PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Excellent to be here with Jess Teesdale, the new member for Bass, who gave an absolutely beautiful speech about why she stood for parliament and why she is here. And her determination to deliver for the Australian people, including children. Jess, congrats again on that wonderful speech.
We got straight to work last week, introducing the legislation to cut HECS debts by 20 per cent. We got straight to work, introducing the legislation to make sure that we protect penalty rates for 2.6 million Australians. And we got straight to work when it comes to ensuring that we have the best possible policy settings to ensure safety in early childhood centres. And we will continue that this week.
Continue it by making sure that we deliver on our commitment to lower the cost of medicines, saving Australians some $200 million every year. And the great news for pensioners is that our commitment for cheaper medicines will mean that we are freezing the cost of medicines to $7.70. Not just this year, not freezing it just for two years, but freezing it for the entire decade. That is real cost of living relief for all Australians who rely on essential medicines to keep themselves healthy. That is great news for pensioners.
So that is what we are here to do, and we are also determined this week to get that HECS debt relief bill through the parliament. I encourage every member of the House and the Senate to support that bill. To make sure that we deliver on that commitment to ease cost of living people with student debt.
So that is what Labor is doing. I have brought a few receipts on what is happening in the Liberal Party and the National Party.
We see in The Australian today. Headline: Lib Rebel on Collision Course with Leader, says this:
'Liberal backbencher, Sarah Henderson, intends to make the extraordinary move of advocating for changes to Labor's cornerstone election pledge to cut university student debts from the backbench.'
Now what we are seeing, day on day, is members of the National Party and the Liberal Party openly challenge their leadership. It started a week ago when we had Michael McCormack and Barnaby Joyce out there, openly challenging the leadership when it comes to net zero.
And then they went further on the weekend. We see this in Western Australia, my home state, 'WA Liberal Party State Council Supports Calls to Abandon Net Zero,' walking away from the commitments to net zero, walking away from the jobs, walking away from the opportunity. And again, in these open challenges, where you have got senior Liberals like Senator Michaelia Cash, senior Liberals like Andrew Hastie out there openly challenging their policy positions - even Tony Abbott supported climate action through Net Zero, even Tony Abbott. But now we have got these senior Liberals out there challenging their leadership.
And what is happening from the leadership of the Liberal Party is they are completely silent. They are completely silent, and I think that tells you everything about the absolute policy chaos that is happening in the Liberal Party as that they look to what happened at the election on the 3rd of May and say the mistake was that the Liberal Party was too extreme. They have come to the conclusion the mistake was that Liberal Party was not extreme enough, and they are going to these extreme policies.
We see it further, where we have calls from Senator Cash, who says that she wants to abandon Welcome to Country ceremonies. We have seen motions from the Liberal Party cheered on by senior Liberals who returned to this place today, cheering on removal of the Aboriginal flag from formal ceremonies.
And I will just quote from two Liberals that I think are worth noting on this debate. Scott Morrison, Prime Minister, day before Australia Day 2022, 25th of January:
'The Aboriginal flag will now be managed in a similar manner to the Australian National Flag, where its use is free, but it must be presented in a respectful and dignified way.'
I would argue, what the Liberal Party did on the weekend in Western Australia was neither respectful nor dignified.
The Liberal Party State Council of Western Australia, on the weekend passed a motion to remove the Aboriginal flag from official ceremonies. But here is what the now Leader of the Liberal Party of Western Australia said just a couple of years ago:
'... millions of Australians who see the placement side by side of our national flag, the Aboriginal flag and Torres Strait Islander flags as a bottom symbol of our unity, progress and respect for one another.'
So what we are seeing with people like Senator Cash and senior frontbencher Andrew Hastie in going down this path of extreme policies where they are seeking to keep their Liberal Party base together and just allow whatever they want to happen at a state conference and then come here and pretend that they have some form of settled policy should be of deep concern to Australians.
Their extreme policies when it comes to climate, after fuelling climate wars for more than a decade, are of concern to Australians. And I think also what is of concern to Australians is that there are good policies on the table, like protecting penalty rates, cutting HECS debt and making sure we have safer environment in our early childhood centres.
These are all on the table, but the Liberal Party are racing off to the extreme fringes. To talk more about what we are doing, what Labor is doing, to actually deliver for the Australian people. I will now pass over to the fantastic member for Bass, Jess Teesdale.
JESS TEESDALE, MEMBER FOR BASS: The last week was our first week here sitting, and it was such a pleasure to be able to share my story with everyone. As a new member, I really enjoyed being able to tell my story, to be able to talk about where I had come from and my passion. So my passion in education was key to the theme of that first speech. And the first speech is a fascinating thing for us to have to do, and we are looking forward to hearing more first speeches today.
My first speech really focused on education, and what I am really proud of is being part of a Labor team that is focusing on education as a whole-of-life approach. We are looking from birth, right through into adulthood, and we have started that by looking at by putting legislation forward to take 20 per cent off everyone's HECS debt.
Now in Tasmania, in my electorate of Bass, that is going to support over 10,000 individuals at an average reduction of $4,400 on their HECS debt. And that is something we are really, really proud of.
As a Tasmanian caucus, we are also looking at how we can bring Tasmanian voices right here into Canberra and into parliament. To do that, we are hosting an economic roundtable with our business leaders and community leaders, including non profit organisations around the state, we are really looking forward to hearing from people about what matters most to them and how we can best ensure our economic reform moving forward. Thank you very much.