Thursday, 31 October 2024

Cost of living

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (17:31): (908) My adjournment matter is for the Treasurer, and the action I seek is for the Treasurer to provide an update on the Victorian Labor government’s real actions to support households in my community of Pascoe Vale, Coburg and Brunswick West with the cost of living. We know the biggest challenge facing many Victorians over recent times concerns the cost of living.

As many Victorians are acutely aware, many of these issues have been largely driven by a number of international, national and external factors, including international geopolitical conflicts and tensions, which continue to impact demand and confidence across parts of our economy, supply chains and, especially, global energy markets; the ongoing effects of a one-in-100-year global pandemic, which continues to impact economies and levels of inflation around the world and Australia; the 13 interest rate hikes that have been unfairly imposed on local households by the Reserve Bank of Australia; the inaction, resistance and opposition by many councils, namely those of Liberal, Greens and socialist pedigrees, to increase housing supply by building new homes in their communities, which they oppose regularly; the ongoing disregard by the big supermarkets, banks and energy and insurance companies in providing families with any form of meaningful hip pocket relief; and of course a decade of underinvestment and Victoria not receiving its fair share from the previous Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison Liberal governments. Each have played roles in creating and compounding today’s cost-of-living challenges for Victorians.

That is why I am very proud to be part of a Victorian Labor government that has been taking the real action necessary to help Victorians with the cost of living and day-to-day life, including through payroll tax relief for small businesses; the creation of a record number of jobs – over 860,000 created since 2014; the nation-leading rollout of free kinder for all three- and four-year-olds, saving families up to $2500 per year per child; ongoing investments to deliver the Education State and improve our local schools for teachers, students and families; the new $400 school saving bonus to help families cover the cost of school supplies ahead of the 2025 school year; the free school breakfast program; free glasses and free vision screening programs; the free dental in schools program through the Smile Squad; free TAFE courses, with over 80 free TAFE courses now available; new free teaching degrees to support more people to become teachers; making degrees free for studying nursing and midwifery; backing our nurses and midwives with a 28.4 per cent pay increase; establishing urgent care clinics; and providing free learning and probationary driving permits for young people. There are the $200 Get Active Kids sports voucher for community sport; the new Victorian energy default offer, which is saving on average $100 on household energy bills; providing ongoing rebates for solar panels, solar hot water, battery rebates and homes to electrify; rolling out the container deposit scheme, the cash for cans scheme; and of course the numerous incentives and concessions we have for pensioners and concession card holders as well as our council rate cap to keep downward pressure on council rates.

Yesterday’s ABS data showing inflation at its lowest level in almost four years at 2.8 per cent was welcomed by many across our community, but many are continuing to do it tough. That is why continuing to deliver more cost-of-living measures will be important for local families and households.