Fighting for our next generations in Macnamara

For the first time, Gen Z and millennials outnumber baby boomers in the upcoming election. Some political commentators fear this shift, but I believe it can only be a good thing.

My family came to Australia fleeing persecution in Europe, searching for safety, opportunity, and belonging – and they found that in Macnamara. Good government changed their destiny, providing a safe place to call home, secure work, affordable healthcare, and a high-quality education – things my grandparents could only dream of.

When I was first elected in 2019, I was the youngest member of the Labor Caucus. I decided to run because the decisions made in the House of Representatives shape our future – and young people deserve a say in that.

I won’t sugar-coat it – the challenges facing young people today are immense. A decade of Liberal governments left Australia with low wages, high inflation, and housing and health systems in crisis. The Liberals focused more on culture wars than addressing the issues that will define the next decade: climate, housing affordability, and an unstable global economy.

I didn’t get into politics to be a commentator. Over the past six years as the federal member for Macnamara, I’ve pushed for policies that can build the future our generation deserves – strong climate action, ambitious housing reform, and affordable healthcare.

Since Labor came to government, we’ve tackled the mess left by the previous government. We’ve launched Australia’s largest-ever housing build – 1.2 million homes in the next five years – to tackle the housing crisis. We’re incentivising more tradies to meet the demand with new housing apprenticeship payments and free TAFE. We’ve boosted social and affordable housing to ensure more homes are built quickly, a policy the Liberals have already committed to scrapping if elected.

While increasing supply takes time, we’ve increased Commonwealth Rent Assistance by 45 per cent – the first back-to-back rent increase in 30 years. We’ve also helped young professionals and families own their own home through our Help to Buy shared equity scheme, which only requires a two per cent deposit. Importantly, we have directed banks to overlook HECS debt when calculating home loans.

On the issue of student debt, we’ve wiped more than $3 billion of student loans already, changed how HECS is calculated to prevent indexation from rising faster than wage growth, and we’ll be wiping another 20 per cent of all student loans this year. On average, that’s a reduction of $5520.

In less than three years since we came to office, renewables now make up over 40 per cent of Australia’s electricity grid, and we’re on track to reach 80 per cent by 2028. We’ve approved enough renewable projects to power nearly every Australian home, and we’re rolling out community batteries – like the one coming to Southbank. We’ve also protected more ocean than any other country in the world.

On top of all this, Labor is finally taking women’s health seriously. For the first time in 30 years, more contraceptives have been added to the PBS, and Medicare rebates for menopause and endometriosis have been introduced. From May this year, certain contraceptive pills will cost just $25 a script, down from nearly $300 a year.

In just three years, we’ve achieved a lot, but the work isn’t over.

We can’t risk going backwards. Our generation can’t afford to wake up with Peter Dutton as Prime Minister.

Under him, we would see no action on climate change, cuts to healthcare and education, and policies that leave us behind for another decade.

In 2022, Macnamara was the seat that delivered Labor a majority. Because of Macnamara, we’ve been able to achieve all of this.

Now, we must continue building on this progress, and I’m confident that our generation is up to the challenge. •