Key achievements of the Labor Government:
- Strong Economic Management by acting decisively to keep Australia out of recession in the dark days of the Global Economic Crisis.
- Supporting jobs with unemployment in Australia among the lowest in the world and more than 350,000 jobs created in the past.year. Without the Government’s decisive action to keep our economy strong through the global recession around 200,000 jobs would have been lost.
- Getting rid of Work Choices to ensure working Australians get a fair go at work.
- Cutting taxes in the last three years for working families and low income earners, so someone earning $50,000 a year is now paying $1,750 less in tax than they were in 2007.
- More help for pensioners driving an increase of around $100 a fortnight in the age pension for singles and $74 for couples.
- Boosting the First Home Owners Grant helping 250,000 people to buy their first home.
- Interest rates are lower today than they were when the Liberals left office.
- Helping families with the cost of childcare by increasing the Child Care Rebate from 30% to 50%, the maximum rebate from $4354 to $7500 a year and moving towards fortnightly payments.
- Introducing Australia’s first ever national Paid Parental Leave scheme, allowing families more time with their babies and reducing the financial pressures on new families.
- Additional 50% tax deduction for SmallBusiness during the Global Financial Crisis for investments in new productive assets, like new machinery.
- Helping households move to renewable energy by providing solar PV rebates to more than 100,000 households and community organisations to tackle climate change and help families save on energy costs.
- Delivering a high quality National Curriculum for our schools and investing in quality teaching and school leadership.
- Record numbers of Australians getting elective surgery on time and training more doctors and nurses.
- Investing in new infrastructure to move Australia forward, like the National Broadband Network; 300,000 new computers in our
schools; new trades training centres and improvements to make our roads and rail safer and more efficient.
