One year on from election
Labor is always looking to the future
Sunday, May 21, 1st marked one year since the 2022 federal election.
The election came at such a pivotal moment for Australians.
After a decade under the former LNP government, Australia was ready for a change.
The last few years of the LNP under the leadership of Scott Morrison were especially trying for Australians as they were constantly and consistently bombarded with story after story of corruption, delay, rorts and scandal.
The Albanese Labor team brought a plan for Australians, and we did not bend to the narrative the LNP sought to create.
We had one goal – to give this country a better future by investing smarter, looking forward, and dreaming big.
This vision ultimately got us over the line. Australians were ready for the future and wanted to leave the LNP in the past.
Well, it’s been a year in government for us now, and we have not wasted a single day getting on with the job Australians elected us to do.
Since election day, we have laid the groundwork to make childcare cheaper for 284,100 Queensland families – a scheme set to start from July 1.
We’ve made medicines cheaper for millions of families, indeed hundreds of thousands in regional Queensland alone, with medications soon to become cheaper still for even more Australians with 60-day dispensing.
We’ve invested in TAFE after a decade of LNP cuts and made TAFE free for 180,000 people. And we’re creating 300,000 more fee-free places, helping people study without worrying about the cost, benefiting so many people in regional Queensland, and setting them up with the skills they need for the future.
And we are providing up to $10,000 to each person who takes up a New Energy Apprenticeship to encourage careers in the clean energy sector.
The New Energy Apprenticeships Program helps ensure a pipeline of skilled workers to support Australia‘s clean
energy infrastructure now and in the future.
And we’re establishing the $15bn National Reconstruction Fund, ensuring that Australia can be a country that makes more things here and that we bring manufacturing back home to regional Queensland.
We’ve funded a pay rise for aged-care workers to support their work and the people they care for. As well as delivering a broader increase to the mini
mum wage, supporting our lower-paid Australians.
We’ve started repairs to workplaces to make wages and conditions fairer.
We will close the labour hire loophole so that labour hire workers get the same pay rate as direct employees, minimum work standards for “gig” workers, an objective definition of casual employment and path to permanent employment and we have made deliberate wage theft a crime.
We established 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave and we are making paid parental leave fairer and more accessible to families and have passed legislation to help close the gender pay gap.
And since our government came to office, about 333,000 jobs have been created.
We have also started on the path to deliver constitutional recognition through an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament – which I was so proud to chair the joint committee into the proposed wording.
The committee handed down its report last week suggesting no change be made, and now the Constitution Alteration Bill will go back to parliament. Meaning we are one step closer to a constitutionally enshrined Voice.
Our government also knew we needed to fix Australia’s standing on the world stage and repair our international relations, which is why Foreign Minister Penny Wong has visited 32 countries since her appointment – five more than once.
And being in North and Far North Queensland, we know the importance of our relationship with the Pacific. Which is why I am so proud I got to visit Papua New Guinea with the Prime Minister and the Minister for the Pacific at the start of the year.
These are just some of the few things we have accomplished since May last year. And that’s not even mentioning all the great projects being delivered in regional Queensland, such as the Cairns Marine Precinct and the Hydrogen Hub in Townsville and our $1.2bn investment in the Great Barrier Reef and the jobs it supports right across Queensland.
Going into our second year, everybody in the government is very aware there’s still plenty of work to do.
We know that people are under the pump and feeling the pressures of inflation.
We know that we’re living in an unstable international environment.
We know that people are struggling with the housing crisis, and there is significant investment in the Housing Australia Future Fund in the Senate ready to be passed if the Greens and the LNP will get on board.
The first 12 months have seen the Albanese government lay a strong foundation for the better future Australians voted for in 2022.
And I know that I and everyone on our team will be hard at work every day so that no one is held back, and no one is left behind.