Member for Scullin

Budget 2024-25

Easing cost of living pressures - for everyone in Scullin

The Albanese Government’s is delivering for the northern suburbs, and easing cost of living pressures is our top priority.

From July 1, every Australian taxpayer will get a tax cut. The average tax cut for taxpayers in Scullin will be $1,342.

 

We are also delivering $300 in power bill relief for every Australian household and $325

rebates for eligible small businesses. This builds on the relief we provided to concession card holders in our last Budget.

 

We are easing cost of living pressures for people with student debts, wiping around $3 billion in student debt. This has been a real concern for people in our community and this change will benefit more than 20,000 people with student debt in Scullin.

 

Our Government is also investing $1.9 billion to help nearly 1 million Australian households with the cost of rent. We’re increasing the maximum rates of Commonwealth Rent Assistance by 10 percent, building on the 15 percent increase we delivered last year.

 

We will continue to freeze the social security deeming rates for a further 12 months to 30 June 2025, to provide continued relief for around 876,000 income support recipients across Australia with deemed income.

 

A future made in Australia

The Albanese Government is investing $1.5 billion in manufacturing of clean energy technologies. Helping scale Australian innovations and strengthen supply chain resilience.

 

Labor is investing in the skills pipeline for priority industries. By expanding eligibility to our New Energy Apprenticeships Program to include apprentices with exposure to work in clean energy, including in construction and advanced manufacturing. To help grow the construction, manufacturing and other industries we will provide $5,000 support payments to apprentices and deliver 20,000 new fee-free TAFE places.

 

The Government will also provide $1.8 million to deliver streamlined skill assessments for around 1,900 migrants from comparable countries to work in Australia’s housing construction industry.

 

Strengthening Medicare

The Albanese Government is investing $2.8 billion to strengthen Medicare by providing more free mental health services, higher Medicare rebates for many common medical tests, and over $160 million women’s health package.

 

We’re expanding Medicare coverage to four MRI machines in Scullin.

 

Over 50,000 people in Scullin accessed pathology services. We’re making sure these pathology tests stay bulk billed by indexing the Medicare rebates for common medical tests. This means shorter waiting times and catching health problems sooner.

 

A Budget that works for women

The Albanese Government continues to look at every opportunity to make women’s lives safer, fairer and more equal.

 

We are investing $1.1 billion over four years to pay superannuation on Government-funded Paid Parental Leave. This measure will help to reduce the impact of parental leave on retirement incomes, with women currently retiring with 25 percent less superannuation than men.

 

This Budget includes, $13.1 million in targeted investments to support refugee and migrant women, including funding to support visa holders experiencing domestic and family violence.