Ms MADELEINE KING (Brand—Minister for Resources and Minister for Northern Australia) (15:41): Deputy Speaker Claydon, can I start by just congratulating you on your re-election as the member for Newcastle—a very proud resources based electorate, which also has many other skills and jobs—and also on your re-election as Deputy Speaker. It really is my great delight to speak today on the government's behalf on this matter of public importance. I want to make it very clear that all of those on this side of the House know, as the general public and, of course, the voting public of Australia know, that the Albanese Labor government's priorities are the priorities of all Australians. We are focused on delivering our election commitments that Australians overwhelmingly voted for. Australians voted for Labor's vision to build Australia's future because they trust us to meet the challenges that face the nation, and this trust is demonstrated, of course, by the 94 Labor MPs that were sworn into this chamber just yesterday. This government is focused, as the Treasurer said in question time today, on delivering the most responsible and meaningful means of helping ease the cost of living. We know people remain under pressure with the cost of living. What we did for the last three years, in our first term of government, was to deliver cost-of-living relief. It is a priority for Australians and it is a priority for us as a government, and we delivered real, practical help over those last three years and are also doing so today. Today, of course, we introduced legislation to cut student debt by 20 per cent so students, apprentices and young Australians can get ahead. That's three million Australians—and they are principally younger Australians—who will have, on average, $5½ thousand cut off their student debt. That's a debt that goes right across the economy. It applies to university graduates, of course, but also to tradies who have had to pay fees for TAFE. While I'm at it, of course, in the last term we introduced fee-free TAFE. Education of tradies to deal with workforce shortages is, of course, a national priority and a challenge that we have indeed been meeting, whilst those opposite, in their terms of government, managed to slash all the funding to TAFE and tried to deride that great Australian institution. We will introduce legislation to protect penalty rates for more than two million workers right across this country who rely on them to make ends meet. We have slashed the cost of home batteries by 30 per cent, and we have signed contracts with state and territory governments for the construction of more than 5,000 new social homes. Every household will see another $150 in rebates automatically applied to their electricity bill. We have also cut taxes for 14 million taxpayers. This government is squarely addressing the priorities for Australians, whilst we witnessed all of those opposite who were here in the last parliament vote against tax cuts for the Australian people. Those opposite came in here and had themselves recorded in Hansard as indicating that they would be the party of higher taxes for Australians. They failed to understand in the last term—and I can see it's continuing into this term—the challenges that are facing Australians. The Labor government, under Anthony Albanese, has ensured Australian workers will earn more and keep more of what they earn. The same job, same pay legislation has literally transformed lives. I know the member for Hunter is here and I think the member for Paterson is here—coal industry workers in their electorates can now work alongside their comrades with the same skills, doing the same job, and be paid the same. That is fair. That is what Australians know and deserve, and it is the right thing to do. We have delivered. Of course, health is a priority for all Australians, and they only trust Labor to strengthen our health system. Under our health minister, we've seen Medicare reinvigorated. We are delivering more bulk-billing, which is at the heart of our health system. This government is making medicines cheaper by capping PBS medicines at 25 bucks for everyone from next year. If that isn't addressing a national challenge and a national priority for the people of Australia, I don't know what is. Then, of course, there are concession cardholders. The most they will pay for a PBS medicine is $7.70. That affects everyone on those concession cards, those people who are really feeling the pressure of the cost of living. We're going to open another 50 Medicare urgent care clinics, on top of the 87 that we already opened in the last term. I commend the team at the urgent care clinic at Rockingham, who I know are delivering care for people who need help with those little things that we don't really want people going to emergency wards for. All of these things were at stake in the last election, and people overwhelmingly supported Labor's vision to build Australia's future. Labor's priorities are Australia's priorities, and we're getting on with the job of implementing them. As we did in the 47th Parliament, we'll do so again in this one. Since 4 May, we've been getting on with that. Meanwhile, the coalition have prioritised splitting up and getting back together again, completely neglecting the Australian people—does everyone remember that? It was only a few weeks ago, really, when the Nats and Libs decided to split up. The Nats had their own little path to follow, and then they backflipped and got right back on board. Mr Littleproud: We got what we wanted. Ms MADELEINE KING: Did you really, leader of the National Party? Right now, it looks like you're splitting up again, doesn't it? We see there is a national challenge. Everyone accepts—and we can see from those sitting behind me and that were sworn in yesterday—that addressing climate change is a very serious national issue and a national challenge. What do we see from those opposite in addressing that national challenge? The Nationals, of course, have been their ever-helpful selves for the opposition. We have two former party leaders, two former deputy prime ministers, who knocked each other off, and now they're teaming up to knock old mate off. Honourable members interjecting— Ms MADELEINE KING: Sorry, pardon me. The current leader of the Nationals is under attack from the two former leaders of the Nationals as well. I do feel sorry for him; we were re-elected on the same day. He's a jolly good chap—but, geez, watch out, Member for Maranoa. We've seen the basic text of the repeal net zero bill that the member for New England is proposing to introduce. I would note that two of the bills—they're actually acts—were introduced by the Howard government. There was the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000. The now member for New England was in the Senate at the time, and I presume he supported this act when he was in the combined party room. There was also the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act, which was introduced by former prime minister John Howard, one of the overlords of the Liberal Party and the coalition, a real hero to many of those opposite. I just want to remind those opposite what John Howard thought about the acts that the member for New England and the member for Riverina are seeking to delete from Australia's legislative regimes. He said: This challenge, I believe, is best met by a blend of prudent conservatism and economic liberalism. A prudent conservative knows we are but temporary stewards of the environment. That was John Howard. He knew what the national challenge was. He knew that we had to address climate change to protect the environment. It was he who said that the government would also 'introduce legislation this year for a comprehensive and streamlined national emissions and energy reporting system'. Of course they did, and of course all those opposite—maybe not the ones here right now, but certainly the Leader of the Opposition was there—voted for it. So, let's see where this ends up on the national priorities for how the coalition deals with this nation's challenges as they once again fail to listen to the Australian people. We see that their position has not changed in that regard. Put on the noise-cancelling headphones, I say to all the Nationals and Liberals, because that's what you've been doing for the past three years, and I see we're going to look forward to another three years of the same. The Australian people won't forget what you put them through in the recent campaign—a $600 billion nuclear power scheme that would have seen devastating cuts to Medicare and devastating cuts to education, to pensions and to the Department of Veterans' Affairs, as well as the 41,000 public servants that those opposite proposed to slash from the services to Australians. Obviously they've backflipped on that a few times. They would have axed fee-free TAFE; that would have been high on their agenda. And of course we had some weird suggestions. The referendum on deporting people was just one of the many. There was also the tax on gas exports, which I'm sure you must be very proud of; we don't hear much about that anymore. It just goes to show the failure of those opposite, the failure of the Liberal-National coalition, to have any understanding of the challenges and priorities of the Australian people and the Australian nation. They continue to fight amongst themselves, because that's what they do best. Only the Albanese Labor government will help Australians in the cost-of-living crisis and will face national challenges head on and deliver.