Mrs PHILLIPS (Gilmore): I am proud to talk about the real and tangible work that we as the Albanese Labor government are doing to support local people in my electorate of Gilmore on the New South Wales South Coast as they deal with the cost of living.
The most recent consumer price index figures put out by the Australian Bureau of Statistics have shown that quarterly inflation moderated to 4.1 per cent in the December quarter, down from 5.4 per cent in the September quarter; headline inflation is now at its lowest level in two years; and the monthly CPI is now around half what it was at the time of the election. That isn't a coincidence. It's the result of this government's carefully calibrated, targeted cost-of-living plan. The ABS data shows that, without these policies, inflation would have been half a percentage point higher through the year to the December quarter in 2023. Policies that the Liberals voted against, like our energy price plan, our support for renters and cheaper child care, are all putting downward pressure on inflation.
Just this week I was really delighted to join with the Member for Cunningham and the Member for Whitlam to announce that more than 1,500 local people across the Illawarra, Shoalhaven and Southern Highlands have been helped into their own homes thanks to the government's improved Home Guarantee Scheme. It's an all-too-familiar story on the South Coast: people who were born and raised in our communities, when it comes time to buying a home, are forced to move away because they can't find an affordable place to buy or rent. We're suffering from a workforce shortage. How can we address that if our young people are continually forced to move away? Our Home Guarantee Scheme is on top of our $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator, our $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund and, importantly for so many local people in my electorate, the biggest increase to Commonwealth rent assistance in 30 years.
What else is there? What about $3 billion in electricity bill relief, co-paid with the states? Since July last year, this has been providing eligible households up to $500 and small businesses up to $650 off their electricity bills. There are cheaper medicines. I jump for joy every time we talk about cheaper medicines. Twelve thousand eight hundred and fourteen 60-day prescriptions were dispensed for people with chronic illnesses in my electorate between 1 September and 31 December last year. That's just the first stage of medicines released under this policy, which cuts the costs of those medicines in half. Not only this, but a further 119,075 scripts in Gilmore were dispensed last year at a cheaper rate of $30 per script. This has saved local people more than $1.3 million just on the cost of medicines under the Albanese Government, because we reduced the co-payment.
We've also tripled the bulk-billing incentive for the most common GP consultations for children under 16 and Commonwealth concession cardholders. This will not solve a decades of cuts and neglect to Medicare by the Liberals, but, in the first two months of this change, bulk-billing rates in my electorate have increased by 4.3 per cent. That's more than an estimated 6,000 additional bulk-billed trips to the GP, saving an estimated $252,000 in gap fees. In just two months, that's a huge difference. Another fabulous health investment for local people in my electorate is the Batemans Bay Urgent Care Clinic, which is helping local people access urgent critical care using just their Medicare cards, easing pressure on GPs and the local emergency departments. The Batemans Bay Urgent Care Clinic opened on 4 December, and, in its first two months of operation, nearly 1,900 patients were treated there. How great is that?
There's so much more in our plan, too. There are nearly 4,800 local families benefiting from cheaper child care. There's our expanded Paid Parental Leave scheme. Don't forget the local students now studying fee-free TAFE, the workers who've received pay rises, like those in aged care, who are now getting 15 per cent more, or the thousands of local people who have seen their income support payments boosted. We haven't stopped there, either. With our improved tax cuts plan set to leave 87 per cent of taxpayers in my electorate better off than under the Liberals' plan, we're delivering a tax cut to every local taxpayer, because it's the fair and right thing to do. The fact is our cost-of-living plan is supporting those doing it tough with targeted assistance while also tempering inflation. I'm proud to be part of a government that is delivering for our community.
