In this edition, we take you through what we’ve been delivering over the past couple of months and the challenges ahead.

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Labor is Delivering Real Change

We’ve been busy delivering real change for Australians over the past couple of months. Our number one priority is helping with the cost of living, alongside the big reforms needed to make health care, housing and the economy work better for everyday people.

Hard decisions can’t be put on hold for easier times. The challenges confronting Australia are too urgent to delay action or leave them for someone else to sort out later on.

But the truth is, our opponents aren’t offering real solutions. They’ve spent this winter talking about what they oppose rather than what they stand for. Polls now show that the Coalition can return to government with the support of One Nation.

The stakes have never been higher. And it’s exactly why it’s so important that we continue to deliver real change for Australians.

That’s why we’re writing to you today, about a few things that Labor has done, and you may have missed over the past few months.

Paid Prac is helping fill skills shortages

We often talk about skills shortages in key industries. You’ve probably experienced not being able to see a nurse quick enough at the hospital, or not enough childcare workers to look after your kids.

The barrier is often simple. Unpaid placements that can run for more than a year of a degree, forcing students to give up paid work just to finish their qualification.

Since returning to Government, we introduced Paid Prac — $338.60 a week, means-tested and benchmarked to the single Austudy rate — for nursing, midwifery, teaching and social work students.

Last month we announced an expansion to provide cost of living relief for students and support for our future healthcare workforce. The expansion of the Commonwealth Prac Payment will help more students manage these costs, complete their qualifications and move into critical health and care jobs.

Expanding paid prac to more healthcare professions will help build the health workforce Australia needs and strengthen Medicare.

It’s an important but often overlooked step in making sure we have the teaching and healthcare workforce of the future.

Medicare bulk billing on the rise

Last election Labor made a commitment to make the biggest ever investment in the history of Medicare.

This record investment in bulk billing is continuing to increase ahead of schedule.

Nationally, the bulk billing rate for the June 2026 quarter rose to 84.1 per cent, up almost five percentage points on the same quarter, last year. Before the Albanese Government started investing in bulk billing, the national rate had fallen to 75.6 per cent.

There are more than 3,800 Medicare Bulk Billing Practices, over 1,400 of those were mixed billing practices before our Government’s historic investments.

There’s more work to do, but we thought it was important that Labor supporters are up to date with the progress we’re making.

Protecting Australian Jobs

Last week the Albanese Government and the NSW Government made a strategic investment to save Australia’s largest aluminium smelter.

You’ve probably seen the headlines and the numbers — a $2.5 billion joint investment, more than 1,000 direct jobs at Tomago aluminium and 5,000 indirect jobs across the Hunter region. We wanted to explain why this is critical to Australia’s energy transition and the manufacturing jobs of the future.

Tomago is the biggest user of electricity in Australia. The site produced around 37 per cent of Australia’s primary aluminium and contributes $2.2 billion to the economy annually.

Australia is one of only a handful of countries with an end-to-end aluminium supply chain – spanning bauxite mining, alumina refining, aluminium smelting through to advanced manufacturing.

Securing a long-term renewable energy pathway for the smelter is critical to preserving nationally significant industrial capability and strengthens Australia’s ability to supply the growing global market for low-emissions aluminium.

We cannot afford to be at the end of supply chains. We need to be a country that makes things. Remember when the Liberals goaded the car industry to go offshore? That’s sovereign manufacturing capability we’ll never get back.

We’re choosing a different path. Keeping the jobs, the sovereign manufacturing capability, and structuring the deal so taxpayers see a return if aluminium prices rise.

This is what governing looks like when you’re focused on delivering, not fighting culture wars.

Skills investment. A health system being rebuilt rather than left to decline. A serious industrial strategy that keeps Australia making things.

There’s more work to do, and we’ll have more to say soon on how you can get involved to protect these gains.

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Labor has won government twice. The challenge now is to build a stronger grassroots movement that recruits new members, develops new leaders and stays deeply connected to the communities we represent.

Kate brings the perspective of a generation that helped rebuild Labor and return it to government. Drawing on her experience from entering Parliament in 2004 through the Rudd and Gillard Governments, she reflects on leadership, political power, the changing role of women in the Party, and what member-based organisations need to do to thrive in an increasingly fragmented society.

Claire and Matt represent the next generation of Labor leadership. As first-term MPs, they share how they’re building campaigns and community connections from the ground up, the expectations Australians have of their local representatives, and how organising beyond election time is helping strengthen Labor.

Check out Peter on his Substack, Burning Platforms.

You can watch Claire’s first speech here.

You can watch Matt’s first speech here.

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we meet today, and pay my respects to Elders past and present.

I acknowledge any First Nations Australians who have joined us.

Today, I want to talk about something at the heart of the Australian promise.

A home.

The language of government is so cold and abstract. We speak of tax settings and pipelines and targets and productivity.

The deep meaning of what we are talking about can get lost.

I don’t want that to happen today.

Humans need a home to feel safe.

It’s where we raise our children.

It’s where we build our future.

Housing is not an abstract economic debate. It is full of meaning, it is fundamental.

As Housing Minister, I see the damage and pain and anger when housing goes wrong.

And also – I see the joy, the safety, the security, the elation, that comes with getting it right.

This is where I want to begin.

I want you to know about a beautiful young couple, Mika and Matt, who bought their first home just around the corner here in Canberra with our 5% deposit program. On their first night in their new home, they sat on the floor and ate pizza out of the box with their friends.

I want you to know about Georgia, who spent time sleeping rough. I asked her how her life changed when she was able to get into safe housing. She said “I started to have good dreams again, instead of only nightmares”.

Now Georgia is happily housed, and working.

Our government has just rebuilt, and expanded, the shelter that gave her a second chance.

And I want you to know about Judy. She is in her 60s, divorced, with no super, and was being pushed out of another rental in Adelaide. An everyday Australian woman, who was starting to ring around homeless shelters.

Now, she’s safe, and protected, living in a Housing Australia Future Fund home, built by our government.

Housing changes lives.

It changes lives for the better, when it works. And when it doesn’t, it can cause the deepest of human pain.

Australia’s housing market is broken.

Home ownership rates have been declining for decades. But the really massive shift has been for working young people.

Lower income young people are half as likely to own their own home than they were in the year I was born.

Many young Australians tell us they are putting off having children, because of housing insecurity.

And parents and grandparents stop me in the street, worried, and fretting, about whether the people they love will ever be able to set down roots, and flourish.

This is not just about young people. More and more older Australians are entering retirement without the security of a home of their own, and older women are increasingly falling out of the housing market all together into homelessness.

Today, I’m going to do two things:

I’m going to explain how we got here.

And then I’ll explain how our ambitious, reforming government, is embarking, with great conviction, on the long and difficult journey of rebuilding our national housing system, so it serves the Australian people.

Australia did not wake up one morning with a housing crisis. It emerged gradually, throughout the course of my lifetime.

When I was born, young Australians could buy a home for around three times the average annual income.

If you worked hard, and did the right thing, owning a home would be within reach.

We had a stronger social housing system.

And our country understood that if you want housing to stay affordable, you have to keep building.

But in the 80s and 90s, Australian governments – once key providers of homes for Australians – began to step back from building homes.

At the same time, governments made it harder and harder for the private market to build the housing we needed.

Planning became slow and restrictive – systems designed to stop housing, not to get it built.

Infrastructure and land release failed to keep pace.

Construction productivity went backwards, and new techniques and technologies common in other countries were never adopted.

Skills shortages deepened.

And between the three levels of government – we created an administrative nightmare for every builder in the country.

Builders spend more and more of their time in the office filling in forms, instead of onsite building homes where we need them.

Most of these rules and restrictions were introduced with good intentions.

But over decades, three levels of well-meaning government have created a red tape thicket that builders need a bulldozer to get through.

Over time, governments lost sight of the main game:

That the way to ensure Australians can afford a place to live is to build enough housing for everyone.

Since the turn of the century, we’ve been building nearly half as many homes per person as we did in the decades after World War Two.

Not because population growth was higher. But because home building fell dramatically.

Then, in 1999, the Howard Government made a huge mistake. They introduced the capital gains tax discount: a big new tax break for investors.

The discount was supposed to get Australians to invest in the share market.

But the exact opposite happened. They turned established, detached homes, into the most lucrative, low-risk investment in Australia.

Investors piled into the market.

Today, more than 80% of investor lending flows into existing homes, not the construction of new ones.

So Australia created a perfect storm for housing:

A broken demand side – where more and more investor dollars chase the homes we do have.

A broken supply side – where house prices go up and up, but the market cannot respond by building more homes.

The result? You can find it in any economics textbook in the world.

House prices sharply detached from incomes.

Rents surged.

And homelessness rose in a country where we should never accept this as inevitable.

Our housing crisis was not caused by one policy failure.

It is many systems failing together.

Planning.

Infrastructure.

Skills.

Construction capacity.

Innovation.

Tax.

Finance.

Public housing.

All broken.

That’s why there is no silver bullet. No one announcement, no one budget, that will fix this overnight.

There is one final ingredient I haven’t mentioned.

Housing is not just a social and economic failure.

It is a political failure.

I’m not going to bore you with the usual finger pointing. Let me be really direct.

Governments – Labor and Liberal – have not done enough to fairly house Australians, for decades.

In their retreat, there was, I believe, a hope that a functional private housing market would work for all.

But that is not reality.

In every country in the world where housing works, government is integrally involved in making it happen.

So there we have it. A complex, long-term crisis, with many problems to solve. And governments unwilling to step in and make big, hard decisions to reshape it.

That era has ended.

And when people write the history of housing in our country, a new chapter will begin in 2022, when our government was elected.

The first Commonwealth Government in 70 years to put housing at the heart of the national agenda.

That is what our Homes for Australia Plan is all about.

It is a long-term national reform agenda for housing.

Today we’re releasing an update on that plan.

This document brings the major expansion of our housing agenda in this year’s Budget into our long-term approach to housing reform.

A plan that started with reforms in 2022.

A plan strengthened in this Budget.

And a plan we will keep building on in the years ahead.

At its core, the Plan is about six things:

Building the homes Australia needs.

Levelling the playing field for first home buyers.

Making renting fairer and more affordable.

Growing social and affordable housing.

Closing the housing gap, in partnership with First Nations Australians.

And strengthening support for Australians experiencing homelessness, crisis, and family violence.

Today, I want to focus on the first two pillars – because they sit at the centre of the debate Australia is having right now.

Our government is unapologetically pro-supply.

If we want housing to be more affordable for Australians, we need to build, build, build.

Our Prime Minister has led the development of the National Housing Accord, where governments and industry have committed to an aspirational target of building 1.2 million homes over five years.

This is the largest home building effort in Australian history, and it’s already helping us build a better housing system.

Why? Because targets drive change.

The Property Council has said, and I quote, “The national housing target is already a success in two key ways – recent widespread state planning reforms have only happened because targets and incentives exist – and boosting housing supply is now top of mind for all Australians.”

Our ambition for home building has been backed with serious investment and reform.

More land. Faster approvals. Better infrastructure. Simpler rules. More tradies. Modern construction.

Together, new data from Treasury tells us that Homes for Australia investments are unlocking 420,000 homes over the next decade – including 65,000 from this Budget alone through our new $2 billion Local Infrastructure Fund.

Investing in last-mile infrastructure – the pipes and paths – is a huge priority for our government. We’re now investing $6.3 billion, with more to come.

The National Housing Accord has been two years of effort, and we are starting to see real progress.

When we came to government, housing commencements had fallen 29% in a single year. Now, they are rising again – up 26 per cent over the last year alone.

We are making good progress, but we have got a hell of a lot more work to do.

And there are two big immediate areas for new reform.

First, we need to modernise the way we build.

Countries around the world are using prefab and modular construction to build homes faster, efficiently and at greater scale.

Australia has been slower to adapt.

That is why we are backing prefab and modular housing through a national certification scheme, and support through the National Productivity Fund.

And a new $40 million investment we are announcing today for a national “kit of parts” program.

It means building smarter and faster, using standardised components like bathroom pods, wall panels and facades.

And this is just the beginning. I’m a huge believer in innovation in housing. We have to get faster and more efficient if we are going to get on top of this national challenge.

Second, we need to keep improving our planning rules – the rules that decide what can be built and where.

We need more homes where many Australians want to live – close to jobs, transport and services. Yet some of the most desirable parts of our capital cities are absorbing – quite unfairly – very limited amounts of new housing.

Restrictive planning is estimated to add about $140,000 to the cost of the average new home.

We have seen significant planning reform in some states and territories.

We need to see more.

That is why tomorrow I will bring together Housing, Planning and Building Ministers from every state and territory for the first meeting of its kind in Australia’s history.

To discuss the reforms underway and the further changes we can drive together.

Our $2 billion Local Infrastructure Fund will be a part of the discussion.

This is not just free money. States will only access that funding if they continue ambitious housing reform to boost supply.

And we’re looking to the next wave of reforms, particularly on red tape and regulation.

We’ve made progress on environmental approvals, on planning and on the National Construction Code.

Today I’m announcing that the Productivity Commission will undertake an inquiry into the remaining regulatory barriers holding back housing supply. To help us tackle the next wave of reforms.

Building homes matters. So too does the question of who gets to own them.

And I think you would have picked up already from my speech – that I am fiercely and proudly committed to delivering the opportunity of home ownership to more Australians.

If you talk to Australians who are renting, many will tell you that the biggest barrier they face is the deposit hurdle. Australians are now saving 11 years for a deposit. Almost 17 if they live in Sydney.

That is why we expanded Labor’s 5 per cent deposit scheme. It brings the time it takes to save a home back to just a few years – that’s where it was decades ago.

A quarter of a million Australians have used the program to buy a home.

I don’t care what your politics is, that is a massive number of Australians who have the keys to their first home, because a Labor Government saw their aspiration, and helped them realise it.

But for us, that is not enough.

Australians are working incredibly hard to save for a home of their own.

Picture a young first home buyer turning up to an auction after more than a decade saving for a deposit.

Standing next to them is an investor on the same income, bidding for the same home.

Negative gearing concessions alone can give that investor a hundred-thousand-dollar head start in how much they can bid.

At a time when housing affordability is under such pressure and home ownership rates are declining, we just cannot keep tilting the playing field away from first home buyers.

It is not fair.

And we need to change it.

And that is why we’re introducing our legislation before the Parliament today.

These tax reforms are carefully designed.

Negative gearing arrangements for current landlords will remain in place.

And, if you want to get ahead by investing in property – good on you. We will back you. You can still get access to tax concessions. But to get them, we want you to do something for the country: build a new home.

But the impact doesn’t stop there.

Our tax changes will get 75,000 Australian households out of renting, and into a home of their own home.

And they will put first home buyers on a level playing field, making a fairer system for everyone.

But of course, the Budget we delivered is about more than housing.

It’s about the kind of tax system we want – and the kind of country we want to be.

Our broader tax reforms help level the playing field for working Australians too.

Because we believe that taxes paid on income from assets should be better aligned to taxes paid on wages – wages earned by nurses, teachers and retail workers.

That’s what fairness looks like.

And it’s why we’re also delivering tax cuts for more than 13 million Australians.

Under our five tax cuts, the average worker will receive up to $2,800 a year back in their pocket. And we’ll always look to do more.

And of course, we will continue consulting with stakeholders, as is standard practice for significant tax reforms – and as we made clear on Budget night.

AMBITION, ASPIRATION AND THE CHOICE BEFORE AUSTRALIA

We are having a parliamentary debate right now about aspiration.

Let me be clear about where Labor stands.

There is no greater aspiration than owning a home of your own.

For most Australian families, this is the most important financial decision of their lives.

Our tax changes are all about helping Australians build financial security for themselves and their families.

Lots of surveys tell us that we are already at the point where most young Australians don’t believe they will ever own their own home.

Problems like this can become so big and difficult, that people start to give up altogether.

Not because they lack ambition.

But because they no longer believe the system will reward their effort.

After all, what is the incentive to work hard, when the thing that matters most to you, is out of reach no matter what you do.

And once a country starts losing belief in aspiration, the consequences reach far beyond housing.

Helping more Australians buy a home is central to our plan for housing. It is central to our vision for the country.

If we don’t step up and act, home ownership will fall further out of reach. And we will end up living in a country where the only way you can get into your own home is if you inherit wealth.

And that’s not Australia.

Now, we have a big fight on our hands when it comes to these reforms.

Because the Coalition are the only people in Australia who can’t see the pain this is causing, and who are fighting to preserve the broken status quo.

Under Angus Taylor, the Coalition is locking in behind a system that has locked out a generation from home ownership.

Angus Taylor has said the Coalition will “fight like hell” against housing reforms.

They won’t just vote against them, they’re saying if they win the next election, they’ll reverse them.

Think about that.

The Coalition are not just opposing the solution.

They are telling you that if they get elected, they’ll do everything they can to recreate the problem.

They will take your taxpayer dollars, and use them to subsidise property investors over first home buyers.

They will wind back the 5% deposit program – which they say is for the children of billionaires.

They will scrap Help to Buy.

And rip up all our social and affordable housing programs.

They even want to scrap our housing targets, and the reform that sits underneath them.

What is their plan?

They don’t have one.

Which maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by – remember that for most of the nine years they were in office, they were so checked out they didn’t even have a Housing Minister.

For Australians watching at home, this is what I want you to know.

We stand for change.

For tackling a broken system. And helping Australians get a fair shot at building wealth in our country.

For making the hard decisions. The right decisions.

The Coalition are for the broken status quo. No plan for housing, government back, crouched in a ball, pretending nothing can be done.

That is the choice facing Australia.

Not an abstract debate about tax policy.

But a choice about what kind of country we want to be.

Do we want an Australia where home ownership is a realistic aspiration for ordinary Australians?

Or do we accept Angus Taylor’s vision - a future where owning a home depends on wealth you inherited rather than work you did yourself.

This Government rejects that future.

That’s why we have a plan for housing for Australia. It started in 2022. Our budget built on it two weeks ago.

And we won’t stop there.

There is more work to do. And every budget, every election, we are in there, pushing for more and more to be done.

We are throwing everything at this challenge, and tackling it from every angle.

Because for our government, we believe, that aspiration belongs to every Australian.

At the centre of the discussion: how Australia can remain a fair country in a time of rising inequality, housing pressure and global uncertainty.

Jim and Clare spoke directly about Labor’s changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount, why these reforms matter for younger Australians, and the political fight ahead.

Watch the full discussion here.

Check out Peter’s Substack here.

Time stamps:

0:00 - 6:49 - introductions and initial reactions

6:49 - 15:30 - Global economic conditions

15:30 - 25:51 - Intergenerational fairness

25:51 - END - Q&A

You can subscribe to and check out Peter Lewis’ Substack, Burning Platforms, here.

Time Stamps

Introduction: 0:00 - 3:00

Peter Malinauskas opening words: 3:00 - 6:30

Meet Charlotte Walker: 6:30 - 10:38

Tim Ayres opening words: 10:38 - 13:46

SA election result: 13:46 - 26:52

Future Made in Australia: 26:52 - 43:03

Q&A: 43:03 - END

The following is a guest contribution from the Hon Tim Ayres, Minister for Industry and Innovation, Minister for Science and Senator for New South Wales.

Keep an eye out for more articles like this from Labor representatives.

It is refreshing to find clear‑eyed contributions to Australia’s energy debate – especially when they come from people with real experience in security, engineering and energy infrastructure. A recent Sydney Morning Herald column by former ADF chief Chris Barrie and former Coal Association chair Ian Dunlop is one such contribution.

In a debate too often dominated by ideological noise, Barrie and Dunlop made a simple, practical case: the rapid deployment of renewable energy is not merely an environmental objective but a strategic necessity. Energy security, they argued, is inseparable from national security. Any modern economy – and any modern military – depends on reliable, affordable energy. A nation overexposed to global oil shocks is a nation less economically and strategically resilient than it ought to be.

Energy reliability and affordability are also fundamental to Australia making the things it needs – through heavy industry, metals processing and advanced manufacturing at scale. We need a huge amount of energy to power our homes, our heavy industrial businesses like aluminium smelters and the new digital infrastructure, like data centres. And as we electrify everything, we need to not just transition the energy system, but to add more generation to the energy system as well.

Leveraging Australia’s abundant wind, solar, vast geography and gas is central to the Albanese Labor Government’s $22.7 billion Future Made in Australia plan. We want to capture future competitive advantage from Australia’s abundant renewable energy capability and the global energy transition now underway to make Australia’s economy more self‑reliant and resilient, and Australia more secure.

When we make more of what we need, we strengthen Australia’s capacity to weather global disruptions.

The lesson of the past few years is unambiguous. After major global shocks – the Covid‑19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, not to mention the current fuel crisis – Australia needed certainty in energy policy and purposeful investment in onshore capability. The Albanese Labor Government was elected to provide a stable investment environment for renewable generation, grid modernisation and domestic manufacturing.

On the energy front, this Government has delivered. By the end of 2025, under Minister Bowen’s leadership, Australia had added 9.4 GW of dispatchable capacity and 20 GW of variable renewable generation. The Capacity Investment Scheme alone is underwriting around $70 billion in new energy investment by 2030.

As Minister for Industry and Innovation, and Minister for Science, my focus is on the energy needs of Australian industry. I am focused on working with state governments and industry partners to secure private investment in new generation for manufacturing; and helping businesses reduce their reliance on fossil fuels to reduce costs, reduce emissions and increase their energy resilience.

Aluminium smelting is a key example. Aluminium smelting has always been energy‑intensive – and strategically indispensable. The Boyne smelter in Gladstone and Tomago Aluminium in the Hunter account for around 10 per cent of Queensland’s electricity demand and 12 per cent of New South Wales’s respectively.

Australia is unusual globally in hosting the entire aluminium supply chain onshore – from bauxite to finished product. In today’s economic and strategic context, there is no credible case for surrendering that capability. Aluminium is fundamental to defence infrastructure and electrification, from transmission lines to solar infrastructure, including more than 85 per cent of solar panel frames.

That is why, in March, the Albanese Government and the Crisafulli Government in Queensland made a generational investment in the future of aluminium production at Boyne. The smelter produces over 500,000 tonnes annually and directly employs 1,000 workers, with another 2,000 jobs dependent on its operation.

By committing $1 billion each over a decade, the two governments have secured a significant part of Australia’s aluminium capability – and, crucially, unlocked massive private investment in energy. Rio Tinto has agreed to underwrite $7.5 billion in new energy generation and transmission infrastructure across Queensland.

The result is not just world‑leading low‑emissions aluminium, powered by solar and wind. It is cheaper, more reliable electricity for Central Queensland as a whole.

It also maintains that State as a key aluminium supplier to global partners in places like Japan and South Korea. Australia’s supply chain delivered $23 billion worth of exports for Australia in 2024-25 alone.

No alumina has been delivered through the Strait of Hormuz since this conflict began. Global events reinforce the case for a Future Made in Australia – but we know there is much more work to do. In response to the current crisis, the Government is pulling every available lever. We are building Australia’s fuel reserves and investing in low carbon liquid fuels. The $1 billion Economic Resilience Program within the National Reconstruction Fund is delivering urgent interest‑free loans to firms facing short‑term cash‑flow pressures caused by shocks beyond Australia’s borders.

For too long, Australia’s energy debate has been centred on emotional and ideological terms rather than practical ones. Imported, anti-renewable ideology distributed by the likes of Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan – a conservative economist who cosplays as a coalminer – has seen the Australian energy grid take a backseat to political posture. They’ll never let the public interest get in the way of their imported ideology.

Yet even their side of politics acknowledges the stakes. Tasmanian Liberal Senator Jonno Duniam recently said that if another energy crisis hit Australia and we were unprepared, “that is unforgivable.”

On that point, he is right. Preparation requires investment, planning and policy stability. It requires putting the national interest ahead of partisan reflex.

That is what this government is doing – modernising the grid, delivering cheaper and more reliable power, protecting Australian industrial capability and strengthening Australia’s economic sovereignty.

I’ve been proud this term of government to visit Mount Isa, Gladstone, Port Pirie, Whyalla, Hobart, the Hunter. These are the regions where we are intervening to preserve our metals smelting capability – copper, aluminium, lead, zinc, steel. These are the strategic materials with which an electrified economy is made.

Fully leveraging Australia’s natural advantages in solar, wind and storage, backed by gas is how we secure Australian industry, strengthen manufacturing, and build resilience against future external shocks.

That is how Australia becomes genuinely secure. This is how we make Australia stronger.

In this edition, we take you through the global pressures driving up petrol prices, and how the Albanese Government is responding to shield Australians from the impact.

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The world continues to throw up challenges.

The war in the Middle East has caused the biggest rise in petrol and diesel prices in history.

Unfortunately, even if the conflict ended tomorrow, the economic aftershocks would last for months.

While we don’t control what happens on the other side of the world.

We do control how we respond.

And this week the Government acted.

In the immediate term, there are two issues at play:

1. Provide immediate cost of living relief

2. Stabilise fuel supply and protect consumers

Labor will do everything to keep Australia moving and keep Australia open.

Immediate cost of living relief

The Government’s first priority is simple – take pressure off households now.

This week, we moved to reduce fuel costs directly and ease pressure across the economy.

1. Halving the fuel excise for three months

From this week, the fuel excise will be cut in half, delivering immediate relief at the bowser for households and businesses. This will reduce the cost of a 65L tank of fuel by nearly $19. We also reached agreement with the States and Territories to deliver a further cut in the fuel tax by returning their GST windfall to Australians.

This will mean a combined saving of 32 cents on every litre.

2. Freezing the Heavy Vehicle Road User Charge

We’ve cancelled the scheduled increase to prevent additional cost pressures flowing through the freight network.

3. Cutting the Road User Charge to zero for three months

This provides additional support to the freight sector easing pressure across supply chains and helping contain broader price increases.

These measures won’t eliminate global pressures, but they will take the edge off in the weeks ahead.

Stabilising fuel supply and protecting Australian consumers

At the same time, the Government is acting to stabilise fuel supply and make sure Australians are treated fairly at the bowser.

We’ve moved quickly to increase the amount of fuel available releasing 20 per cent of Australia’s petrol and diesel reserves, with a focus on getting supply into regional areas where pressures can hit hardest.

We’ve also worked with international partners to keep supply flowing, even if the global situation gets worse, including securing an agreement with Singapore to strengthen Australia’s access to fuel during this period.

Alongside this, we’ve made targeted changes to fuel and diesel standards so Australian refineries can produce more fuel locally.

But boosting supply is only part of the equation. We’re also making sure companies don’t rip Aussies off.

We’ve passed new laws to double penalties for fuel price gouging, and directed the ACCC to ramp up monitoring, with the power to issue on-the-spot fines where misconduct occurs.

A new National Fuel Supply Taskforce is now in place to coordinate the response and keep a close watch on both supply and pricing across the country.

We’re also backing the people and industries that keep Australia moving. New measures will ensure truck drivers are paid fairly when fuel prices spike, and we’re stepping in to underwrite fuel purchases where needed - giving the private sector the confidence to keep supply flowing.

Where to next?

There is no silver bullet to a global shock like this. No government can promise to end the pressure on petrol prices.

The months ahead will not be easy.

But economic management in moments like these is about acting early, acting decisively and protecting Australians from the worst impacts.

That’s what Labor is doing.

As the global situation continues to evolve, we will stay focused on making sure Australians are supported, and the economy remains resilient.

That’s the Labor way. That’s the Australian way.

Time Stamps:

Introduction 0:00 - 1:30

Meet Jess Teesdale - 1:30 - 4:20

Meet Julie-Ann Campbell - 4:20 - 8:08

Tony Burke opening words - 8:08 - 13:48

The rise of One Nation - 13:48 - 37:27

Question time - 37:27 - END

Links to topics mentioned:

• Julie Hill Speech - Proudly Embracing Modern Australia: VIEW HERE

• Jess Teesdale first speech:

• Julie-Ann Campbell first speech:

Welcome to the first edition of the Labor Substack for 2026. This is a space for Labor’s strongest supporters with regular updates on the work we’re delivering in government, and ways you can stay connected and involved in the movement.

Right now, the political environment can feel like an unsettling place. The Coalition is increasingly divided, while One Nation is rising in the national polls.

Angus Taylor’s rise to lead the Liberals completes the hard-right takeover of their party. It signals a more extreme version of the same old agenda – just another Liberal leader pushing cuts to Medicare and higher taxes for working people.

Labor is different.

Our roots are in the trade union movement, and our purpose has always been to expand economic opportunity and build a fairer Australia for working people.

Since re-election in May 2025, we’ve been focused on doing exactly that, building on the foundations laid in our first term and delivering practical improvements to people’s lives.

That’s easy to lose sight of through the political noise.

So today, we wanted to cut through it and highlight a few important things you may have missed and share the tangible progress Labor is making across key areas.

There is still a lot more to do. But it matters that Labor supporters like you can see the real progress being delivered.

1. Bulk Billing

Labor has delivered the biggest investment in Medicare in decades.

After years of decline, bulk billing rates are rising again, and millions more Australians can now see a GP without paying out-of-pocket.

New data shows Australian’s can now access over 3,400 Medicare Bulk Billing practices across the country. Almost 1,300 of these practices were previously mixed billing

In just three months, the bulk billing rate for all Australians has jumped to 81.4 per cent nationwide. This is the largest quarterly increase in 20 years (outside of the COVID pandemic).

Around 96 per cent of Australians are now within a 20-minute drive of a registered Medicare Bulk Billing Practice.

At the last election, Labor committed to making the single largest investment in Medicare in Australian history. And we’ll keep doing that to ensure bulk billing rates rise across the country.

It’s important to remember that no matter what One Nation or the Coalition say, look at what they do. They all want to cut Medicare, just as we are getting bulk-billing back above 80%.

There’s still so much more work to do after the Liberals left Medicare on life support for a decade. We’ve now got clear policy settings to turn this around.

2. Cheaper Medicines

If you’ve been to the pharmacy recently you might’ve noticed a change.

From 1 January, we delivered the next stage of the largest cut to medicine costs in the history of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

Every PBS medicine is now capped at $25 or less. For people managing chronic illness or supporting a family, that’s money back in their pocket every single month.

For pension and concession card holders we’ve frozen your medicine prices at a maximum price of $7.70 until the end of the decade.

It goes back to a core Labor belief: your health shouldn’t depend on how much money you have.

3. Free TAFE

Free TAFE was a core part of Labor’s 2022 election campaign. In 2026, we mark three years since Free TAFE was introduced nationwide by the Albanese Labor Government.

Since then, more than 725,000 Australians have enrolled in a Free TAFE course. There have already been over 210,000 course completions across the country, putting hundreds of thousands of people on pathways to secure jobs in nursing, construction, aged care, technology, and early childhood education and care.

A good job can change your life.

Free TAFE removes one of the biggest barriers people face when trying to upskill or retrain, the cost.

And by investing in skills and training, we’re building the workforce Australia needs, creating technical and vocational jobs in communities across the country, and strengthening local economies for the long term.

It’s a shame that the Liberals want to cut it and deny over 725,000 Australians a technical education and fill crucial skills shortages.

Thanks for taking the time to read this article. There’s a lot of noise in politics right now.

But underneath it, Labor is making real progress that’s worth keeping sight of.

Thank you for your support.

👋Wait... Before you go! ℹ️

Labor’s strength has always come from people like you. Your contribution helps fund the organising, campaigning and community outreach needed to protect the progress we’ve made and keep building toward a fairer future.

Every donation gives us the certainty to plan ahead, grow our activist base, train volunteers and expand our digital campaigning year-round.

If you can, please consider making a contribution today.

We know this is the new normal of Australian politics. With every election cycle, more and more people are voting before election day. In 2022, more than 5 million Australians voted early. At the referendum, the number eclipsed 6 million. And this time around, our projections suggest that number will continue to rise.

This informs how modern parties campaign, knowing that a significant percentage of Australians will have already voted by the election’s official close. For instance, party launches are now earlier than they were in the past (Kevin Rudd’s launch in 2007 was held just ten days before election day – Labor’s this year was twenty days out). Election material and policy proposals generally need to be ready for the start of official voting, pushing their release forward.

The longer voting period also involves a significant party operation, stretched out over two weeks. In preparation for early voting tomorrow, Labor has:

• Thousands of volunteers rostered to staff more than 1200 booths

• A huge range of print materials, including how to vote cards, complementing our efforts online

• Over 10,000 Labor volunteers knocking on doors, calling up undecided voters, and letterboxing our material

This operation will continue to expand as we get nearer to election day. We know from previous years that voting rates will start off steady in the first week, before increasing in volume in the final days. Labor is ready for that surge.

This is a relatively new phenomenon in Australian politics, with in person early voting being introduced for the 1990 federal election. Until 2010, early voters had to complete the same declaration as postal voters, which were later verified and processed. After 2010, this feature was dropped, as long as people had a valid reason to vote early. In each subsequent election, the number of those voters has risen consistently.

Across this period, postal voting has remained relatively steady (with the exception of 2022 – largely because of the pandemic).

Demographically, early voters tend to be slightly older than the average, although this is becoming less pronounced as the group grows larger and more representative. Interestingly, there’s some evidence that early voting is smaller in more marginal seats.

One way that Australian elections differ from other countries, particularly the United States, is the political composition of different voting types. If you’ve followed American elections, you might have heard commentary on the ‘red mirage’ or a ‘blue mirage’ – meaning the result seems to shift across an election night, because Democrats have voted early, and Republicans have voted on election day.

That tends to be less pronounced in Australia. While there’s usually some difference between voting types, it’s not as extreme as the United States. That means we need to spend equal energy fighting for votes across every group: early, postal and election day (as well as other types – like remote and mobile voting booths). All of them are significant – all will help determine the election result.

When doors open tomorrow, we will officially enter the business end of the federal election. Every day from here matters. We know there are millions of Australians who still haven’t decided their vote yet.

What we do over the next two weeks will make all the difference. The difference between a second term Labor government building on the progress we have made – and the disaster of a Dutton-led Australia.

Battin’s comment follows a similar decision from the Queensland Premier, David Crisafulli, who has ruled out supporting nuclear power in his state.

This might seem like a breakout of division in the Liberal Party, if we weren’t already seeing the same kind of distancing on the party’s own social media pages. As we posted last week, the Liberal Party has not mentioned nuclear power in a single digital ad this year. That’s zero mentions out of 2,368 ads.

The question is: why have Peter Dutton and the Liberals gone quiet on their signature policy?

The simplest answer is that Australians are starting to question the enormous costs involved in the $600 billion scheme – and the Liberals know it.

Over the weekend, Channel Nine reported a survey conducted by ‘Liberals Against Nuclear’, with over 5,000 Australians in key seats, which found that a majority of voters were less likely to vote for Peter Dutton because of his nuclear scheme.

And in his own seat of Dickson, a second poll found that a substantial majority of voters thought that Labor’s policy of supporting batteries and rooftop solar was more likely to bring down power bills, compared to the Liberal Party’s nuclear plan.

We’re seeing the same thing in online discussion.

Using digital tools, we can measure the words people have used when discussing Dutton’s nuclear policy since the election began. Some of the most common associations are ‘cost’, ‘billion’, ‘pay’ and ‘cuts’.

DIGITAL DISCUSSION OF PETER DUTTON AND NUCLEAR POLICY: TOPICS

Indeed, the overwhelming online commentary on the policy has been negative.

And if you examine the specific reasons people are negative – cost is by far the most common problem being raised.

If Australians are worried about the cost of Peter Dutton’s nuclear scheme, their fears are well founded. Nuclear reactors are some of the most expensive projects on the planet. And wherever they’ve been attempted by comparable countries this century, they have experienced enormous cost blowouts – without exception.

Take the Hinkley C nuclear plant in the United Kingdom – that has so far blown out to over five times its original cost (almost $100 billion Australian dollars). And on average, nuclear plant capital costs in comparable countries have been as much as four times higher than original estimates.

Source: IEEFA – Nuclear in Australia would increase household bills

When the Coalition’s modelling is riddled with omissions and implausible assumptions, ballooning costs appear inevitable. Media have reported that ‘analysis of Dutton’s nuclear plan from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water revealed bureaucrats have raised concerns that the costs of the Coalition’s plan could be far higher than their modelling suggested, including in construction, refurbishment of the plants later their lives, and costs of extending Australia’s coal fleet.’

Independent experts agree a range of modelling assumptions stretch credibility. These include:

• How could a country with limited nuclear experience or workforce deliver reactors at a cost and timeframe that no other comparable country has ever achieved?

• How could aging coal plants be extended for years beyond publicly announced closure dates nominated by their owners without billions in added cost?

• And how can we accept the model’s assumption that Australia would need 40% less energy than projected – which makes the plan sound cheaper – but implies a smaller, poorer economy, with a lower standard of living?

Australians are right to question the true cost of this mammoth project.

The Hinkley facility in England has been called ‘the most expensive object on earth’ (challenged only by the International Space Station, currently orbiting through the skies). Peter Dutton isn’t just building one reactor – he’s promised to build seven.

And that’s before we get to the cuts he will have to make to pay for the scheme. Medicare, education, free TAFE, housing programs: everything would have to be on the chopping block.

For $600 billion – the money has to come from somewhere.

This seemed a bit fanciful to us, so we decided to test what Australians thought of the idea.

Every night across the campaign, we measure changes in public opinion by surveying a set of voters in key marginal seats. This is known as a tracking poll.

Over the weekend, we asked those Australians whether they agreed with the opposition leader’s suggestion on tariffs and President Trump.

They were skeptical, to say the least.

As you can see from the headline numbers, an overwhelming majority of Australians disagree that Peter Dutton would have got a better deal – by a factor of almost five to one.

This is despite every senior Coalition figure – from Peter Dutton to David Littleproud to their Shadow Trade Minister Kevin Hogan – consistently arguing they would have stopped the move.

Whichever way you cut it – Australians disagree with them.

Even Liberal Party voters rejected their leader’s argument by a margin of 52% to 38%.

To an even larger extent, the same applies to Labor voters, Greens voters, One Nation voters and other minor party voters.

Demographically, the results don’t uncover any great difference either.

Men and women, younger people and older people: around three quarters of every group disagree with Peter Dutton’s attack on the Prime Minister over a decision by an American President.

This is an unfortunate trend with Peter Dutton. He speaks before he thinks, and then he refuses to back down, even when he’s clearly wrong.

These tools can tell us the amount parties are spending, the geographic areas they are targeting, the messages they are sending, and the demographics they are focused on.

We can learn a lot from this data, but the first thing that jumps out is that the Liberal Party’s campaign has been extraordinarily negative. In fact, there have been days this week when 100% of their paid ads on Meta platforms were negative attacks.

LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA ADVERTISING: MESSAGE TYPE

This corresponds with a newfound silence over their signature $600 billion plan to build nuclear reactors, which the Liberals claimed was their centrepiece of their energy policy.

As we can see in this chart, the Liberals seem to be getting shy on their signature scheme.

LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA ADVERTISING: ISSUE SELECTION

Since 1 January 2025, the Liberal Party has published 2,368 ads on Facebook. And of those 2,386 ads, not a single one has mentioned nuclear reactors.

(Nor, for that matter, have they mentioned the cuts they would have to make to pay for them – but that’s another story)

It’s not the only subject they’ve gone silent on either.

We’ve noted a mysterious development on the Liberal Party’s digital ad program:

Peter Dutton himself has gone missing.

In the past week, there have been days when not a single Liberal Party Facebook ad featured the opposition leader.

LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA ADVERTISING: LEADER VISIBILITY

Peter Dutton had three years to develop a positive vision for Australia. Three years to generate any meaningful policies whatsoever – outside his $600 billion nuclear scheme.

By now, it’s clear that he wasted that time. And in the absence of policy, what we’re left with is wall-to-wall negativity.

With four weeks to go until election day, Australians are owed a positive vision of the future, and a frank discussion about his nuclear reactors. It’s certainly not the time to be hiding the Opposition Leader from the public.

On this page, we will be giving you an inside view of our campaign to build Australia’s future over the next five weeks.

It’s important that our supporters have a true picture of what’s going on, so we’ll be sharing our elections updates, correcting any misinformation we find, and giving you the facts directly.

It’s early days, but we can say two things about the campaign so far:

1. It’s still very close.

2. We’ve seen some encouraging developments in recent weeks.

As we saw in public polling over the weekend, Peter Dutton’s personal approval rating is heading downwards, continuing its negative trend over recent months.

This is matching what we’re seeing in discussions people are having online.

Using digital tools, we can separate online impressions into broadly positive, broadly negative and broadly neutral. This gives us a snapshot of the conversations happening around a particular issue or person at any one time.

As you can see in the chart below, in the days since the campaign began, negative impressions of Peter Dutton are significantly outstripping positive impressions.

Chart: digital impressions of Peter Dutton since March 29

We can drill into more detail here, by pulling out the words people are most frequently associating with the Liberal leaders. Near the centre of the word cloud, we can see concerns growing about his nuclear scheme, the large cost that it involves, and the cuts that will be required to pay for it.

We can also look at the topics that have trended this week (i.e. new topics that people are talking about). As this second word cloud shows, people have noted his arrogant presumption about the election and moving into Kirribilli House.

We know that Peter Dutton doesn’t like scrutiny. He’s spent three years trying to avoid it. But as the election gets closer, he’s finding it harder and harder to hide from view.

Australians are learning about his record, they’re turning their mind to his $600 billion plan for nuclear reactors, and they’re worried about what it will cost them.