physiotherapy, medicine, dentistry and vet science courses at a financial loss, largely due to the current funding models, which severely disadvantage regional universities. These losses simply can't be sustained indefinitely.

To support our regional universities and find solutions to regional funding disparities, our regional universities like Charles Sturt University are seeking reforms. These include an easing of visa restrictions and fees and de facto caps and a cessation of the negative messaging that is deterring international student applications for study in Australia, allowing a return to sustainable international student numbers. Our regional universities are also seeking a needs based funding model for domestic students. They don't believe that the current one-size-fits-all model accounts for the higher cost of delivering education to students who need more support to succeed at university. So they want a better and improved needs based funding model—the regional education loading that properly reflects the cost of delivering comprehensive course offerings in thin markets across dispersed regional campuses that have significant essential teaching and research infrastructure to maintain. This is what our universities are asking from the government. They want that loading which properly reflects the cost of delivering vitally important education to regional students. Our regional universities believe that these requirements are not just a matter of fairness; they are a matter of our national interest. Investment in our regional universities is an investment in the future of regional Australia, because we can't just have the metropolitan sandstone universities educating our young people. We need universities like Charles Sturt University building the future of country Australia and building the future workforce of our regions.

Universities in the regions, like Charles Sturt University, exist to deliver regional solutions. The teachers, the nurses, the doctors, the vets and the social workers of country Australia are what is at stake here. The simple truth is, for higher education in Australia, international student revenue pays for domestic students and supports our country universities. I would urge the government to have a very close look at what is happening to university funding in regional Australia. It is a crisis, it is having a debilitating effect and it will have a debilitating effect on educational outcomes in regional Australia and it will have a debilitating effect on the future workforce of regional Australia.

I think it's a very positive thing that this bill delivers important relief to our students and also our graduates. It will mean a debt reduction for three million Australians. That is a significant and an important initiative. I commend the bill to the House but, in doing so, urge the government to support our regional universities and listen to their cries for help which are occurring right across country Australia.

If there's one group of Australians that have had the rough end of the pineapple when it comes to the cost of living, it's young people. They've had increases in rent, increases in student debts and increases in their general cost-of-living expenses like every other Australian and they've really been struggling. That was the message that came through in the last period of the former parliament and, indeed, in the first period of this parliament. That's why the Albanese government reacted and put in place that commitment to reduce student debts by 20 per cent if we were elected and to make it a priority of this government upon returning to office.

I'm proud that this Universities Accord bill will provide that real relief for millions of Australians. Many of them are younger Australians—who we've listened to—and we're now taking action by cutting their student debts by 20 per cent. It's a promise that we made in the election and we're now delivering it as a priority for this government. It will be the first piece of legislation that will pass this parliament. We know that the cost of living is important to Australians. That's why the major focus of our election policies was cost-of-living relief. This bill does just that, helping to wipe more than $16 billion in debt for more than three million Australians. We know that getting an education shouldn't mean a lifetime of debt. We also know that the coalition opposed this measure in the election campaign. I'm pleased to see that they've changed their mind, but they did call it 'terrible' and 'unfair'.

But the Australian people made it clear on 3 May that they wanted cost-of-living support, and many parents wanted it for their kids. They want to ensure that their kids get access to education and that that education is affordable. This is what this bill does. We saw large increases in indexation associated with student debts in the wake of COVID because of the inflation spike that occurred throughout the world. That resulted in some unfair debts and some increases in debts for many Australian students, so we've responded by cutting their debt by 20 per cent and easing pressure for workers and students across the country. Someone in the community of Kingsford Smith with an average debt of $27,600 will see around $5,500 wiped from their outstanding HELP loans. It's backdated to 1 June and it will reduce the burden for many of those students, including those with HELP vocational education and training student loans, Australian apprenticeship support loans, student start-up loans and other student loans.

I've been speaking to some students from Randwick TAFE in the community that I represent, and I know that costs can often be a barrier to Australians pursuing an apprenticeship or a qualification at a trade level. This bill will deliver cost-of-living relief to 280,000 students in the VET sector across the country, cutting half a billion dollars of student debt from that group alone. Our government is focusing on reducing the barriers to further study and training so that every Australian can get the skills they need for a secure, well-paid job.

In addition to cutting student debts by 20 per cent, the legislation raises the minimum threshold for repayment, before students start making those repayments, from $54,435 to $67,000. So those payments will be reduced. For someone earning $70,000, that will reduce their minimum repayments by $1,300 a year.

I'm fortunate to have the wonderful University of New South Wales in the electorate that I represent, and I'm a very proud alumnus of that great institution. It fills me with great pride to see the opportunities on offer at UNSW for students in our community and for those beyond Australia, and to hear of the positive impact on them from the education that they get. They're the ones making the future happen today. UNSW, of course, leads the world in solar research, in quantum technology and, indeed, in AI and in other areas where there's some fantastic research going on. You can see the development of hydrogen fuel in UNSW, as well as the work that goes on at the Kirby Institute around the development of lifesaving treatments for many viruses and other diseases across the world.

No matter where you live or how much your parents earn, we'll continue to ensure that the doors of education and opportunity are open for more Australians, not just at UNSW but at other great universities across the country. It's not just helping students from Randwick TAFE but also those from other great TAFEs throughout the country. This reform helps everyone repay student debts right now, and it delivers a better deal for every student in the three years ahead.

It builds on significant reforms that we made to help students in the last period of government, when we wiped $3 billion of HELP debts and fixed the system so that indexation of HELP debts can never increase faster than wages. From 1 July this year the government established the Commonwealth Prac Payment to support about 68,000 eligible teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students whilst they're completing their compulsory practical training at university. They'll now start to receive that $320 payment whilst they're on practical placement—again, assisting those students to meet their cost-of-living pressures, ensuring that when they do have to take a break from the workforce they will still be able to earn and to pay their bills.

We've locked fee-free TAFE into law. It's now seen more than 650,000 enrolments across the country, with 170,000 of those courses already completed. From 1 January this year, the government also massively expanded the fee-free uni ready courses, which are life-changing courses that help more students from disadvantaged backgrounds get access to early support for education in the university sector.

We're establishing an independent Australian tertiary education commission to drive reform of Australia's tertiary education sector. We're changing the way that universities are funded—that will start from 2026—which will help more people from outer suburbs and regions get a chance to go to university and provide them with the support that they need to complete their degrees. The government has heard the calls from younger Australians about support for their educational aspirations and the challenges that they're facing with their cost of living. We heard that call; we put in place the policy; we took it to the election; we received a mandate; and now we are delivering that cost-of-living support for millions of younger Australians to ensure that they can aspire to the education that they want, aspire to the job that they hope to achieve, and make a valuable contribution to Australia moving forward.

I rise to speak on the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025 that is in front of the parliament, and I rise to speak about Australian young people who are struggling at this time in ways that they haven't in previous generations. It goes to the heart of why this bill is important but also why other things are also necessary as well.

I met a young woman recently. She was in her early 30s. She had one little child, about a two- or three-year old, and twins. She came up to me at Kings Cross one Saturday morning when I was standing there. She is a doctor. She said: 'I used to be a nurse; I then became a doctor. I've just paid off all of my HECS debt. My husband is a lawyer; he used to be a policeman. He also retrained and just paid off his HECS debt.' She said: 'I think I've done everything right. I've tried to make all the good choices, but I cannot see how I'm ever going to have a home of my own. I can't see how I move forward, and I think about this every single day.' This, to me, is absolutely gutting, because this goes to the heart of some of the challenges we have in our country right now where people who are doing everything right. In this case, it was an individual who is working to care for people—she cared for my mother—talked about how she is caring for people, making all the right choices, investing in herself and her education, and she cannot get ahead. This is the problem that we're facing. We're facing it in the tax system, and we are facing it in the education system that we have here in this country.

Let's now talk to the bill. This is an important bill. It is not a perfect bill, but it also doesn't deal with some things that really need to be done. What does this bill do? It reforms the HELP system. This reform of the HELP system will go some way to alleviating financial pressure for many young Australians and so it is a welcome measure to many young Australians. I will support this bill, but I also acknowledge that this bill is far from the best version of the bill it could be.

There are a number of measures in this bill, and two of the three measures in this bill, namely the changing in the repayment threshold and introducing the marginal repayment system, have enormous merit.

Firstly, increasing the payment threshold from the current $54,435 to $67,000 will mean that graduates on lower incomes and lower salaries will take home more pay before having to contribute back to the cost of their education—which is a response to the fact that over time the repayment schedule for HECS has not kept pace with the cost of living, in particular affecting low-income households. Similarly, the Universities Accord identified that the current repayment schedule is unfair since the stepped increase resulted in some cases of people earning less take-home pay after receiving a pay rise. That just doesn't seem right. As Professor Andrew Norton argued, these measures in principle sound good—graduates will pay less on average every year—but there are some downsides, including in the marginal increase in the average repayment timeframe and an increase in the likelihood of some low-income graduates having their HECS index faster than their ability to repay. So these are good measures but they're not perfect.

However, there are a couple of issues with the bill. One is how we are giving one-off HECS-HELP relief to students. I do support HELP relief for students, and that is because I believe that, in Australia, young people are struggling to achieve the same milestones as their parents. We have a birth rate of 1.5. That is the lowest it has ever been, and it is because young people are saying they can't actually afford to have children. We, as a country, will pay the price for that going forward. We are seeing this in our wealth outcomes. In the last 10 or so years, households over the age of 65 grew their wealth by around 50 per cent. Households under the age of 35 pretty much went nowhere. We see that in our tax system. If you take two households both on 100 grand, if one household is retired it is, on average, paying half the tax of a young working household.

We all know that it's when you are young and working, when you're trying to buy a house or raise kids—that's when you have the most pressure on your income, and that's when our tax system goes for you the most. So this is why I support the measure in this bill that cuts student debt, because I believe that we do need to find broad ways to try and support young people in what is a really difficult moment for them right now.

But I do have some questions in terms of how the government designed this part of the bill, and I wish they had, frankly, approached it a different way. The government decided to offer HELP relief to students by slashing 20 per cent of their account balance as at 1 June 2025. And, look, that's going to help a whole bunch of people—many, many people in my electorate—and I'm extremely pleased about that.

However, this policy is extremely dependent on timing, and it is, as economists call it, 'horizontally inequitable'. As e61 estimate in their recent research, a graduate who finished the same degree four years ago—and, by all accounts, can be expected to face the same financial pressures and burdens as someone who graduated today—will experience just half the benefit of this policy, relative to someone who graduated last year. So, within four years, one person gets twice the benefit of somebody else because of the way that this bill has been designed.

That just seems a shame. Frankly, just because you graduated four years ago doesn't mean you are less worthy of a reduction in your HECS balance, and it doesn't mean that you're less pressured in terms of your finances; it's just the timing. If, right now, you're at maximum HECS debt, you're going to get the full benefit of this bill. If you have paid it off over time, you're just not. I don't think that's a particularly fair way of approaching it. And, frankly, a young person going into uni right now or starting next year is not going to get any benefit from this bill at all. This is part of the challenge here.

I believe that good policy requires people in the same situation to, ideally, get equal treatment. I recognise that many people in this House, for instance, had free university, which is a luxury that many won't have. I think it's of concern that this bill is so sensitive to the timing of when somebody completed their university degree. Other options were presented by e61. They recommended that the government pay each student with a debt a flat amount equal to 20 per cent of the average HECS debt. This simple change would have provided $5,500 to all students with a HELP debt, regardless of their year of graduation. The policy would have cost the same, yet it would have mitigated this horizontal inequity based on when a person happens to graduate from university. It would also have given, possibly, the government a longer grace period before pressure mounts for other people to get future cuts to their HECS debt—which is probably going to happen after this one-off debt relief. That is a problem for a future government.

I've talked a lot about HELP debt, about what it is and about why this is an important bill, and I recognise that it is important. But I also recognise that there are many other issues with the current HELP system which are problematic and have not been addressed by this bill. I'll put one out there that the member for Kooyong raised in her second reading amendment, and that is the job-ready graduates scheme. This is a policy that keeps on coming up when I go around my community and ask them what they think about HELP debts and education. This policy, which was implemented by a previous coalition government, increased particularly the cost of arts degrees to around $55,000. They were trying to disincentivise people from going into the arts and encourage more into STEM. It did not work or achieve its policy objective, but it burdened arts graduates with an education debt that outstripped, frankly, the costs of the university and penalised a group of people who actually have relatively low lifetime earnings. So it wasn't fair either, and it's a shame that the government hasn't dealt with this problem, because it is a significant problem with the HECS-HELP system, and it is urgent that it be addressed.

Another opportunity that has not been dealt with in this bill and was recommended by the Universities Accord was to change the timing of indexation from 1 July until compulsory repayments made during the previous year were deducted from a student's balance. This would help students pay down their loans quicker.

In summary, I will support this measure because I believe it is providing relief to a part of the community that really needs it. But I do believe that the government could have done a much better job in terms of designing some aspects of this bill, and this bill still has a significant way to go in addressing some of the problems in our university sector.

Mamdani proves people can demand more and win. Freezing the rent—this idea just won in New York. Fast, free buses—this idea just won in New York. Cheaper groceries with government owned stores—this idea just won in New York. Universal free child care, giving everyone a living wage and taxing big corporations and the wealthiest one per cent—these ideas just won in New York when Zohran Mamdani won the NYC mayoral democratic primaries. And you know what? They'll win here in Australia too, because these ideas will benefit the overwhelming majority of people. They would make everyone's lives better.

The political establishment and big corporations will do everything they can to stop this. They'll tell you it's impossible; they'll tell you that it's reckless. They will mobilise their millions of corporate dollars to distract you with fear campaigns and smear campaigns. They tried all of this with Mamdani, but when people get together and organise, when they stand up for what is right and when they realise that they can demand more of their government, they can beat all of that. That is what 'Mamdani' means.

This last election, in Australia, we stopped Dutton. People rejected Trumpian politics, but the Labor government is banking on people thinking we can't demand more. Mamdani shows that we can, because the stakes are high. Economic inequality is out of control and getting worse. Have I gone mad? When did we decide that billionaires' wealth should surge while millions of people can't pay their rent or buy a house? The world's billionaires increased their wealth by $6.5 trillion over the last decade—enough to end world poverty several times over. Here, in Australia, we have the glory of doubling the number of billionaires in the country over the last decade. It doesn't seem to matter who is in government; the absolutely mega rich just get richer.

Over the past decade, under Labor and the coalition, the total wealth of Australia's richest 200 people has more than doubled; it's now at $667.8 billion. Under Labor and the coalition, the average rich-lister now has 116,000 times the wealth of someone in the bottom 50 per cent. The wealth of that bottom 50 per cent of Australians has flatlined over the last decade. Since I started speaking, billionaires in this country have increased their wealth by about $95,000. People can't buy a house; people cannot get ahead. Millions of people struggle to pay their bills and feed their families. It's past time for a tax on billionaires in this country. Put that wealth to good use. Use it to build enough genuinely affordable homes for everyone who needs them, not to buy another luxury yacht.

Let me just point out the startling hypocrisy of some of Australia's wealthiest people lecturing Australians about productivity. Australians, the business establishment says you are not being productive enough. I say they're making you work too much. It's time for a four-day week with no loss of pay. Life is for living, not just working. Over the past decade, profits have gone up 97 per cent and wages have gone up 50 per cent. Big corporations are having a great time—a bonanza. Everyone else is working their guts out just to get by and to pay their mortgages or rents, their grocery and electricity bills, their child care and school fees, for a music lesson for the kids or for club sport. We're all working longer hours and more overtime with more commute time. Then you're exhausted by the weekend. You can't enjoy the precious time you have with your family and friends, and then the Labor government convenes an economic roundtable with CEOs telling us that we need to be more productive. It's an insult, frankly. Give us a four-day week with no loss of pay.

Study after study shows people will be happier, stay in their job longer and have fewer mental health issues. They'll be more productive and take fewer sick days. Study after study shows people get trapped in fewer pointless meetings and businesses invest more in genuine labour-saving technologies. But we don't really need those studies; it's just the right thing to do.

The Gilmore electorate takes in a 200 kilometre stretch of the New South Wales South Coast, with 180-odd towns and villages across the three local council areas of Kiama, Shoalhaven and Eurobodalla. Gilmore has a lot of roads, a lot of bridges, a lot of pathways, so many roundabouts, thousands of potholes, dozens of landslips and, unfortunately, far too many lives lost.

I drive these roads every day, so I know firsthand how our local roads are impacted by natural disasters. I get caught in traffic when an accident has occurred and the Princes Highway is closed again. I talk with families that have lost loved ones and people in communities that have been impacted again and again by road trauma. Road safety is a top priority for people in my electorate, and that's why I have fought so hard to deliver more than a billion dollars to get important road projects off the ground. In this term, I will continue to fight for better roads in my region.

Even before I was elected as the federal member for Gilmore in 2019, I pounded the pavement collecting signatures, attended rallies and meetings, and shouted from the rooftops, calling for improvements to the Princes Highway and, of course, to our local roads in the Shoalhaven, Eurobodalla and Kiama areas. Now six years later, when I drive around Gilmore, I'm immensely proud to see roadworks, completed or underway, that I have championed, such as major infrastructure projects like the Far North Collector Road at Bangalee, near Nowra, and the Jervis Bay flyover, and many smaller but just as important roads that connect our smaller villages and towns.

Just last month I took a tour of the Jervis Bay intersection worksite and was amazed to see how fast it is progressing. Work is now underway on the massive overpass and two roundabouts that will make this important intersection smoother and, importantly, safer for local residents and visitors. To the south of the Jervis Bay turn-off, the wheels are turning on the upgrade of the six kilometre stretch of the Princes Highway to Hawken Road, which will become dual carriageway with a safer interchange. This crucial road project is finally underway thanks to a $400 million injection of funding from this government. I'm delighted to see the Nowra bypass moving forward with $97 million in federal funding. The Milton-Ulladulla bypass is moving forward with $752 million in federal funding, with a contract awarded for the next phase.

These are some of Gilmore's big ticket items, but just as important are the smaller road projects that are happening across my electorate thanks to an injection of federal funds. I've delivered $40 million for the Shoalhaven local roads package, and, on top of that, this government is providing an additional $8.1 million to improve the Shoalhaven road network. Preparatory works have begun on six roads earmarked for upgrades, including Forest Road, Callala Beach Road, Callala Bay Road, Culburra Road, the intersection of Worrigee and Greenwell Point roads and the Callala Bay Road and Forest Road intersection.

Further south, in the Eurobodalla, work is underway on a new roundabout at the intersection of George Bass Drive and Broulee Road at Broulee with the help $2 million from the black-spot program. A new $4 million roundabout on the Princes Highway at south Moruya will provide safe access to the Moruya TAFE campus, the new Eurobodalla Emergency Services Precinct and future housing developments. In the Kiama council area, a string of natural disasters has led to devastating landslips around Jamberoo, and I'm proud to say Jamberoo Mountain Road is now open to traffic following the completion of repair works helped along by federal and state disaster recovery funding.

I'm really looking forward to the completion of additional repair work on Wallaby Hill Road, Foxground Road and another section of Jamberoo Mountain Road thanks to over $4 million in funding through the Albanese and Minns Labor governments' Infrastructure Betterment Fund. I'm deeply committed to addressing longstanding problems on local roads caused by extreme weather events and to futureproofing the local road network for expected population growth in the region.

Finally, the government's decision to increase the funding for the Black Spot Program to $150 million per year and to progressively double Roads to Recovery funding means our local councils can fix even more local roads to ensure we all get home safely.

Tonight I'm calling out the moral hypocrisy of the net zero zealots. I do this on behalf of regular Australians, who are the ones bearing the cost of Labor's reckless climate and energy policy. But tonight I'm not just calling out the Prime Minister; I'm calling out the hypocrisy of the UN climate chief, Mr Simon Stiell of Grenada. For regular Australians, that's the bloke who travels the world, presumably on planes powered by fossil fuels, on behalf of the United Nations, demanding radical climate targets from countries who are signatories to the Paris Agreement and who have signed up to net zero by 2050. 'What is net zero?' you might ask. Net zero commits Australia to holding the increase in global average temperatures to well below two degrees of warming and to pursuing efforts to keep warming to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius. If you have further questions, many people do as well.

To achieve that, Labor has committed to a radical decarbonisation of the Australian economy. That's why they have introduced a tax on our heavy industry—the safeguard mechanism. That's why they're transferring massive subsidies—your money—to inefficient foreign-backed renewable projects. That's the Capacity Investment Scheme. That's why there's a tax on utes and four-wheel drives—to make diesel and petrol powered vehicles more expensive and move you to electric vehicles. That's the new fuel efficiency standard. That's why a tax on farmers is also coming with the obligation for them to report indirect emissions in their supply and value chains. All of this will have huge economic consequences, and no-one is really being honest about the true cost of net zero. If you question this, people are quick to call you a climate denier, but everyone knows that the price of electricity keeps going up. Everyone knows the price of gas keeps going up. After all, you're the ones who get the bills.

Labor's objective is to have 82 per cent of the electricity grid powered by renewables by 2030. So what they're going to do is move from cheap, reliable Aussie coal-and-gas-fired power stations to Chinese made, industrial-scale wind and solar farms that destroy our fertile farming land and our environment and will be very expensive and unreliable. It's a pretty bleak picture. Today we heard from Ross Garnaut, a long-time adviser to Labor governments, that Labor is not on target for 2030. In fact, they're going to miss their goal or objective by a big margin. To recap, Labor is driving our country into the ground chasing radical and unrealistic climate targets. The Australian people are paying the costs in power prices, in dropping living standards, in jobs moving offshore and in our national prosperity. The net impact is that we are less secure and less sovereign as a nation.

Now, onto the stage in Sydney yesterday walked the UN climate boss, Mr Stiell, and he urged Australia to go big on targets, saying we must avoid 'bog-standard' targets or the world will overheat. Given that Australia produces only 1.1 per cent of the world's emissions—last year we only increased our emissions by 0.3 per cent—my question for Mr Stiell would be: 'Have you asked China, India and Indonesia the same question?' Last year, China accounted for 30.7 per cent of the world's emissions, and they grew by 1.2 per cent. India accounted for eight per cent of the world's emissions and grew by 3.7 per cent. Indonesia accounted for 2.2 per cent of the world's emissions and grew by 6.3 per cent.

Has Mr Stiell asked Australia to halt the export of coal and gas to India, China, Japan, South Korea and other Asia-Pacific countries? Last year we exported 25 per cent of the world's coal and 20 per cent of the world's gas. No, he hasn't. So he can't really be serious on climate change. We are literally fuelling the world's largest and fastest-growing emitters with our exports. That's a reality they won't admit. But Mr Stiell has the gall to come down here and lecture the Australian people on climate goals and demand that we further weaken our economy, de-industrialise our country and transfer wealth from some of the poorest Australians to the most wealthy Australians. Here's the real kicker: that money is used to subsidise foreign energy interests.

Australians can't stand hypocrisy, and hypocrisy lies at the heart of the net zero economy that this government is building. We see hypocrisy from this Labor government, and we've seen from the UN climate boss. Who is going to stand up for regular Australians? Who is going to stand up for our families, our seniors, our workers, our small businesses and heavy industry, who bear the cost of Labor's net zero policies? Mr Stiell should come to my electorate, look the 3,000 Alcoa workers in the eyes and explain to them the true cost of net zero.

I love bragging about my neck of the woods in Braddon. Windswept, best cheese, a safe community, welcoming, fabulous artists—these are just some of the words and phrases that I would use to describe King Island. King Island is an island in Bass Strait belonging to the Australian state of Tasmania. It is the largest of four islands known as the new year group and the second-largest island in Bass Strait, after Flinders Island. The island's population is around 1,600 people. That's growing. The island forms part of the official land divide between the Great Australian Bight and Bass Strait off the north-western tip of Tasmania, about halfway to the mainland state of Victoria. There are three small islands immediately offshore: New Year Island and Christmas Island situated to the north-west and the smaller Councillor Island to the east, opposite Sea Elephant Beach.

In mid-July I visited King Island to officially open the King Island Hub, a beautifully designed building for the use of the local community and tourists. It sits right beside the new Study King Island. Both were funded by the Albanese Labor government. Study King Island is one of 10 new regional study hubs around Australia in 2025 aimed at providing students living in regional areas easier access to VET and university study options. The King Island Hub comprises a community lounge with free wi-fi, a co-working space, small meeting and training rooms, new accessible toilets, a kitchen and some of the best views in Tasmania. I really do mean the best views; they are stunning. I'm not sure how anyone will study out of it.

The multipurpose building has been built between the Currie museum and the lighthouse and incorporates an existing residence previously used by the King Island council. The King Island study hub will offer both young and mature local students the opportunity to have a dedicated study hub with support on the island and will help raise educational aspirations. The hub will provide support to locals studying at university and provide VET academic students with the ability to stay on the island and remain near their support networks.

I also packed in constituent meetings and visited Phoenix Community House, the local community house which is the heart of the community. They welcome locals growing fruit and vegetables, but they do so much more for the community. Ocean Dunes Golf Course is a relatively new course and is currently having a 62-bed hotel built right in the middle of the golf course by local tradies who employed seven local apprentices. It's an impressive building which, when completed will welcome golfers but also others from across the globe to complete 18 holes on what I think is one of the most picturesque courses. A restaurant is also planned for the site once the hotel is completed.

The windswept island off an island doesn't do winter like the rest of Australia. On King Island the pace slows, with the Currie lighthouse turned into a canvas as part of Anchoring the Season, the King Island anchorage festival. It was a laid-back celebration of local culture, produce and creativity that was as much about connection as it was about content. Sea-ing Light was an interactive and immersive projection experience that transformed the Currie lighthouse into a beacon of storytelling and sound.

My visits are never complete without a visit to the gallery at Currie Harbour, currently showcasing Weathering, a heartfelt exhibition crafted by local artists in response to the recent drought, capturing the resilience and humanity of the King Island community.

I was also very pleased to meet with Graeme, the new island of King Island Dairy, the factory that makes the best cheese anywhere. Last year, the large multinational who owned the dairy decided they were going to sell, or close if a buyer couldn't be found. This was devastating news for the island. The dairy employs over 60 locals and runs two dairy farms. It was great to hear the passion that Graeme has to keep the factory running but also upgrade it.

I also met with a Naracoopa Progress Association, an enthusiastic group of locals who are champions for their part of the island, to discuss their plans to upgrade their foreshore.

And my visit is never complete without dropping into the CWA Shop, where the smell of freshly cooked scones with jam and cream meets you as you enter, and a warm welcome from the CWA women follows closely. A visit here is not complete without replenishing my cupboard with some of their great produce made right there on the island. I am lucky to have such a beautiful part of the world right in my electorate.

Today in question time we had the Minister for Defence Industry trying to make a valiant defence of Labor's flagship National Reconstruction Fund. Members might wonder why the government felt this was necessary. I want to address the fact that last month the Auditor-General handed down its report Design and establishment of the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation. This report found that the NRFC Board was yet to finalise a financial or investment strategy. This is despite more than $400 million having been invested by the NRF to date. That's $400 million invested without a financial or investment strategy, which is required. I quote from the report:

NRFC's investment targets are not supported by formal plans to deploy investments in a timely manner to generate returns and fund operating expenses.

In plain language, the Labor Party has been splashing taxpayers' money around without a care in the world. How surprising! This is an astonishing government failure and governance failure, as the Auditor-General found, because it's directly at odds with what the government has said the rationale for the NRF is. Minister Ayres has said:

… the NRFC is required to deliver a positive return to the Government over time …

And no less than the Prime Minister, when visiting China early last month, said of the NRF:

… we expect it will produce a return to the Government through increased revenues …

Well, then, how does that correlate with the Auditor-General finding that the 'NRFC's investment targets are not supported by formal plans to deploy investments in a timely manner to generate returns to fund operating expenses'? In other words, the fund has no plan—not to fund its own expenses and certainly not to deliver a return to government. But the Prime Minister and the industry minister are promising the taxpayer that there will be a return from this money. That's very difficult to imagine without a plan for a return and where the funds aren't being deployed to produce a return. It will barely even cover its expenses.

What action has the government undertaken to address this serious mismanagement? Last week Capital Brief reported that Minister Ayres and Minister Gallagher issued a joint statement to the NRFC to accelerate its investment. In layman's terms, that means 'hurry up'. Get on with it, because there isn't a return coming. Labor wants the NRFC to double down on its investment pipeline in the full knowledge of the fact that there isn't a finalised investment or financial strategy—a small problem. It will be without such plans until after its September board meeting. But the government is saying to the fund, 'Hurry up and spend the money,' without the plan and without the investment strategy. Is this a recipe for disaster, Deputy Speaker Scrymgour, I ask you? It sounds like a recipe for disaster. 'Hurry up and spend, hurry up and invest, but don't hurry up and set up your investment plans to actually fund the money that the taxpayer has given you.' It's little wonder that the federal budget is heaving with debt and debt has increased under the Labor Party if this is the approach.

But this is not the only serious governance blind spot that we found at the NRFC. In the same report, the Auditor-General found that the ninth member of the NRFC Board, Mr Glenn Thompson, was appointed without due diligence checks having been conducted by the ministers' respective departments. I ask the House: who is Glenn Thompson? Mr Glenn Thompson is a former long-time assistant national secretary to the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union, someone that you probably would want to do due diligence checks on, just like any other member of the board. This is the very same union, of course, regrettably, of which Minister Ayres is a former national secretary. So a person who has been appointed to the NRFC Board without, according to the Auditor-General, due diligence checks having been conducted is also a member of the union of which the minister is the former national secretary. That is a coincidence that we would certainly want to know more about. Despite this advice being present on the appointment briefs, the minister still signed off. So clearly there are questions for the government and the minister to answer over the appointment of a member to the NRFC board that the Auditor-General found was appointed without due diligence checks having been conducted by respective departments.

This is not the careful and strategic deployment of taxpayer funds that ought to constitute industry policy in the 21st century. Instead, this appears to me like more of the same discredited protectionist policies of the past but with less scrutiny and less planning than ever before. If the Prime Minister and the industry minister are serious about a return to government, surely they are going to need an investment plan, not just spending the money? This isn't our claim; this is from the Auditor-General. So we ask the government to seriously look at what they are doing in this fund.

Deputy Speaker Scrymgour, I start by congratulating you as the first Aboriginal person to chair the House of Representatives. On Sunday, I had the most special day with my family. My friend, Dr Nilofar Ibrahimi, hosted a special gathering with her family and friends to celebrate my being elected. Dr Nilofar Ibrahimi is one of the most inspiring people I have the great honour to know. She is a doctor from Afghanistan and was a female member of parliament in Afghanistan. Since the Taliban retook Kabul, she has been a Canberran and here has founded the ZamZam Foundation, which is an organisation that supports the education of young women in Afghanistan. So it was incredibly moving that she organised this celebration for me and my family when really the greatest honour is to know her and her beautiful family. To call her a friend and a supporter means more to me than I can put into words.

Her story is incredibly inspiring and is covered in a documentary called Facing the Dragon that I hope we will be able to screen in the parliament some time very soon. I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to view this to do so. It is one of the most powerful things I have ever watched. For me personally as a member of parliament, hearing her journey as a member of parliament representing her community and what that meant for her as a woman and the challenges she faced in Afghanistan was incredibly moving, particularly considering what has happened since then.

Recently, Nilofar's sister, Manizha, and six of her daughters and her son have been able to join her here in Australia. I have seen these incredible young women and the resilience, strength and courage with which they are starting a new life here in Australia. Think about what their lives have been so far, what they have had to endure and what they would be if they were not here. What they will be now is an incredible testament to what it means when we can welcome refugees into this country.

I was really pleased to have the opportunity to share in some of their Afghan culture on the weekend. What an incredibly beautiful and generous culture that is, one that, under the Taliban, is being so destructively attacked, particularly for women and their basic right to exist.

On 15 August we will mark fourth anniversary of the Taliban's takeover of Kabul. Since that terrible day, we have seen the decimation of human rights and a growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. In 2024 our government joined Germany, Canada and the Netherlands to take the Taliban to the International Court of Justice over the violation of women's and girls' human rights. We have allocated 26,500 dedicated visa places for Afghans to migrate to Australia under the offshore humanitarian program through to 2026, focusing on reuniting refugees with immediate family in Australia. We have also committed significant humanitarian and basic aid assistance to Afghanistan. When I see Nilofar's family here and the new lives they are making, I hope we can extend that to even more Afghan people for them to come and have a chance to live a life where women can pursue normal and happy lives like these wonderful women are.

I particularly want to draw attention to the escalating humanitarian crisis affecting approximately four million Afghan refugees who are currently residing in Iran. This has been brought to my attention by two more local organisations, the Afghan Peace Foundation and Susan Hutchinson of Azadi-e Zan, a women's rights organisation based here in my electorate of Canberra which is aimed at bringing justice for human rights defenders of Afghanistan, ultimately for them to be able to continue defending women's rights for Afghan women. The world must not forget the plight of the women of Afghanistan. I'm proud that our government is doing this, and I hope that we can do more.

Deputy Speaker Scrymgour, first let me congratulate you also as the first First Nations person to lead from that chair. I rise tonight to support the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025. As I mentioned in my first speech to this House, my mum, Luella, who still lives in my electorate, couldn't fulfil her dream of becoming a teacher because her parents couldn't afford for her to go to college. My twin sister and I were the first in our family to attend university, and this would not have happened had university not been affordable. As one of eight kids with mum staying at home and dad working as a sparky, there was no way they could have afforded for us to attend university. That is why I am forever grateful that, all those years ago, Labor made university accessible and affordable for all. The opportunity to study enabled my sister and I to pursue our careers and build our lives.

I want young people across Brisbane afforded the same opportunity I was given to potentially live the life that they want. However, setting yourself up for life through education should not put undue financial pressure on any of us and our families. At a time where there are cost-of-living pressures, people are feeling an even greater impact of study debt, so it was right that the government do something about it and that they do it now. During the election campaign, the Prime Minister made a commitment that, if elected, one of the first things we would do is introduce legislation to wipe 20 per cent off student debt, and that is exactly what we are doing. Having access to affordable education is an important foundation in anyone's life. That is why I am proud to be part of a government who is delivering better and fairer education for all. Education has the power to change lives.

On this side of the House, we believe in supporting our young Australians through their entire education journey. This support starts in early years with our cheaper childcare policy. More than a million Australian families have benefited from cheaper child care, delivering real cost-of-living relief to households, including those in Brisbane. This is good for children, good for families and good for Australia. We also committed at the last election to the three-day guarantee starting from January next year. This will deliver a guaranteed three days a week of formative early childhood education. It means more than 100,000 families will be entitled to more hours of subsidised education and care. The government will also roll out the $1 billion Building Early Education Fund, which will boost access to early education and care in areas of need, including in the outer suburbs and regional Australia.

Our education system relies on professionalism and the dedication of our educators. Labor recognises the critical role they play in teaching our kids, which is why Labor is supporting childhood educators with a 15 per cent pay rise. I was recently at a Goodstart centre in Ashgrove with the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Senator Walsh, who delivered this good news to local educators. Of note, though, most were female, which I guess is unsurprising, given the profession, but this is important because more women getting paid more goes a long way to delivering gender pay equity.

Right before the election the Prime Minister announced the landmark deal with the states and territories—that our public schools will be fully funded, and fairly funded, right across the country. This will deliver record funding to schools and introduce targeted reforms, which will help students to catch up, keep up and finish up. But support doesn't and shouldn't stop there. In my community of Brisbane there are more than 25,000 students across TAFE, vocational schools and education. There are also more than 34,000 with student debt. That's the third largest concentration in the economy. This equates to approximately $1.1 billion in debt. This bill means that the young people of Brisbane will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the reduction in student debt, which I am proud to be part of delivering.

Whether you are a professional, at 37 per cent of our Brisbane workforce, or a technician, tradie or community and personal service worker, who make up another 20 per cent, you will benefit from this student debt reduction. Professionals, builders, bakers, nurses, teachers, paramedics and the rest who have finished your education with a debt and are working in your chosen field: you will benefit from this student debt reduction. If you are still studying you will benefit from this debt reduction. No matter how you choose to study, this government wants to make sure education isn't a barrier to leading a decent life.

We've heard tonight that the average student debt today is about $27½ thousand. This legislation will cut that debt by about $5½ thousand. To the people of Brisbane and across Australia: if you've got a debt of $50,000, this law will cut it by $10,000. All up, this bill will cut student debt by more than $16 billion. And the good news is that it will be backdated to 1 June this year.

This bill also proposes structural reform to how the repayment system works. As noted by Bruce Chapman, the architect of HECS, this is the single most important change to the HECS system in over 35 years. These changes will make repayments cheaper, and they kick in later, when workers are earning more money. Again, this will help young Australians who are trying to save for a deposit on a house or who are trying to build up their own piggy bank—like Angus, or my sons, who live in Brisbane, who are young and starting to make their own way in the world.

Unsurprisingly, before the most recent election the coalition attacked this policy. They called it 'profoundly unfair' and said Australians would see no benefit from this policy. With comments like these, it's no wonder young people are abandoning the coalition in droves, and a recent report confirms that. I'm not surprised. Young people are finding it tough. They want to be listened to, and that is what Labor is doing with this bill.

Just this week we also heard those opposite say that there is no such thing as a free lunch, referring of course to student debt. But those opposite love a free lunch, like the tax cuts for the highest earners in the country or the free lunch for bosses that they wanted to bring back. If the LNP want to be taken seriously they need to start listening to our young people. They have a chance to do this with this legislation, not just by voting for it but by actually speaking in support of it.

Young people made their voices heard at the election, and they have put their faith in our government to deliver on reforms that will make a difference in their lives—young people like Angus, who I mentioned earlier. He runs his own small business walking dogs to support himself while studying his bachelor of communication at QUT. And there's Nathan, who recently graduated and is now completing his PhD in mechanical aerospace engineering. Nathan will now be $9½ thousand closer to getting a deposit on his home. And there are people like Mason, who studied advanced programming at TAFE and has now gone on to university to study IT and computer science.

It's not just this reform that Labor has delivered. Our government has established, as of 1 July, a Commonwealth prac payment to support about 68,000 eligible teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students.

On top of this, our government has locked free TAFE into law. This landmark policy has seen more than 650,000 enrolments across the country, with 170,000 of those courses already completed. From 1 January this year, the Labor government also massively expanded fee-free uni-ready courses. This is important because it provides a different pathway to finish school and is helpful to those especially from disadvantaged backgrounds or who just don't like school to access TAFE or university.

Last year the government wiped $3 billion off HELP debts and fixed the system so that indexation on HELP debts can never increase faster than wages. The fact that this happened is unfair. It caused a lot of angst among young people, including people in my electorate, and Labor fixed it.

Labor is doing a lot to help with the cost of living. On top of the reductions that this law introduces, we've seen tax cuts and energy bill relief coming, and we heard today about more bulk-billing. But we also know that young people often get jobs in hospitality to support their studies. This bill is all about delivering on a promise. It's about giving everyone a fair go. It's about making the education system fairer and restoring generational equality.

There are 2.9 million Australians with a HECS debt, and this bill, the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025, will reduce their debts by 20 per cent. As a result of this bill, every single one of the 1.2 million Australians who are currently repaying their student loans will pay less per year.

I wish to congratulate and thank the 290,000 Australians who signed my HECS petition to the education minister last year. You contributed to this change. You spoke, and your voice was heard by your elected representatives and by the government. You did this. I also want to thank and congratulate the Minister for Education for responding to the voices of hundreds of thousands of Australians. Our democracy is strong. I've heard from or spoken with many of you—students, graduates, parents, grandparents, academics, educators and Australians distressed that a system designed to increase access to tertiary education has been reverse-engineered to the point where it is an active disincentive to start studies. It's become a burden around the neck of young people and older people saddled with life-changing debt.

This legislation will lift some of that burden for Australians. It's very clever politics but it is not ideal policy. The 20 per cent cut is not well-targeted. It will deliver major benefits to recent graduates but give much less to current students or earlier graduates. It gives nothing to future students or those who have already completed their repayments. It will help those people who have bigger debts more.

Under this bill, the income threshold for compulsory HELP repayments will increase to $67,000. Repayments will be calculated only on that portion of the income which is above the $67,000 threshold rather than the total income. This marginal repayment system will result in lower compulsory repayments for everyone who earns less than $180,000. The problem is that that higher threshold and the marginal repayment rates mean that, although we won't any longer have that paradox where graduates who are earning pay rises sometimes see their take-home pay decrease, more graduates will find themselves repaying less than the annual indexation on their HECS balance. As a result, their debt will increase each year. They will effectively be locked into a debt treadmill. The Parliamentary Budget Office has calculated that, for those starting careers with incomes below the repayment thresholds, particularly women, repayment could take 40 years or more. Some young students are signing on for what is effectively a lifetime of debt, and they don't understand that when they take on those degrees.

University isn't what it used to be. Domestic enrolments have plateaued, dropout rates are historically high, debts of more than $150,000 at graduation are no longer rare and women are taking longer to pay back their HECS debts—so they end up paying more. Meanwhile, the government has still not unwound the job-ready graduates scheme, which, five years ago, doubled the cost of arts, law and business degrees overnight. Students of those disciplines are still accruing massive debts—$50,000 for a basic degree and $85,000 for common combinations. The Australian Historical Association said on 24 July:

In an era of severe international turmoil, climate crisis, rising disinformation, and declining trust in democratic principles, a higher education in subjects that stress global knowledges, reasoned debate, and civic literacy is paramount.

Job-ready Graduates did not align with national priorities or with projected skills shortages. It left students with debts which were vastly disproportionate to their future earning potential. The PBO has estimated that it's already increased student debt by more than $10 billion, and that is going to continue to increase massively until it is reversed. The minister has suggested repeatedly that the Australian Tertiary Education Commission will provide advice on student fees, but it will not be able to change them before 2027 at the earliest. The minister could do that tomorrow. In 2021, the Labor caucus called the job-ready graduates scheme 'inequitable, pernicious and perverse'. Even the Liberals are now admitting that the job-ready graduates scheme is an appalling policy which should be scrapped immediately.

Prac placements are another burden. Optometry students and medical imaging students have to undertake a full year of full-time, unpaid training. Physios, occupational therapists, podiatrists, speech pathologists, vets and others have to complete a thousand hours or more of unpaid placements. During those placements, which can be hundreds of kilometres from their homes, they have to pay for travel, additional accommodation, uniforms, equipment, professional registration and insurances, not to mention their loss of income, plus or minus childcare costs. Those placements are much more burdensome for students from rural and regional settings and for those from First Nations and vulnerable backgrounds. They are more challenging for women, who are more likely to have dependants and other care responsibilities.

The Commonwealth Prac Payment program, which commenced on 1 July, was a response to the recommendation of the Universities Accord that we provide financial support for the nursing, care and teaching professions. But it is currently limited to students of nursing, midwifery, teaching and social work. There is no possible justification for excluding students from other care disciplines at a time when we have persistent and significant workforce shortages in virtually all healthcare disciplines. It is a false economy to force students to defer their studies or to go part time to cover the cost of their prac placements, knowing that, in many such cases, those decisions are followed by noncompletion. We're already investing in those students. We need the skill sets that they are acquiring in all good faith. Placement poverty is exacerbating workforce shortages in many key professions, like psychology and radiography. By worsening skills shortages, we are driving up the out-of-pocket costs for things like psychology support, mental health care and medical imaging. I join with the allied health professionals' association, the Australian Medical Students' Association, the AMA, the National Union of Students, the Health Services Union, the Australian Veterinary Association and the Pharmacy Guild in calling on the government to immediately extend support for compulsory prac placements to all care-sector students.

Finally, HECS loans are indexed annually on 1 June, using a formula based on either the CPI or the wage price index for the previous year, and that ensures that debts maintain their real value over time. The fact that the tax office doesn't adjust the balance owing until after a tax return is filed, after indexation is applied, means that many graduates see their debts increase, despite their very best efforts to pay them off. It is outrageous that payments made during the year by these graduates are not taken into account before that indexation is applied. We would not put up with this on our mortgages. Why do we expect graduates to put up with it? It is a sneaky, unnecessary cash grab which is costing Australian graduates $175 million every year.

We need fairer, more equitable and more systematic higher education contribution schemes. Young people are facing a housing crisis, a cost-of-living crisis and a climate crisis, and now we've given them the additional burden of making their education too expensive. We need to align the cost of education with the earning potential of graduates. We have to ensure that Australians aren't saddled with a lifetime of debt, because they've worked to gain skills from which we will all benefit. We shouldn't make laws that prolong and increase their debt burden. That is what we are doing today.

HECS debts are stopping young people from starting degrees. They're preventing them from getting home loans. They're causing them to put off starting families at a time when our birthrate is lower than it's ever been before. We need to make degrees cheaper and we should start by scrapping the job-ready graduates scheme. We need to change indexation to make it more fair. We need to help young people complete practical training in the courses that they love so that we can benefit from the skills they bring to our healthcare system. We need to show some generosity. We will all benefit so much in return. I brought to the House today an amendment to those ends. I commend it to the House, as I commend this bill, and I trust that colleagues from all sides will support it.

At the last federal election, the Albanese government promised to cut student debt by 20 per cent, and this week in parliament we're delivering on that promise. We said it would be the first thing we do when parliament returned after the election, and now we are here delivering it. We're delivering real cost-of-living relief for 18,000 Australians in my electorate with a student debt, we're delivering a better deal for three million Australians across the country with a student debt, and we're reducing the average student debt by about $5,500—in one hit, in one bill.

Labor's commitment to cutting student debts by 20 per cent was one of those policies that, I can tell you, really cut through at the last election. I can't tell you how many voters I met on the doors, on the streets or in the shopping centres in my electorate, at pre-poll or at polling booths on election day who I asked: 'Do you have a student debt? Do you want to buy your first home?' 'Well, vote Labor, and the first thing we'll do is cut your student debt by 20 per cent, then we'll also increase your borrowing capacity with the banks, and, to top it off, we'll enable every Australian to buy their first home with a five per cent deposit without having to pay lender's mortgage insurance.' This cut through because it spoke to a bigger intergenerational injustice. It was offering a fairer deal to young Australians who have gotten a raw deal in recent years. I agree with the member for Kooyong. Young Australians are facing a housing crisis, a cost-of-living crisis and the legacy of a climate crisis.

Of course, it also cut through because the coalition, those opposite, opposed these cuts to student debt when Labor announced them at the last election. They called them 'wasteful'. In this parliament, the coalition's No. 1 priority is now protecting generous tax concessions for Australians with $3 million in superannuation, which is already there for their retirement. These are the intergenerational priorities of the coalition. They still don't get it, and it's no surprise that coalition MPs have been telling journalists in the press gallery that they suspect that even their own children weren't voting for the coalition at the last federal election—and, really, who can blame them?

While we're in this chamber, cutting student debts this week, we should also remember that, when it was introduced, HECS was one of the great innovations of Australian public policy. Consider the challenge that HECS was designed to meet. When the Hawke government came into office, barely one in three Australians finished high school, barely one in three Australians completed grade 12. Through a decade of persistent policy effort, recognising the way the world was changing, recognising the way the global economy was changing and recognising the need for increased skills and increased levels of education, the Hawke government increased funding to secondary schools, targeted disadvantaged areas, modernised curricula, introduced vocational and applied learning pathways and made the case publicly on the need for kids to stay in school longer. After ten years, the Hawke government was able to lift the high school completion rate in Australia to nearly eight in ten—from three in ten Australians finishing high school to eight in ten Australians finishing high school—in a decade. That was an extraordinary expansion of the opportunity of education from a reforming, pioneering government. It's a great Labor legacy.

But what then to do with the now more than doubling of the proportion of Australian school leavers who are now able to dream of going to university? HECS, a deferred-repayment, income-contingent loan scheme, enabled Australian students to contribute to the cost of their degrees proportionate to the expected private salary returns that they could expect to receive from their qualifications, in a way that didn't force them to pay upfront or to face crippling interest repayments on large upfront loans. It enabled students to pay back their student debts only when they were earning the kinds of salaries expected from university study, with debts being indexed rather than subject to private interest rates.

HECS expanded educational opportunity, and did it in a fair and fiscally responsible way. It was a great Labor reform that the Hawke government; the Hawke government's education minister, John Dawkins; and the designer of HECS, Bruce Chapman, can rightly take great pride in. Income-contingent loans of this type have been copied by governments around the world, and it was a Labor innovation. It was an Australian innovation. But, unfortunately, over time, a series of reforms to higher education introduced by those opposite in the last decade—the wasted decade before the election of the Albanese government—broke the balance that made HECS work. The recent COVID-driven inflation spike really threw things off kilter. The spike in the indexation of loans through that period after COVID really got out of control. This bill fixes that. In the previous term of government we wiped $3 billion in student debt from Australian student loans. We fixed indexation to ensure that, in the future, debts cannot grow faster than the wages of the students who have incurred them. Now we are going further to ensure that more money is back in the pockets of more Australians, wiping another $16 billion from three million Australian student debts in the bill that we have debated this week. For the average Australian, with a student debt of $27,000, that's a reduction of more than $5,500.

This bill will also help Australians with student debts who are earning lower wages to keep more money in their pockets, increasing the repayment threshold from $54,000 to $67,000 a year, a recommendation made by the architect of the HECS scheme, Bruce Chapman, who designed it with Dawkins back in the 1980s. I know from media reports that Bruce is very, very excited about that particular reform. This will reduce yearly repayments. For someone on an income of $70,000 a year, it will reduce the amount of compulsory repayments by about $1,300 a year. Australians will only start to pay off their studies when their studies start paying off for them. We're also replacing the current repayment system with a new marginal repayment system. Instead of the amount Australians pay being a percentage of their entire wage, it is a percentage of their wage above the minimum repayment threshold of $54,435. It is a structural change and it's a fairer change that will benefit people with a student debt now and in the years ahead.

In the debate about this bill, particularly during the election, there were some ignorant and smart, snarky comments from conservatives about who these changes would benefit. I'll tell you who these changes will benefit. They will benefit teachers. They will benefit nurses. They will benefit engineers. They will benefit social workers. They will benefit doctors. They will benefit scientists. They will benefit researchers. They will benefit all Australians who've backed themselves by going to university to improve their skills to build our nation. This is betting on Australians who have bet on themselves. This is a bill that rewards aspirational Australians. And it comes on top of a suite of educational reforms that we made under the previous government and that we took to the last election, like fee-free TAFE and prac payments, expanding opportunity in the education system for more Australians.

There's an enormous legacy in this country of pioneering reforms to our education system made by Labor governments. They have a few things in common. They're fair, they expand opportunity, and they let more Australians have access to that ladder of opportunity—the opportunity to improve yourself, to aspire to something better, to back yourself to develop those skills—but they do it in a fair way. That's what this bill that we have passed this week is all about. It's delivering on our commitment to young Australians, to support them to improve their own skills without being burdened with a crippling debt in the future.

This is just the start, though. This government has a big agenda in education policy. It's one that we will continue to work on through the life of this government. The member for Gippsland is on manoeuvres at the moment! I'll be finishing my speech in some seconds, and, if he wants the call next, he can get back to the chamber.

Thank you. On that note, I will conclude my comments.

I was going through this, and I was fascinated. I went to the website of the Australian government Department of Education. It goes through the grand outcomes of the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025. It tells me whether the 20 per cent reduction applies to me, whether I should consider making a voluntary repayment, when I will see the 20 per cent, why will my student loan debt go up, what if my HELP loan for recent studies is not showing and on and on it goes.

Madam Deputy Speaker, I'll tell you one thing it doesn't show you—how much it's costing the Australian people. It doesn't tell you that. When we hear this and when we say, 'This is what the government is doing,' it sounds like it's almost coming out of Treasurer Jim Chalmers's pocket or maybe out of Mr Anthony Albanese's new house or a magical place. It's actually the Australian people. The Australian people are paying off other people's debts. The Australian people are forking out the money from their pockets to pay off another person's debt. That is actually what is happening here. Let's talk about some of the other Australian people who are paying off people who go to university's debt, and I went to university. They're fitters and turners. They're plumbers. They're shearers. They're bricklayers. They're chippies. They're boilermakers. They're just farm labourers. They don't get their debt paid off, but they're paying off another person's debt. How do you think they see this sort of conceit? 'I'm entitled, after I've been to university, to have the taxpayer pay off my debt.' Why?

I know that you've got the numbers in the House to get this through, but let's just end this rhetoric. Just remember who's actually paying for this. It's not the government, as if you whip the tin around the Labor Party and say, 'Chuck your money in here; we're going to pay off the debt.' It's actually other taxpayers that are paying off the debt. If they don't pay off the debt from the other taxpayers, it'll go on the $950 billion that tonight is in Australian government securities outstanding, on the Australian Office of Financial Management website. It hasn't been through $1 trillion yet, but it will. It's another one of those mistruths that was peddled, but if you keep doing things like this—borrowing money to basically give to somebody else, which is what you're really doing—you're just giving the money to somebody else, and you're making somebody else stack bricks, go to work on building sites or work as a contract musterer on a farm. You're making them pay off the other person's debt. Just inform your rhetoric about exactly what it is. It is not a gift from the government. It is a payment by one group of people to another group of people. You're paying off somebody else's debt with their money.

An honourable member interjecting—

Yes, I did. I did pay mine off. I take the interjection. He asked if I paid off my debt, and I did.

An honourable member interjecting—

I've had a hard life, mate. One of the things that's interesting in this, in paying off university debts, is the one regional city that doesn't have a university. They've put the money aside, but they haven't started building it. It's Tamworth, with the lowest tertiary education rate in regional cities in Australia. So, while you're throwing garlands down on tertiary education, when are you going to actually get a university campus into Tamworth, or is university only a thing for the big cities? Little ones don't have to worry about it. That's something you can put your energy into. I'll hear back from the minister, talking about how we're going to go ahead with the university. We've got the land for it, we've got money put aside for it, but you just never started the university. It's just sitting in abeyance.

What I'd also like to bring to people's attention is that when you talk about degrees—we have arts degrees and we have all sorts of wonderful white-collar degrees that have been brought up—you have to be aware right now of one of the great disruptors is coming to Australia. You cannot stop it. I've had briefings on it today. It's going to happen around the world. The great disruptor today is going to be AI. What you are going to see is that if you have a job that requires a keyboard, a computer and a person, over the next decade, that job will probably go, because it has to. AI works around the clock, 24/7. It doesn't require superannuation, it doesn't want overtime and it doesn't need an office. It doesn't need it. In the past, in the Industrial Revolution, we had machines that replaced trades. They replaced weavers and other trades. AI is a product that replaces people. What we have to do in this nation is realise: are we setting up tertiary degrees to put people into jobs which won't be there? Has that discussion happened in this bill? Have you worked out that this is not a dream; it's actually happening?

Whether it's Elon Musk, who I was reading about just then, and the new generation of chips that he's developing, or whether it's Meta, there is a range of houses in the world now that are developing AI. We don't have OpenAI, but it's going to happen in myriad places. I'll tell you why they want to do it. It's because they're going to make trillions of dollars in profit because they're going to be able to take out people's jobs. If we're not prepared for that, we're going to get smacked between the eyes with a big AI stick. This is the thing. We'll also have ramifications because once the jobs go—and they will go; there's no point smirking about it—you don't need the real estate. You don't need the offices. You saw the precursor to that during COVID, with people staying at home. This time it will be permanent, because they won't be staying at home; the job just won't be there.

We haven't, in this nation, really had a forensic look at how we are going to do this. One of the things you must do is broaden your economy to be resilient enough to absorb these people who will be put out of work. To broaden that economy means you have to really concentrate on areas which are not a computer, a person and a keyboard. You need trade jobs. They are your chippies, they are your boilermakers, they are your electricians, they are your contract musterers. They are jobs that require hands and legs and moving. We haven't really focused on that. But with these macro policies—and, I hate to say, such things as net zero—you're actually taking an economy, a nation, to a place and pushing it towards the jobs which will disappear and which won't be there. I'm not saying it's going to happen tomorrow. But in the next decade, though? Absolutely, a hundred per cent.

We had them upstairs in the Mural Hall. They were fascinating people to talk to. You should have got up and had a yarn with them. How fast they're getting this ahead is amazing. We had people from Silicon Valley at Mural Hall. I had some of them come down to my office. We were just churning through where this world is going to end up. But there's a conversation to be had—when's it going to happen?—about how you have jobs for your children and grandchildren. If it's a white-collar job and you put them through uni and you pay off 20 per cent of their HECS debt, what is the point if, in 10 years time, that job is just not there? We sit back here blindly going forward. In fact, the only thing we've done in this chamber is take away the prospective jobs that they could have otherwise had if we had cheap energy, if we had the capacity with cheap energy to drive forward manufacturing and drive forward heavy industry, because you just put heavy industry out of business. Those jobs have also gone. So what's your nirvana for that?

In closing, I would like to thank the boilermakers, the fitters and turners, the meatworkers, the farmers and all those other people who have never been to uni. You should be thanking them for paying off somebody else's debt, because this is what this is all about. Thank them for paying off another person's debt. Next time I'm in an abattoir—there are a number in Tamworth—or out with those workers, which is what I do when I go home, I'll just say to them: 'At the end of the day, are you happy that you paid off a uni student's debt? How do you feel about that? Does that blow your hair back? That is what fascinates the Australian Labor Party—that you pay off white collar workers' debts.'

We said we'd do it, and we've done it. Today the Albanese government has passed through this House a bill to reduce student debt by 20 per cent. On average, that's a $5½ thousand reduction for all those with a student loan debt. The Albanese government has done this because we believe that one of the keys to a bright future is a good and fair education, and getting that education shouldn't mean a lifetime of debt. I know this principle is close to the heart of our education minister. I would like to acknowledge his passion and commitment to reducing barriers to educational achievement and his unwavering commitment to enabling this reform.

We want everyone to have opportunity regardless of their financial circumstances. We want to reduce the barriers for people with a student loan to buy their first home, start a family or transition to a new career, and that's what this bill does. As promised, it cuts the student debt of three million Australians by 20 per cent. Overall, it will cut all student debt by over $16 billion. In my electorate of Corangamite, this means a lot, with almost 18,000 people about to have their student loan debt cut. That's significant, particularly when we know the average HELP debt today is about $28,000. Most of the people with this debt are young Australians, just out of uni or TAFE, just getting started trying to save to buy a home and thinking about starting a family—teachers, tradies, nurses, doctors and paramedics, engineers, architects, IT workers and AI experts. These are the Australians who will build Australia's future—who are already building it—and this will take a weight off their backs. When this legislation passes, their debt will be cut by 20 per cent based on what it was on 1 June this year, before this year's indexation occurred. This will ensure graduates get the maximum financial benefit and that we honour our promise in full, and it will happen automatically. The Australian Taxation Office will process the changes and, when their work is done, Australians with student debt will receive a text—a text worth celebrating. That's real cost-of-living help.

What this means is more money in your pocket—in the pockets of students who have debt, not the government's. It means less pressure on graduates, because we have increased the repayment threshold from around $54,000 to $67,000. This is an important structural reform. We're replacing the current repayment system with a new marginal repayment system. It'll mean you start paying off your university degree when university starts to pay off for you. For someone earning $70,000, it will reduce the minimum repayments they have to make by $1,300 a year, and, rather than loan repayments being calculated based on the percentage of someone's repayment income, a new marginal system that kicks in at a threshold of about $67,000 will be introduced. By making these adjustments to repayment rates and thresholds, the government is ensuring that more people have more money in their take-home pay right now by smoothing out the time and pace at which debt is repaid.

It should be noted that this is a recommendation of the Universities Accord. The architect of HECS, Professor Bruce Chapman, said:

That is the most important thing that's happened to the system in 35 years. It's a marginal collection, it's much gentler and much fairer than previously—we should have done it years ago.

And, when our prime minister first announced the proposal, he said the following:

It will help everyone repaying a student debt right now—and it delivers a better deal for every student in the years ahead.

Permanent structural reform to boost take home pay for young Australians.

This is about putting money into your pocket and putting intergenerational equity back into the system.

It's good for cost of living.

Good for this generation—and for generations to come.

Ensuring all Australians can thrive is at the heart of this reform, and it builds on work we've done to empower teaching and nursing students with paid prac. It also builds on our work to strengthen TAFE. Free TAFE is changing lives, and it's delivering new opportunities for people transitioning to a new job or starting a new career. Every day, more Australians are enrolling in free TAFE courses, and, every day, more Australians are completing much-needed qualifications. Data from states and territories shows that, from January 2023 to March this year, there were more than 170,000 courses completed. It also found there were more than 650,000 free TAFE enrolments in the same period.

Free TAFE is opening doors to new careers and giving Australians the chance to find secure, well-paid work that they're passionate about. At the heart of our free TAFE agenda is our commitment to helping more Australians get ahead. As part of that agenda, we're continuing our work to take cost-of-living pressures off people right across the nation, from two rounds of tax cuts to significant investments in Medicare, expanding the Paid Parental Leave scheme to 26 weeks with super on top and so much more. The Albanese government is progressing reforms that help people get ahead, start a family, enter the property market and embrace the opportunities our nation has on offer.

Our government is committed to building a world-class education system, providing opportunities and pathways for all young Australians. Education is empowerment. I saw it myself as a teacher in the past. Decent schools mean that a child who comes from the most disadvantaged circumstances can succeed in life with the right support, and those young Australians coming out of school deserve the opportunity to go to university or TAFE without being held back by the fear of financial burden. That's why this bill is so important and why I urge those opposite to accept what the Australian people voted for on 3 May. They voted for student debt reduction. They voted for it because it does not reek of elitism. They voted for it because it's fair. That's what thousands of local people told me in the pre-poll line and on 3 May. They said reducing student debt is the right thing to do. They said investing in Medicare and establishing more urgent care clinics is the right thing to do. They said Australians want a government that's focused on building a future and that listens to them and responds to their needs, and they said Australians want a government that' is focussed on their futures. That's what Australians voted for and that's what the Albanese Labor government will continue to deliver. We'll continue to back in Australians to provide help with the cost of living and to ensure more people get ahead. That's why this bill is the first piece of legislation that we introduced in this new term of parliament.

In closing, education allows students to grow and flourish as people and as Australians, and it gives them hope for the future. Education is an investment. It is never wasted, and that's what the bill represents. To all Australians with a student debt and to the 18,000 who have student debt in my electorate of Corangamite: you will soon receive a text from the ATO. It will be good news. It will cut your HECS debt, and please know that it is your Labor government that has enabled this reform, because we do not want financial burden to be a barrier to grasping the opportunities that come with a tertiary qualification.

I think I should start with something that we can all agree on in this place and agree with the member for Corangamite—that education is an investment. I think all members on both sides of this chamber value education. I think members on the crossbench, in the Labor Party and among the Liberals and Nationals all regard helping young people achieve their full potential as something that we should aspire to in this place, whether that is through a university degree, through TAFE or through pursuing a trade. Helping young people achieve their full potential is something that this parliament should always be aspiring to achieve.

I have noticed over a period of time that those opposite seek to assert some sort of moral authority when it comes to education debates in the chamber. But, when it comes to this bill, trying to seek some moral authority is somewhat misplaced and unjustified. For those on this side to raise concerns about the bill which passed today through the House of Reps is more of a reality check than anything else. There is an electoral reality which comes with this bill which deserves to be called out and has been call out publicly. How did we get to this point? I'll tell you how we got to this point. In October 2024, Newspoll had the coalition leading for the first time since 2022. The issues that were important at the time were cost-of-living pressures and allegations of moral cowardice over the attacks on Israel. They were the issues that led to the Newspoll result in October 2024, according to the commentary at the time. In November 2024, on Newspoll, the coalition's primary support had reached 40 per cent for the first time since 2022. The Prime Minister's lead as preferred prime minister was down to just four points, and his net approval rating was minus 15. So, if you're wondering how we got to the point where the Labor Party made this announcement in November 2024, this is exactly how we got to that point.

Last November, you had to tie a chop around the Prime Minister's neck to get Toto to play with him. He was unloved by the Australian people, and his Newspoll numbers were tanking. This was a break-glass decision by the strategists in the Labor Party to try and buy back the votes in the seats where they were needed the most. And it worked. I'm not begrudging for a second the electoral result. We all enter politics trying to achieve a majority, and this worked. As a vote-buying scheme, pork-barrelling on an industrial scale, it worked. The Labor brains trust, the Minister for Education and, I assume, the Prime Minister himself deserve to be acknowledged for that. But that doesn't change the fact that the proposal is deeply flawed.

Economists themselves have described this measure as exceptionally bad policy which favours the rich, doesn't help with the current cost of living and does nothing to encourage higher education. Economist Chris Richardson also said it's a reverse Robin Hood in that it is basically stealing from the poor to pay the rich. Andrew Norton from Monash University said:

… it is a very expensive and poorly targeted program which delivers huge benefits to those with high debt, while delivering nothing to those starting next year and those who finished earlier …

It is inherently unfair. The measure is not means tested. It punishes people who have done what they can to repay their debts. In effect, 27 million Australians will be paying for the debts of three million Australians. As I said, this policy did resonate with young people because they were experiencing the heat of Labor's cost-of-living crisis, where the price of everything was going up, and they felt locked out and let down by Labor on the issue of housing as well. The cost of education was obviously a major concern, and it will remain one unless the government gets serious about systemic reform. So, when it comes to those opposite coming in here and claiming some sort of moral high ground on education with this policy, just for a second, consider the electoral reality of what we're talking about. This was an industrial-scale vote-buying scheme. It was tertiary-level pork-barrelling, and the proof of that is when you look at the electoral map and understand the disproportionate benefit that accrues in certain seats compared to others.

The chutzpah of my good friend the education minister when he comes to the despatch box and extols this as some sort of great education policy is something I admire. I give credit where it's due. Electoral success was required in the inner city, where the Labor Party was particularly under attack from the Greens, where members, including the member opposite, were fighting off a strong challenge. They needed to find a way to buy back the votes of young people.

What we've seen since the election is the city-country divide and the fault lines that exist. If you want to understand it, it's because regional Australians have been left behind by a government that makes no apologies when it comes to buying the votes of metropolitan people with things like the HECS debt reduction. These are the figures from the Parliamentary Library. In my electorate of Gippsland, 12,777 people will benefit, but it helps 28,009 students in the Prime Minister's seat of Grayndler and 25,901 people in the education minister's seat of Blaxland. That's double the number of beneficiaries in two ministers' seats compared to the seat of Gippsland.

The data from the Parliamentary Library indicates the average number of people who stood to benefit by the scheme in seats that were held by the Nationals in rural and regional Australia in the lead-up to the election was 13,384. However, in the seats held by the Greens in the city, which were the key targets for the Labor Party going into this election, the average number of people who stood to benefit was 32,288. There are two and a half times the number of beneficiaries in those inner city seats. So if you wonder why country people are calling bulldust on this proposal, you would perhaps understand it when you see the disproportional benefit that flows to the inner metropolitan areas.

This was industrial-scale, tertiary-level vote buying, with working class people picking up the tab for students who will earn more over their lifetime as a result of their university education. We know—study after study has shown us—that the lifetime earnings of people with a university degree are on average at least $1 million more than those of people without the benefit of a taxpayer subsidised university education. Just imagine if just some of that $16 billion went to address the barriers which exist for rural and regional students seeking to access a university degree. Yes, the cost of living is a real issue for those students. Moving away from home and finding accommodation—these are real issues that they face. That is why the people in my electorate of Gippsland have much lower participation rates in tertiary education, unless you believe the kids in my electorate are stupider than the metropolitan kids.

We participate in university at a much lower rate than the metropolitan kids because of barriers to entry to university in the first place. The costs of moving away from home are enormous. The legislation that went through the House today did nothing to address that barrier, nothing to address the disadvantage, because the Labor Party could not care less about people in rural, regional and remote areas because they don't represent them. It's a simple electoral maths of the policy which is before the House today and which won the support of the inner metropolitan areas at the last election. Just imagine if some of that $16 billion had gone to addressing disadvantage in rural and regional areas, rather than retiring the debt of some of most advantaged and privileged people in the nation. This is a short-term fix for a long-term issue. As I've indicated, the challenge remains for communities like mine to reduce the barriers for young people to go to university, and it won't be addressed by a $16 billion sugar hit paid for by lower income people to students who had the benefit of a taxpayer subsidised tertiary education.

Labor needs to be honest with the Australian people about what will happen the next time the Prime Minister's Newspoll numbers tank, because it will happen again. There will be no honeymoon this time. There will be no honeymoon whatsoever for a government which has lost its way in so many areas. When the Newspoll numbers drop again, will we have the 'break glass' option of the Prime Minister? Will he wave around his Medicare card this time, making false claims? Or will it be back to the well of student debt, seeking to buy more votes in those metropolitan areas? If this is the case, the government must be transparent about it. We want real reform in education to benefit all Australians, not industrial-scale, tertiary-level vote buying, which is an embarrassment to the Labor Party and to the people who pretend to assert some sort of moral authority over those on this side of the house when it comes to education in this nation.

The House transcript was published up to 21:00. The remainder of the transcript will be published progressively as it is completed.