BY ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER.
The choice at this election is clear: Labor’s plan to keep building Australia’s future or Peter Dutton’s promise to cut.
The world has thrown a lot at Australia these past three years: the worst global inflation in four decades, the biggest international energy crisis in half a century and trade tensions fuelling new global economic uncertainty.
Together, we faced these challenges guided by Australian values of fairness, aspiration and opportunity.
And because of the hard work of the Australian people, we are turning a corner.
I’m asking you for the opportunity to keep building on the strong foundations we have laid.
Labor’s plan is about delivering cost-of-living relief today, while always building for tomorrow.
A re-elected Labor Government will continue strengthening Medicare, with 50 more Urgent Care Clinics and 1800 MEDICARE, a 24/7 telehealth service that makes free care available to all Australians.
We’ll make a record investment in bulk billing so that by 2030, nine out of 10 visits to the GP will be free.
And we’re reducing the cost of PBS medicines to just $25 – the lowest it has been since 2004 – and freezing it at just $7.70 for concession card holders until the end of the decade.
We will keep building every stage of education, from new child care centres to free TAFE to reducing student debt by 20 per cent.
We will train more tradies and drive the biggest home-building program in Australian history.
And only Labor will make it possible to buy your first home with a five per cent deposit.
We are cutting taxes next year and the year after for all 14 million Australian taxpayers, not just some.
We will ensure the ‘fair go’ is always at the heart of our economy, whether it’s the flexibility to work from home, or the right to disconnect when at the end of the day.
Our plan builds an economy where we make more things here, and where equality for women is recognised.
The past three years have been a time of global unpredictability. It was always going to take more than three years to clean up 10 years of Liberal mess.
When we came to government, inflation was over six per cent and rising. Today it’s 2.4 per cent.
Real wages have grown the last five quarters in a row.
More jobs have been created under our government than ever before.
Australia can not risk our future on Peter Dutton’s $600 billion nuclear scheme and the cuts to health he will make to pay for it. The Liberals are already promising to raise your income taxes, increase your student debt, abolish free TAFE and sack 41,000 people who deliver the services Australians rely on.
We offer a better choice. A future in which no one is held back and no one is left behind.
