Constituency questions
Southern Metropolitan Region
Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (12:40): (675) My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer please outline how the Labor government is working to support households in Southern Metro with cost-of-living pressures? Obviously, we know many in the community are struggling with rising prices and with costs, and it is something that the government takes extremely seriously. Our last budget built on the enormous support that we have been providing over many years to support households with cost-of-living pressures. We had another round of the power saving bonus. We have introduced free school breakfast programs. There is expanded eligibility for free TAFE. There is free registration for apprentices. We have got the rollout of the free kinder programs. We are slashing regional train fares for those of us in the metro area who want to go into regional Victoria. We have expanded the Smile Squad free dental care to independent schools. And we are doing things like bringing back the SEC to promote renewables and make the structural changes in our grid to make sure that we have cheaper power into the future.