The Albanese Labor Government’s 2025 Budget provides cost of living relief for people across the Surf Coast, Bellarine and Geelong region, while Building Australia’s Future.

The Budget delivers new help with the cost of living for everyone, including:

• More tax cuts for every taxpayer.
• More energy bill relief for every household and small business.
• More bulk billing to help Australians see a GP for free, and even cheaper medicines.
• More cuts to HECS debts and historic funding for public schools.
• More help to get Australians into a home of their own.

Federal Member for Corangamite, Libby Coker, said the Budget builds on the strong foundations laid by the Albanese Government in previous budgets.

“We know Australians have worked hard and made sacrifices, and the Albanese Labor Government remains focused on delivering for households,” Ms Coker said.

“The Budget has a strong focus on delivering for the regions, including an additional $68 million to deliver the Stage 2 upgrade of Barwon Heads Road, duplicated all the way to the Lower Mount Duneed Road roundabout – this project is an absolute game-changer for the Bellarine, Armstrong Creek, and the Geelong region.

“It also provides funding for a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in Torquay as part of the Albanese Labor Government’s commitment to deliver another 50 clinics across the country.

“It’s a responsible Budget that will deliver much-needed cost of living relief with new tax cuts for taxpayers, energy bill relief, investment in every stage of education, and more support for Australians who want to buy a home.”

Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said: “Cost of living is front of mind for people in Corangamite, and front and centre in the Budget.”

“We’ve found a way to deliver responsible and meaningful cost of living help, strengthen Medicare and build a stronger economy while also building a stronger budget.”

The Budget makes the largest investment in Medicare since its creation 41 years ago with the Albanese Government investing $7.9 billion so all Australians can see a GP for free.
 
For the first time, Labor will expand bulk billing incentives to all Australians and create an additional new incentive payment for practices that bulk bill every patient.
 
By 2030, this will mean:

• 18 million additional bulk billed GP visits each year.
• Nine in 10 GP visits are free and bulk billed.
• Around 4,800 GP practices are fully bulk billing – triple the current number.
• $859 million saved by Australian patients and families each year.

And once all Labor’s Medicare Urgent Care Clinics are open:

• Four in five Australians will live within a 20-minute drive of a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic.
• Two million Australians will make use of an Urgent Care Clinic each year, getting free urgent care, fully bulk billed, without waiting hours in a busy hospital emergency department.

More Doctors and Nurses

The Albanese Labor Government is growing the health workforce with $662.6 million to deliver more doctors and nurses than ever before, including:

• The largest GP training program in Australian history, funding the training of 2,000 new GP trainees a year by 2028.
• Salary incentives to encourage junior doctors to specialise as GPs and paid parental leave for trainee GPs.
• Hundreds of scholarships for nurses and midwives to extend their skills and qualifications.

Cheaper Medicines Get Even Cheaper

The Albanese Government is providing cost of living relief to millions of Australians with $689.1 million to make cheaper medicines even cheaper.
 
From 1 January 2026, the maximum cost of a prescription for a Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medicine will be cut from $31.60 to $25.
 
This will mean:

• A PBS script will cost Australians no more than $25.
• Australians will save over $200 million more each year.
• The last time that PBS medicines cost no more than $25 was 2004.
• Families filling four prescriptions a month will save as much as $316.80 a year.
• Four in five PBS medicines will get cheaper for Australians without a concession card.

Pensioners and concession cardholders will continue to benefit from the freeze to the cost of their PBS medicines, with the cost frozen at its current level of $7.70 until 2030.

More Choice, Lower Costs and Better Health Care for Women
The Albanese Labor Government is working to reverse decades of neglect to women’s health, with $792.9 million to deliver more choice, lower costs and better healthcare for women.
 
Australian women and their families will save thousands of dollars across their lifetimes, thanks to:

• The first new contraceptive pills added to the PBS in 30 years: Yaz®, Yasmin® and Slinda®.
• Better access to IUDs and birth control implants, with larger Medicare payments and more bulk billing, to save around 300,000 women a year up to $400 in out-of-pocket costs.
• The first new menopause treatments on the PBS in 20 years: Estrogel®, Estrogel Pro® and Prometrium®.
• More Medicare support for menopause, with a new Medicare rebate for menopause health assessments, funding to train health professionals and the first-ever clinical guidelines.
• A new PBS listing for endometriosis medicine Ryeqo®.
• 11 new endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics, with all 33 clinics to also support menopause.
• Trialling access to contraceptives and uncomplicated UTI treatment, direct from a pharmacy.

Fairly Funded Public Hospitals
The Albanese Government is boosting funding to public hospitals, including an uplift for the Northern Territory, with an additional $1.8 billion to help states and territories to cut waiting lists, manage ramping, and reduce emergency department waiting times.
 
The total Commonwealth contribution to state-run public hospitals will increase by 12 per cent to reach a record $33.9 billion in 2025-26.
 

Fair Pay for Nurses who Care for Older Australians
The Albanese Labor Government is investing $2.6 billion in a further pay rise for 60,000 aged care nurses, to deliver fair pay for the workers and nurses who care for older Australians.
 
Since the 2022 Election:

• $17.7 billion has been invested to support award wage increases for aged care workers.
• A registered nurse level 2 on pay point 3 of the award earns $430 more a week – over $22,000 extra a year.
• An enrolled nurse on pay point 2 of the award earns $370 more per week – over $19,000 extra a year.

Including the historic investments in this Budget, the Albanese Labor Government has invested $23.5 billion to strengthen Medicare since the 2022-23 October Budget.
 

Building a stronger economy

The Government is also accelerating productivity-enhancing reforms as part of our revitalised National Competition Policy. This Budget includes:

• Banning non-compete clauses for low and middle-income earners to boost workers’ wages. Research shows that reforms to these clauses could lift the wages of affected workers by up to four per cent or $2,500 for workers on average wages and lift GDP by $5 billion per year. 
• Progressing the design of a national licensing scheme for electrical occupations to cut red tape for businesses, save tradies time and money and enable electricians to work seamlessly across borders. The Productivity Commission suggests licensing reforms across a range of industries would provide long-term benefits, including a boost to GDP of up to $10.3 billion.

The Government is also ensuring Australia has a highly skilled workforce for the future by putting public schools on a path to full and fair funding and making Free TAFE permanent.

Investing in every stage of education
This Budget invests in every stage of education to support students and build the workforce of the future.
 
This Budget includes:

• Investments in public schools to put them on a path to full and fair funding.
• $5 billion to expand access to early education and care and fund a historic wage rise for early educators.
• Cuts to student debt and lowering repayments.
• Funding for 100,000 Free TAFE places every year from 2027.

Building a stronger economy
 
The Albanese Government is building a stronger, more productive and more resilient economy.
 
This Budget delivers:

• Competition reforms like progressing national occupational licensing for electrical trades.
• Reforms to non-compete clauses for low and middle-income workers to lift affected workers’ wages by up to four per cent or $2,500 a year.
• More support for small businesses, taking Labor’s total targeted small business commitments in this term of Parliament to more than $2 billion.
• More than $3 billion to unlock investment in green metals and manufacturing.
• $17.1 billion to deliver vital infrastructure.
• Up to $3 billion to complete the NBN rollout, supporting suburbs and regions.