Joanne Ryan
Lalor · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“I understand how difficult it is for those opposite. Having voted in support of this legislation, they've seen their vote overturned by their Senate colleagues. I understand that they're disappointed.”
“It's a four-page document that does two clear things. It gives the eSafety Commissioner something she has asked for. She has asked for a law that will allow her to compel documents in her investigation as to why big tech companies are not complying with the laws set by this country, set by this House and the other place.”
“These silos create delays and delays can mean claims held up, care interrupted, families unsupported and risks unseen. The failure this bill confronts is not a lack of courage from those who served but a lack of connection in the systems built to support them.”
“The Albanese government agreed or agreed in principle to 104 recommendations, and, significantly, this bill implements 15 recommendations and supports a further 20.”
“Schedule 1 of this bill strengthens information sharing to improve wellbeing, health and safety outcomes for Defence members and to limit the risk. The royal commission found that defence and veterans systems hold critical information but that information has too often been fragmented, delayed or unavailable when needed.”
“It is 1 July today, and that means pay rises for three million workers around this country and tax cuts for all Australian workers. This is good news for my community. And you know what else is good news in my community?”
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“These things are happening now under this Labor government, and I am so proud of the work we've done here. I'm proud that we stared down those opposite on extending scripts. We stared them down and delivered. I'm proud of it because I live with someone who has scripts all the time for a condition that won't change, and I know, across the last 15 years, the number of times a script went unfilled, the number of times I was in a conversation that went, 'Your colour's not looking great. Are you taking your meds?' only to be told, 'I'm going to go to the chemist today.' The 60 day scripts will prevent heart failure intensifying for thousands of people in our community. This is good news for everybody I represent. It's good news across Australia. Cheaper medicines help households in Lalor budget. I often talk about this.”
“She was an asthmatic. As a child, she was an asthmatic. Her mother was told when she was born she'd have to be left in the pram because the asthma was so severe. That's not a treatment we would suggest day, under any circumstances, but it's a long time ago. That asthma came back. She grew out of that extreme asthma by the time she became a teenager, but, with menopause, it came roaring back into her life. She was hospitalised in her 60s, seriously fearing for her life. Her asthma medications were a permanent part of her life, from age 60 through to when she left us. How many scripts is that? What would it mean for her to know at 60 that her medications were going to be $7.70 per script on the PBS? Cheaper, longer duration scripts have also improved medication adherence, preventing avoidable visits to the GP and hospital admissions.”
“A Tarneit family filling two general scripts a month will save hundreds of dollars under the change that I just mentioned. This bill provides certainty for concession holders. A Werribee pensioner will pay no more than $7.70 a script, frozen until 2030, with no surprises and no strings attached. I think about my mum, who lived to be 94, and I think about what our affordable medicines meant for her life. They meant a quality existence. They meant a pain-free existence. They meant that she could continue to contribute, to hold her great-grandchildren, to see the birth of 28 great-grandchildren. That was down to our great health system—seriously, 94 years of age—because she lived in Australia. She had nine children, with eight surviving. She was hard on her body. Her body met those demands. Those medicines kept her well.”
“This legislation is part of that good news story. As of 31 July this year, my community saved $9.2 million because of this government's commitment to cheaper medicines. If you think about the young families that I represent, about the number of times they go to the doctor, about all of the medicines that a family requires, about our model where we front-load preventive health by creating access to GPs, access to emergency care and access to urgent care clinics and providing medicines that families need at affordable prices—if you think of what that means for the long-term health of a community like mine, this is gold. It's more than gold. It's a spend we're not going to make at the other end of this cycle, because healthy children create healthy teenagers create health adults.”
“The National Health Amendment (Cheaper Medicines) Bill 2025 is another piece in that great social enterprise that is our country Australia and one of the reasons people from around the world want to come and live here with us. In my electorate of Lalor we have a young, diverse, fast-growing community of young families from around the globe, who all love our health system. If you stop on any street corner and start a conversation, it will go to health. Two planks—health and education. That's why people come to my community: 'Affordable housing, and I want a great education for my kids and I want to know that we can access the health care that we need.' This government is committed to making sure that everybody in Werribee, Tarneit, Wyndham Vale, Hoppers Crossing and Manor Lakes has access to affordable medicines.”
“Australia is famous for many things, and one thing the world knows about us is our universal health system and our affordable medicines. When people look around the world at where they want to live, our great health system is one of the things that attracts them to our country. It speaks to our sense of egalitarianism. It speaks to our sense of social justice and our commitment to looking after one another and building a fair society. Our universal health scheme is a hallmark of that great society, and I am really proud that Labor had a role to play in the creation of that egalitarian health system, if I can call it that.”
“My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Women. What progress has the Albanese Labor government made in closing the gender pay gap, and what keeps standing in the way of fairer pay for Australian women?”
“That means that young people in my electorate can look forward to owning their own home, to being a part of the community they grew up in and to putting down a deposit of only five per cent with no mortgage insurance. This is a game changer for young people across this country, and I'm incredibly proud to be a part of a government that is delivering for young people around this country so they can stop paying rent and start paying for their own homes.”
“The Leader of the Opposition might be interested to know that, thanks to this Prime Minister, 1,880 households in the electorate of Lalor bought a house with a five per cent deposit. That's what this prime minister has delivered to my community. The Leader of the Opposition scoffs. Does the Leader of the Opposition not care about first home buyers? Is she scoffing at the young people in my electorate who, under this Labor government, are going to have a future where they own their own home? They're going to have a future where they can stop paying rent and start paying for their own home. That's what this prime minister and this Labor government care about. It's what we're already delivering around this country and what we intend to improve upon, by bringing forward the uncapped version of this for delivery from 1 October.”
“I seek leave of the House to move a motion to suspend so much of the standing and sessional orders relating to private members' business on 25 August 2025. Leave is not granted. I move: That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Selection Committee's determinations for Monday, 25 August 2025 being varied to reflect the terms of the revised report and for the variation to be shown in the Notice Paper for Monday, 25 August under 'Business Accorded Priority' in the House and Federation Chamber.”
“I'll be there with colleagues and tens of thousands of Victorians to support Simone and Kate Moloney, our captain, in their game against the West Coast Fever. It's going to take every inch of grit and determination the Vixens can put on court to take the firm favourites, the Fever, but I'll put my money on the Vixens. Go Vixens!”
“On Saturday night is the Suncorp Super Netball grand final. It will be played between the Melbourne Vixens and West Coast Fever. It is going to be a cracker. Clearly, I'm supporting the Melbourne Vixens. Special commiserations go to the member for Bennelong, who was in Sydney last week at the game where the Swifts lost by a goal to the Vixens, to see the Vixens go through to the grand final. Commiserations, too, to my friends who support the Thunderbirds, who the Vixens beat the week before on their journey to this great, classic grand final. This grand final is critically important. Simone McKinnis, Victorian legend, Australian Diamond, coach of the Melbourne Vixens, will be coaching them for the last time. This is the dream finish.”
“We know there is quality in having these centres. It's up to government to ensure the quality inside the centres is up to scratch. I want to thank all of those people who make a commitment every day to be an early educator for their work. I know many who live in my community who are early educators, and I want to thank them for their work. I want to thank the families for the way they have dealt with this crisis in Victoria, and I want to thank the ministers for taking action so quickly.”
“Representing one of the youngest communities in the country means there are many centres operating in my community, and visiting them gives me a sense of being on the ground as a pair of eyes as well in those centres, and I welcome any families that want to talk to me about the things that they might be very happy with or very unhappy with in the centres in my electorate, because there is nothing more important than this. I know that you know, Deputy Speaker Freelander, how important those first thousand days in a child's life are. We know how important early education is. We know how important the foundations of learning are, and the statistics tell us that those children who engage in early education are better prepared for school and meet their milestones more quickly. We know that these things are real.”
“I want to thank the Minister for Education and the new Minister for Early Education and Care, Senator Walsh from Victoria, for their work and availability, when this news broke in Victoria, to talk with me and to allow me the scope to meet with families, have important conversations with them and ensure that they felt supported in this process by their federal government. I thank their Victorian counterparts for the work that they've done in this space as well. Keeping our children safe is of paramount importance to this government, but what is critically important in that space is that marriage between safety and quality. We know it matters. I'm in childcare centres and early education centres a lot in my electorate.”
“It's going to strengthen powers of entry for authorised persons to enable them to conduct unannounced service visits and spot checks, including family day care and out-of-school-hours care. These are really important provisions. The bill also supports the implementation of the CCS reform and the strong and sustainable foundations measure announced in the 2024-25 budget, which includes streamlining the process for seeking entry to an early education and care service under a monitoring warrant and appointment of an appropriately qualified and experienced expert to conduct an independent audit of a large childcare provider. It requires from 1 January 2026 that all family day care and in-home care providers collect the CCS gap fee, the out-of-pocket component of fees paid by parents, directly from families.”
“The bill means providers or services which do not meet this consideration can be subject to compliance action, including having their funding cut, and it will ensure quality and safety is a paramount consideration when assessing CCS provider approval applications. This means that providers or services which do not meet this consideration can be prevented from expanding. So, in other words, if you're a bad actor in this space, in terms of ensuring that safety and quality, then you can be stopped from opening another centre and from expanding your involvement. This legislation expands the secretary's power to publicise actions taken against providers, because sunlight is, of course, the best medicine in terms of exposure.”
“The legislation before us, the provisions of the Early Childhood Education and Care (Strengthening Regulation of Early Education) Bill 2025, is a critical piece of the architecture, if you like, but the work going forward is around meeting with our state and territory bodies so they can work together with the Commonwealth to find better ways to ensure that safety is what this bill sets up and allows. This bill will ensure quality and safety is a paramount consideration for maintaining CCS provider and service approval. So, in other words, if you're coming into this sector without an eye on safety and quality, don't bother. The funding will not be there to support you. The approvals will not come.”
“When those centres fail to meet standards and provide a safe environment, we think those centres shouldn't operate, and we know, as the Minister for Education has said on several occasions at the dispatch box this week, that as the funder in this space we can make a direct impact by cutting off funding and by creating more power to allow for spot checks around fraud, noncompliance and safety and as a federal government we can act to create deterrents around noncompliance and incentive around quality. This is the beginning of the work, and it will continue.”
“I want to thank our local community; I want to thank Victoria Police for the way they've managed what has been occurring; and I want to thank the Victorian health department for the way they've worked with local families. I've sat with some of the local families impacted. It has given me an insight into the catastrophic impact that this has had. I come here to talk about this piece of legislation with their goodwill, because they now understand that action will be taken to ensure that profit is never put before safety.”
“As a member of a government which did a lot of work in the last parliament around the affordability space, supporting families to access quality early childhood education, and a lot of work around valuing our early childhood educators—something that was long, long overdue—to ensure that they are getting a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, I know the vast majority of our workers in this space are great Australians doing incredibly important work in the earliest days of a child's life. So, we are making sure that, around the country, all governments have a sharp focus to ensure that we get the pieces right to make sure that the safety and the quality—things I don't think can be separated—are working together.”
“I rise to support the Early Childhood Education and Care (Strengthening Regulation of Early Education) Bill 2025 and the early action of this government to ensure that our early education and care sector is ensuring that centres are not putting profit before the safety of our children. This government is finding ways—working with the Minister for Education, Jason Clare, and with appropriate people across our states—to ensure that we are making this sector as safe as possible. That's so that families can feel assured that safety is the cornerstone of our early education and child care sector and that we've sharpened our focus to ensure that—working with states and territories and ECEC regulatory agencies—our priorities around the four pillars of safety, quality, access and affordability are being met.”
“I rise today to speak on this legislation with a heavy heart. It's a heavy heart because I represent a corner of the world where distressing things have occurred in recent time. I represent some of the families that have been directly impacted by the events in Victoria that we've all followed so closely. I think it's incumbent upon me today to reach out to those families impacted and offer my support once again, as I have done from home, but also my thanks for the way they have responded to an incredibly challenging situation in their personal lives, in their family lives, made more acutely distressing because it's about our children.”
“It reflects Labor values and it will be delivered by the Albanese Labor government. This bill lifts the weight off the shoulders of the very people we rely on. As the member for Lalor, I say thank you to the Minister for Education for making this our government's first priority. I thank the Prime Minister for making this commitment. I commend the bill to the House and the message it sends for three million Australians: help is here, and fairness is back, because, under Labor, education will never be a privilege for the few. It will always be a promise to all.”
“This is a critical point when you're looking at your options between pursuing higher education and pursuing a trade. It's a critical point, and we need those with the capacity to pursue higher education. We know we need it. We've been told how important that higher education piece is going to be into the future. Whilst Labor is delivering $16 billion in real relief to three million Australians, the opposition—those opposite—said no. They voted against wiping student debt. They voted against easing the cost-of-living burden. They voted against restoring fairness to the higher education system. At a time when Australians needed support, they chose politics over people. Labor chooses students, Labor chooses fairness, Labor chooses action and Labor chooses aspiration. This is a Labor policy.”
“This bill restores confidence in our higher education system and restores the public's belief that students can enrol in higher education and that they have a government that believes in them and supports them. The Universities Accord made it clear: uncapped indexation, rising debts and confusing repayment systems were putting people off study altogether. You don't have to look very far in my community to see the impact that has had. That is no way to run a system built on and for aspiration. This bill answers that fear with fairness. We're not just cutting debt by 20 per cent; we're rewriting the rules—fixing indexation so it never grows faster than wages and introducing marginal repayments so repayments only apply to what you earn above the threshold.”
“I take a moment to say that this bill works in conjunction with other actions taken by this government. I want to celebrate for a moment one of the things that the Albanese Labor government has done—and that something was really important in my electorate. The fact is that Pacific Islander students in my electorate were blocked from—had impediments put in front of them—being able to access HECS. They had no pathway to citizenship. I taught generations of Pacific Islander kids whose aspirations were dashed because they couldn't see a pathway to higher education in this country. This government has created that pathway to citizenship. This government has created that pathway to allowing our young people from New Zealand to access this. This government has now given them relief on top through this budget.”
“Thank you for understanding what this means.' That moment has stayed with me. That student represents what this bill is all about. It's about hope, it's about access and it's about fairness. From Whitlam establishing universal higher education in 1974, through Hawke's and Dawkins's reforms and to today, Labor has delivered access and equity across generations. This bill continues that legacy. As a former educator, I know that education transforms lives. I've taught kids whose parents never finished school. I've sat with students at 3.30 pm on a Friday, watching them weigh up work, study and survival. I understand the barriers that exist and I know that education is a ladder—and it's always been Labor that builds the rungs on that ladder, making sure no-one is left behind.”
“This bill goes to the heart of who we are as a nation and what we aspire for our young people. It's about who we back and about who we believe in. It will especially help younger Australians, with around 70 per cent of people repaying a HECS debt being 35 years and younger. My electorate of Lalor is one of the youngest in the country, and I know how much this matters to the people I represent—not just the people with the debt but their families, their parents, who are equally concerned, as concerned as we are in this place, about what this has meant for young people getting their first housing loan. We have this piece of legislation. We also have the Treasurer's actions with the banks to ensure that that is changing. On election night, a student who helped on the campaign for me came up and simply said: 'Thank you.”
“But it also goes to structural issues. This goes to the structure of the repayment system. This legislation reforms the repayment system and makes it fairer. The minimum repayment threshold will increase from $54,000 to $67,000. Simply put it means that, if you currently earn $54,000, you are required to start paying back that HECS debt. This will increase that payment threshold and only apply when you are earning $67,000. A graduate earning $70,000 will pay $1,300 less per year in repayments because of this measure. You won't begin repaying your loan until you are earning a more sustainable income. That's fairer, that's smarter and that's a system that recognises the real pressures Australians are facing. It especially supports women, carers and part-time workers—those who've often borne the brunt of unfair systems.”
“I've met young locals who have much bigger debts than that, because they've pursued longer term agendas. That's a young couple saving for a house, a mature-age student changing careers or a family breathing a little easier. This 20 per cent cut is automatic—no red tape, no applications, just direct relief. This builds on the Labor government's earlier action to fix the broken indexation system, which wiped a further $3 billion in debt for Australians with a HECS debt. Together these reforms represent nearly $20 billion in relief—real action, not talk, to support our local people. I understand what this means for people trying to move forward. I understand what it means for young families juggling child care and repayments. I understand the peace of mind this will bring to a generation that has felt locked out.”
“As someone who spent over two decades in schools as a teacher, a principal and a proud public educator, I understand how crucial it is that education remains an opportunity and that all hindrances are removed and that all impediments to having people engage in education are addressed. It is important that higher education not become a trap. The bill in front of us wipes 20 per cent off existing student debts across HELP, VET student loans, apprenticeship support loans and others. It delivers $16 billion in student-debt relief for around three million Australians, including more than 800,000 people in Victoria and over 18,000 in my electorate of Lalor. That's 18,000 locals who will be better off because this bill passes this place. It will provide an average reduction of $5,520 per person in student debt—and that's an average.”
“Deputy Speaker Chesters, it's a pleasure to be here and to see you in that chair. Labor is the party of education. Labor is the party of aspiration. I'm pleased to rise on the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025 that addresses both of those things. I support this legislation, the first bill introduced in this new parliament, because it delivers on the promise made to Australians. The bill goes to the heart of Labor's mission—fairness, relief and restoring faith in the power of education. It is Labor's safety net in action not just for today but for a better, fairer Australia tomorrow.”
“I declare that, unless otherwise ordered, the following bills stand referred to the Federation Chamber for further consideration: Defence Housing Australia Amendment Bill 2025, Health Insurance (Pathology) (Fees) (Repeal) Bill 2025, Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, Aged Care (Accommodation Payment Security) Levy Amendment Bill 2025, and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2025 and Pacific Banking Guarantee Bill 2025 at the adjournment of the debate on the motion for the second reading of each bill.”
“In a community where people are getting home from work on public transport at six o'clock and leaving in the morning at six o'clock, those long hours are really important. Not only did those hours shrink back; in my community, we lost 30 per cent of our GPs in a 12-month period. We put the DPA back in our last term of government, and those numbers are lifting again. We're really proud to be part of a community where international doctors are receiving their training and getting their qualifications; we're really proud of that in our community. Our community has seen some of those doctors put down deep roots and build new centres. That's what universal health care is about, and those opposite need to acknowledge it.”
“It means early detection of chronic diseases. We've run these arguments a million times, and now, in a second-term government, we get to deliver $8.5 billion for more bulk-billed GP visits each year, hundreds of nursing scholarships and thousands more doctors. I just want to make the point that, in my community, one of the things the previous government did was rip us off the distribution priority area listings. It had been a fundamental thing in my community, where overseas doctors had come and done out-of-hours care and, in doing so, got themselves their Australian licences. When this was ripped away, when my local GP clinics could no longer do that, not only did our hours offering to see a GP shrink back to business hours—so we lost our longer hours.”
“Being able to see a GP without your credit card and without getting money from the bank, being able to walk in and see a GP, being able to have your preventive health measures provided by a general practitioner in your own community are fundamental to what Australians believe their healthcare system should provide. They are fundamental. Universal health care is fundamental to most Australians and is something they want to see, to ensure it stays part of our health system. There are lots of reasons why but the most important reason is preventive health saves the government dollars in the longer term, in the amount we have to spend on hospitals and the amount we have to spend on chronic conditions. It means Australians, if they've got a preventive-health system in place for them, are walking around healthier.”
“I was here and worked with members of the public, members of my own community, to march in the streets of Melbourne to push back on that policy, to push back on the then minister for health, the then member for Dickson, Peter Dutton, and his plans. But the opposition were not deterred when the public saw that off. They then built in, by regulation, freezing the indexation for Medicare repayments, which, in effect, led to doctor upon doctor and centre upon centre introducing a co-payment of their own to seek fair payment for the services of our GPs in our areas. Still, the opposition needs to learn that lesson well—that, if you want to talk about what's pivotal to 27 million Australians, a universal healthcare system is pivotal to the safety and the health of 27 million Australians. It is absolutely pivotal.”
“It is an absolute pleasure to make my first contribution to our new parliament and to make it about Medicare—to move a motion that celebrates that Labor, having been returned to government, will act to strengthen Medicare. We will do that, the same as we did in the last parliament. When we came to government in 2022, it had never been harder or more expensive to find a doctor. Bulk-billing was in freefall after a decade of cuts and neglects to Medicare. That's why strengthening Medicare was a key focus of our election platform. As a member of parliament who was here during the decade of cuts and neglect, let me tell you how important this is. I was here when the previous government put in the 2014 budget with its GP tax, a co-payment that would have been initiated by law.”
“I move: That this House: (1) acknowledges the Government's commitment to strengthening Medicare; (2) welcomes that, from 1 July 2025, the following measures to strengthen Medicare began: (a) a $1.8 billion boost to hospital funding, helping Australians get the quality healthcare they deserve; (b) more choice, lower costs, and high-quality care for Australian women; and (c) expanded access to Medicare-funded magnetic resonance imaging scans; (3) further welcomes the Government's commitments to strengthen Medicare through: (a) the single largest investment in Medicare to deliver more bulk billing; (b) opening an additional 50 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, on top of the 87 already in operation; (c) cutting the maximum cost of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme medicine to $25; and (d) launching 1800 MEDICARE to take pressure off hospitals and make free, urgent care available to all Australians; (4) notes the stark contrast between the Government's investment in Medicare and the Leader of the Opposition, who, as health minister extended the Medicare rebate freeze; and (5) welcomes the Government delivering the better future Australians voted for by strengthening Medicare.”
“To those activists: please, think about the way you're presenting yourselves. You're diminishing any argument you had. People have a right to protest; I firmly believe that. People have a right to demonstrate. People have a right to call upon government to change a policy. People have a right to do that in every community across the country. But people do not have a right to spread misogynistic slander and to ask other people to take that in their stride. I won't take it in mine, and I'll stand against it every time I see it.”
“You cannot run community campaigns unless you can run yourselves, to be blunt—unless you can reflect and understand that your cause is damaged by that kind of behaviour. I want to send that message strongly to those activists in my community who found themselves caught in a situation where they were near posters that carried those kinds of misogynistic messages. I don't care who the messages are for, and I don't care who wrote the signs. The misogyny is in the language, and it shouldn't have happened in my electorate. It shouldn't happen anywhere in the country. It shouldn't have happened. The things that it re-created happened out the front of this building. They shouldn't have happened then, they shouldn't be re-created in Victoria now, and they certainly shouldn't be visited upon my community.”
“I was absolutely appalled a couple of weekends ago, when people involved in community activism came and visited my electorate—and some locals joined them—to talk about something that they feel is unfair. That is fair enough. But to come into the electorate of Lalor and stand in front of signs saying 'Ditch the bitch' is beyond the pale. Not in my electorate—not now, not ever. This is the home, the seat, of former prime minister Julia Gillard. To bring those slurs into my community and to have people stand in front of those signs and re-create, knowingly or unknowingly, a scenario that my community completely rejects hinders the activists when it comes to people hearing their message, because all we saw was a re-creation of the misogyny that our community rejects. So, I call on those who were involved in this to think carefully.”
“It's important for the burgeoning west of Melbourne that this project see the light of day, that this project get started now. I would suggest strongly that it needs to start at the Wyndham end to make sure that our western suburbs communities have an alternative. Geelong and the west need an alternative to the M1. There was something else that I wanted to talk about. When I became the member for Lalor, it was off the back of working in education, obviously, but also work as a community advocate, as a grassroots activist. One of the toughest jobs, when you're leading a campaign in a local community—against government, against business or whatever it's about—is to ensure that all the people who care deeply about it and who come together do so in an appropriate way. It is one of the most critical things.”
“I've been pleased to see people take up the opportunity to come and tell me about their priorities and their concerns. But there are two other things I want to talk about in this address in reply that I think are critical. One is the outer metropolitan ring road development. I highlight the plan for the E6 outer metropolitan ring road. While it may not all run directly through Lalor, its regional importance is unquestionable. We saw that highlighted recently with the M1 closed completely and traffic banked back from Geelong and Wyndham. That is hundreds of thousands of people not getting to their destination because we rely on one road. We need an alternative. That happened on 11 June this year and it has happened since where we have had a similar situation.”
“I know the difference that is making to the Mercy public hospital's emergency department as it waits for the state government to complete the new emergency department. It's on foot right now, being built as we speak. Health is important to the Labor government. The Albanese Labor government are not just delivering projects; we are delivering progress in health. We are responding to the needs I hear every day. From parents desperate for local education options to young apprentices needing access to quality training to seniors seeking aged-care support, we are delivering in each of these areas. While we are talking about connections, let me highlight how we stay connected. I have been holding mobile offices in local community centres across my electorate.”
“We have federal backing for mental health and wellbeing services in local schools, including for reinstating the local GP training priorities for Wyndham. One of the most significant recent additions to our local health services has been the Werribee Medicare urgent care clinic. I was pleased during the campaign to be there with the Prime Minister. This service is already reducing pressure on the local emergency department. It provides fast, bulk-billed care for urgent but non-life-threatening conditions. It ensures families in the electorate of Lalor and in the city of Wyndham can access care when they need it, close to home and without the cost burden. The day during the campaign that I was there with the Prime Minister we did proudly say that already 20,000 patients had been through this urgent care clinic in my community.”
“People don't understand that in growth corridors we talk about how long it takes to get to work. We talk about the trip on the major freeways. But in my community it can take 45 minutes to get to the freeway because we are crossing a city that used to take six minutes to cross and now, with traffic and more and more houses, can take 45 minutes. On a Saturday morning, with families coming from one side of the city of Wyndham to the other to take their kids to sport, is when most people feel the pinch most acutely, because that snarl can last for hours. We've also made other commitments. I was pleased to attend the opening of the Galvin Park Sexton Pavilion. I made a commitment at the 2022 election to make a contribution of half a million dollars to the new Sexton Pavilion at Galvin Park. But we are doing more.”
“We're giving $13.2 million over five years via Roads to Recovery for local roads upgrades in Wyndham, including Sayers Road, Priorswood Drive, Warringa Crescent, Danube Drive and Ashton Crescent, and a further $2.3 million for local active transport infrastructure—walking and cycling paths—via the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program. This is really important work. It will see stage 1 complete of the Wyndham Ring Road. I was really pleased at the election to be able to announce $85 million to build a bridge to start stage 2 at the other end of this road to get a bridge over the Werribee River that will connect Tarneit and Wyndham Vale, that will join those two burgeoning communities and suburbs and reduce congestion across our city.”
“We've had a traffic light put on the road to create a break so that traffic can come off that freeway, and right now they are putting in the temporary lights so that we can get on with the complex work of seeing stage 1 of this ring road completed. I'm really pleased to say that this federal government is making its contribution with half the funding for that M1 main road interchange to be modernised and for the bridge to be widened there to make sure that people can move freely to and from work. As well as that, this government is delivering $41.75 million to update the intersection of Ballan, McGrath and Greens roads on Ballan Road, again in partnership with the state Labor government.”