The following are the main changes that the Labor government have promised.
To make it easier to see doctors and take the pressure off of hospitals by providing Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, boosting workforce incentives for rural and regional GPs, expanding the John Flynn Prevocational Doctor Program, expanding the Innovative Models of Collaborative Care program, and strengthening rural generalist and GP registrar training. They also want to cut costs of medications by reducing the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
To help secure Australian jobs by including 45,000 new places to have fee-free TAFE courses in industries with skills shortages, 20,000 more university placements, give people more access to apprenticeships by having one in ten workers on major government projects be apprentices, increase wages, ensure same job equals same pay, make work more secure, make wage theft a national level crime, maximise the use of Australian-made products and try to close the gender pay gap.
In order to make childcare cheaper they are lifting the maximum childcare subsidy rate, increasing subsidy rates for families with one child who earn less than $530,000, make subsidy rates higher for additional children who are cared for and extend the subsidy rate to outside school hours.
To improve schools, they will deliver $440 million for better ventilation, building upgrades and mental health support through the Schools Upgrade Fund. This will ensure that public schools get the same funding as private schools and are more ready for facing the effects of COVID.
Through their Powering Australia plan, they aim to create 604,000 jobs, cut power bills for families and businesses by $275 through upgrades to the electricity grid to fix energy transmissions which then lowers prices, have an electric car discount, reduce emissions gradually over time so they can get to net zero by 2050 and produce 85 more solar banks throughout Australia.
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