Federal election 2022: Labor candidate for Richmond Justine Elliot
The Labor candidate for Richmond Justine Elliot tell us with how her party plans to tackle the housing crisis, aged care and climate change.
Byron Shire
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In the run up to the 2022 federal election, incumbent Labor candidate Justine Elliot has addressed some of the key issues for this election and how party policy will address these.
Here’s how she plans to address these topics including housing, cost of living and climate change.
Childcare:
Mrs Elliot said the cost of child care has never been higher than it is now.
“Over the past 12 months, child care costs soared by 6.5 per cent – almost double the rate of inflation,” she said.
“Fees have increased by 41 per cent since the Liberals and Nationals came to government.”
She said Labor’s plan will mean 1.26 million families were better off.
“Labor will invest approximately $5.4 billion to make child care cheaper, starting from July 2023,” she said.
She said Labor would lift the maximum child care subsidy rate to 90 per cent for families for the first child in care; increase child care subsidy rates for every family with one child in care earning less than $530,000 in household income and keep higher child care subsidy rates for the second and additional children in care. They also intend to extend the increased subsidy to outside school hours care.
“We’ll also get the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to design a price regulation mechanism to drive out of pocket costs down for good, and the Productivity Commission will conduct a comprehensive review of the sector with the aim of implementing a universal 90 per cent subsidy for all families,” she said.
She said Labor would also develop and implement awhole of government Early Years Strategy to create a new integrated approach to the early years and develop of program of action.
Aged Care:
Mrs Elliot said Labor had a practical plan to improve aged care.
This included registered nurses on site 24/7, more carers with more time to care, mandating that every Australian living in aged care receives an average of 215 minutes of care per day, as recommended by the Royal Commission, a pay rise for aged care workers, better food for residents and making residential care providers report – in public and in detail – what they are spending money on.
“And we will give the Aged Care Safety Commissioner new powers to ensure there is accountability and integrity,” she said.
“Labor has a plan to put security, dignity, quality and humanity back into aged care.”
Tertiary Education:
Mrs Elliot said hundreds of thousands of Australians will be able to earn a qualification or upskill with Labor’s fee free TAFE plan.
“Labor’s 465,000 fee free TAFE places – including 45,000 new places – will help people find decent jobs and help businesses find employees, by making fee free places available to students studying for industries with skills shortages,” she said.
She said Labor would make sure at least 70% of all public funding for vocational education goes to TAFE and would deliver $50 million to boost technology on campuses, creating world-leading TAFE training centres.
“This will help fix areas of skills shortages and fill future skills needs by training Australians in jobs including engineering, nursing, tech, and teaching,” she said.
She said the party planned to invest $481.7 million to deliver up to 20,000 extra university places over 2022 and 2023.
“Labor will aim to prioritise the new funding for universities which are able to offer additional courses in national priority areas like clean energy, advanced manufacturing, health and education, or where there are skills shortages,” she said.
“Labor will also establish an Australian Universities Accord to drive lasting reform at our universities.
“The accord will help deliver accessibility, affordability, quality, certainty, sustainability and prosperity to the higher education sector and the country.”
Rising cost of living:
To address the rising cost of living Mrs Elliot said Labor had a plan for cheaper power bills, cheaper childcare, and more secure, well-paid jobs.
“Labor will create a better life by securing Medicare and making it easier to go and see the doctor and we’ll fix the aged care crisis,” she said.
Housing:
To address the housing crisis Mrs Elliot said Labour would cut the cost of buying a home by up to 40 per cent for 10,000 Australians per year.
“Our Help to Buy plan will assist people to buy a home with a smaller deposit, a smaller mortgage and smaller mortgage repayments,” she said.
“In our region, that could cut the cost of a mortgage by up to $380,000 on houses priced up to $950,000.”
She said the $10 billion Housing Australia Plan will build around 20,000 social housing properties and will build 10,000 affordable homes for frontline workers like police, nurses and cleaners.
The party would also allocate $100 million for crisis and transitional housing options for those fleeing domestic and family violence and older women on low incomes at risk of homelessness, and $30 million to build more housing and services for veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
Climate change:
Mrs Elliot said Labor’s plan for climate change will create jobs, cut power bills, reduce emissions by boosting renewable energy, and kickstart $76 billion of investment.
“Labor is the only party ready to form government that has a fully detailed plan to cut emissions by 43% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050,” she said.
The plan includes upgrading the electricity grid to fix energy transmission and drive down power prices, making electric vehicles cheaper with Australia’s first National Electric Vehicle Strategy, rolling out 85 solar banks around Australia, and installing 400 community batteries across the country.
She said the plan will create more than 600,000 jobs, with 5 out of 6 new jobs to be created in the regions.
A federal Independent Commission Against Corruption:
Mrs Elliot said a Labor government would legislate a powerful, transparent and independent National Anti-Corruption Commission by the end of 2022.
“Anti-corruption commissions serve the public by uncovering corruption and ensuring that members of a government, including politicians, are held to account if they engage in corrupt conduct,” she said.
“Every Australian State and Territory has now established its own anti-corruption commission.
“But, despite overwhelming public support, there is still no anti-corruption commission at the federal level.”
She said the party would prioritise legislation to establish this body.
“Labor has been working with Australia’s pre-eminent legal and integrity experts to develop design principles that will ensure the Commission is the most effective anti-corruption watchdog in the country,” she said.
Transgender athletes competing in professional sports:
Mrs Elliot said this had only been raised as an issue because of the infighting within the Liberal and National Parties, due to the homophobic and transphobic views held by the extreme right.
“This is evidenced by the Scott Morrison’s candidate Kimberly Hone’s now deleted Facebook posts,” she said.
“These are not the views held by our community.
“That issue is already covered by the Sex Discrimination Act.”
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