Pages tagged "cost of living"
Equality and inclusion
A more equal economy and inclusive society makes our communities fairer, safer and healthier.
Economists and business leaders agree we need tax reform to lift productivity, to ensure that we can fund essential social services and infrastructure, and to reduce intergenerational inequality.
I look at every piece of legislation and policy area to identify inequities for women, for people with disabilities and people of diverse cultural and gendered experiences. I look for opportunities to improve women’s health, economic participation, and safety.
Economic management
We need a strong, productive economy with a fair tax system to improve intergenerational inequality. With a generation of young Australians losing hope of ever owning their own homes, that means putting an end to tinkering around the edges of tax reform.
In the last parliament, my crossbench colleagues and I put tax reform back on the agenda, advocated for indexing tax brackets, presented legislation aimed at ending pork barrelling, and suggested ways to reduce red tape and regulatory burden for small businesses.
Evidence-based, sensible tax reform helps future-proof our economy while providing certainty to older Australians. It should:
- Decrease our dependence on income tax, to increase workforce participation and long-term economic sustainability.
- Ensure fair returns for our fossil fuel and mineral resources, and support the shift to a clean economy.
- Increase housing affordability and availability.
- Creative Incentives for investment and innovation, to increase productivity and economic growth.
Consumer protections
In response to constituent feedback, I’ve advocated for better consumer protections in several areas.
In a cost-of-living crisis, grocery price hikes by Coles and Woolworths have been excessive for too many people. I’ve supported independent reviews of the supermarket industry, advocated for greater transparency around pricing, and pushed for a mandatory Food and Grocery Code of Conduct.
I’ve also advocated for the government to hold our two biggest airlines, Qantas and Virgin, to account for airport slot hoarding and selling seats on cancelled flights. We now have a dedicated Aviation Ombuds Scheme and an Aviation Customer Rights Charter, to ensure faster refunds and complaint resolution.
Together with the Consumer Action Law Centre, I’ve worked for better legal protections for scams victims. I founded the Parliamentary Friends of Scams Protection and successfully pushed for an improved national Scams Protection Framework.
My record on equity and inclusion:
Since being elected to Federal Parliament in 2022:
- I supported legislation to increase access to cheaper early childhood education and childcare.
- Successfully advocated for better access to single parenting payments.
- Successfully pushed for superannuation payments on paid parental leave.
- Repeatedly called for increased Jobseeker and other support payments.
- Advocated for increased Commonwealth Rental Assistance payments, and for a review to ensure that they meet the needs of low-income renters.
- Push for housing reforms to increase the supply and affordability of public housing for those most at risk of homelessness.
- Secured a Senate enquiry into the ‘Respect at Work’ legislation which supported my amendment to better address legal cost issues for sexual violence survivors. The amended legislation passed in 2024.
- Successfully pushed for appointment of a national student ombudsman to ensure safety of women on university campuses.
- Repeatedly drew the government’s attention to deficiencies in reproductive and menopause healthcare for women in Australia.
- Successfully advocated for more funding for family violence and women’s legal services.
- Proposed a Productivity Commission review of the cost of poverty, on the basis of evidence that keeping unemployed and underemployed Australians in poverty is counterproductive.
- Advocated for humane treatment of asylum seekers and speedy processing of refugee claims.
- Supported an ongoing process of reconciliation with Australia’s First Nations peoples.
My parliamentary speeches on equality and inclusion:
Fairer access to representation in workplace harassment claims
Constituent statement: domestic violence
Early childhood education and care
Terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023
Housing Affordability and the Cost of Living
Australians are facing a prolonged cost-of-living crisis, with wages failing to keep up with the increasing cost of groceries, power bills and healthcare. The cost of housing, for renters and mortgage-holders, is one of the most acute financial pressures facing households.
Housing Affordability
Australians are dealing with a housing crisis three decades in the making. Housing prices and mortgage payments are at record highs relative to income. Combined with other cost-of-living pressures and a housing supply shortage, home ownership is decreasing and we have a critical shortage of rentals. The challenge is particularly acute for young people, low-income earners, and older single women who are facing housing stress and, increasingly, homelessness.
I support a range of approaches to increase the supply of quality, affordable homes and to ease the way for the next generation to buy their own home, including:
- Sensitive, evidence-based tax reform to improve housing affordability.
- Long-term commitment to programs such as the Housing Australia Future Fund, the Help to Buy and the Build to Rent schemes.
- Removal of a home purchaser’s HECS debt from the banks’ assessment of their capacity to borrow.
- Commonwealth funding of public and social housing, to reduce homelessness and ease pressure on the private rental market.
- Evidence-based policies to address property speculation, empty residential properties and land banking.
Housing in Kooyong
Kooyong’s increased housing needs must be achieved with community consultation and sensitive, quality developments which maintain neighbourhood character.
Housing in Kooyong must be affordable for essential workers to live close to where they work. That’s why I’ve advocated for affordable housing in the development of the VicRoads site in Kew, with preservation of green spaces and active transport pathways.
Since I was first elected in 2022, I have:
- Worked with local and state governments, residents, and community groups, to advocate for a balanced approach to housing densification in our suburbs.
- Hosted community forums in Kew and Malvern with council representatives, local groups, as well as planning and housing experts.
- Met with the State Minister for Planning and the Federal Minister for Housing.
- Amplify Kooyong’s cost of housing concerns in Federal Parliament.
Cost of living
Cost of living pressures can only be relieved with ongoing reforms and careful economic management that contains price rises and supports households to thrive.
Tertiary education students have felt cost of living pressures more acutely than most, with inflation and indexation making HECS debts rise faster than they could be paid off. I successfully campaigned for changes in HECS/HELP indexation and to get action from the government to reduce debt levels – saving 3 million Australians a total of $3 billion. I will keep campaigning for current and future tertiary students to:
- Make tertiary education courses more affordable.
- Achieve financial support for all prac placements for students in healthcare sector courses.
- Secure fairer accounting of HECS payments.
- Ensure that HECS debts don’t stop first home buyers from getting loans.
In 2023, I successfully advocated for fairer Stage 3 tax cuts so that they helped those most in need of financial support but were less likely to increase inflation. I will keep advocating for a fairer tax system.
In response to consultation with our community, I have sought to address rising the cost-of-living squeeze felt by people in Kooyong by:
- Advocating for lower energy bills by helping homeowners and businesses electrify and maximise financial benefits from the renewable energy transition.
- Voting to make childcare cheaper, and for better workplace protections for women.
- Consistently acting to protect consumers against scams, unreasonable pricing practices and abuse of market power in industries that affect everyday Australians.
My parliamentary speeches on housing affordability and the cost of living:
Early childhood education and care