The Hon Stephen Jones MP
Assistant Treasurer
Minister for Financial Services
Member for Whitlam
Alison Byrnes MP
Member for Cunningham
Illawarra families and businesses will be direct beneficiaries of the Albanese Government’s 2023-24 Budget, delivered last night.
This is a Budget that delivers on our promises and provides cost of living relief for our community and names Wollongong as being at the centre of our plan to become a renewable energy superpower.
In addition to its existing initiatives on cheaper child care and cheaper medicines, Labor has announced a new Energy Price Relief Plan that will provide relief for more than 1.6 million eligible households with a $500 energy rebate and a $650 rebate for 300,000 eligible small businesses in NSW.
This will make a real difference in local household budgets – helping families in our community to get ahead.
The Budget is making a historic investment by delivering the largest increase to the bulk billing incentive ever, which will provide an immediate benefit to over 156,000 Illawarra residents, including children, pensioners and other concession card holders.
This investment will help take pressure off our public hospitals and emergency departments, still feeling the strain of a once in a century pandemic.
For millions of Australians this budget will see the cost of medicines cut in half with changes to the dispensing of more than 300 PBS medicines for chronic conditions. It is estimated that this change will benefit more than 85,000 people in the Illawarra who will be able to get more of the medicine they need for less money and less hassle.
Additionally, the Budget provides $11.3 billion to fund a 15 per cent increase in award wages, for more than 250,000 aged care workers. A pay rise designed to retain, reward and recruit our hard working aged care workforce.
The biggest opportunity for the Illawarra and Australia for growth and prosperity is the global shift to clean and renewable energy and this Labor Government is making the biggest ever investment in Australia’s energy transformation.
This Budget allocates $4 billion to realising our future as a renewable energy superpower.
By acting now, our resources, our researchers and our regions like the Illawarra can become a powerhouse for the world.
That’s why this Labor Budget is investing $2 billion in a new Hydrogen Headstart program, so Australia can be a world leader in producing and exporting hydrogen power.
Hydrogen means the Illawarra can make and export everything from renewable energy to green steel.
Seizing these kinds of industrial and economic opportunities will be the biggest driver and determinant of our future prosperity.
This brings the Government’s total investment to make Australia a renewable energy superpower to more than $40 billion.
Labor is delivering the positive and lasting change that Australians voted for, by making child care cheaper, expanding paid parental leave, delivering fee-free TAFE, saving households money on their power bills, making medicines cheaper and getting wages moving again.
This Budget is about delivering a stronger foundation for a better future.
