THE HON MARK DREYFUS KC MP
MEMBER FOR ISAACS
Isaacs can’t risk Peter Dutton
A federal election has been called for 3 May.
Voters in Isaacs face a clear choice between Labor’s plan to help with the cost of living with two new tax cuts or Peter Dutton’s promise to raise the taxes of every single Australian taxpayer.
It’s a choice between Labor, the party of Medicare offering more bulk billing, and cheaper medicines, or Peter Dutton, the Health Minister who wanted to force Australians to pay a GP tax every time they visited the doctor.
It’s a choice between Labor’s electricity bill relief, or Peter Dutton’s $600 billion nuclear power plants.
It’s a choice between a Labor Government with a plan to build Australia’s future - building more homes, investing in skills, education and higher wages, or Peter Dutton’s promise of mass sackings, higher taxes, and forcing people to give up working from home.
And it’s a choice between Labor’s Free TAFE and HECS student debt relief, or Peter Dutton’s Liberals who deliberately ripped $3 billion from TAFE and training during their ten years in government.
Over the last few years the Albanese Labor Government has worked hard to deal with the economic mess left behind by the Liberals.
Our economy has now turned the corner. Inflation is down, wages are up, unemployment is at record lows on average and importantly, interest rates have started to fall.
We’ve come a long way, but we know there’s more work to do and people in my electorate of Isaacs still need support with cost of living pressures.
That’s why we’ve put our tax cuts into law so every taxpayer gets more money in their pay packet, every pay, guaranteed.
Combined with Labor’s first round of tax cuts, the average tax cut is expected to be around $43 per week or $2,200 a year for the average taxpayer by 2026–27, and around $50 per week or $2,500 a year in 2027–28.
It’s a bit of extra help for every taxpayer and it tops up our tax cuts that started flowing on 1 July 2024. That’s for every Australian taxpayer, not just the high-income earners Peter Dutton wants to help.
Shockingly, Peter Dutton has promised to rip away these tax cuts if he wins government – meaning you’ll end up paying more tax.
He also voted against Labor’s $300 energy bill relief for all households. We’re going to go even further and provide another $150, extending our energy rebates until the end of 2025.
All Peter Dutton has to offer is his expensive untested nuclear power plants that will take decades to build, push up your power bills and accost the taxpayer $600 billion.
Peter Dutton also tried to end bulk billing and replace it with his GP Tax, forcing Australians to pay more to see a doctor. However, Labor is going to expand bulk billing because all you should need to go to the doctor is your Medicare card, not your credit card.
Under a re-elected Albanese Labor government more residents in my electorate of Isaacs will get free visits to the GP, with an additional 158,900 bulk billed visits per year and a boost to the number of fully bulk billed GP practices to around 25 clinics - nearly triple the current number of fully bulk billed clinics in our local area.
We’ve also opened Urgent Care Clinics around Australia, where you can walk in to see a doctor for free seven days a week with no appointment. There’s one right here in my electorate of Isaacs, in Dandenong South.
Having already slashed the cost of medicines – with the largest cut to the cost of medicines in the history of the PBS in 2023 – we’re now going even further.
We will cut the cost of a script so you pay no more than $25 under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. It was $42.50 before Labor came into government.
And if you are a pensioner or a concession card holder, we’ve frozen prices, so you’ll pay no more than $7.70 for the medicines you need. We are making medicines cheaper.
In my electorate of Isaacs, the choice is clear.
Victorians cannot risk Peter Dutton. He wants to raise taxes for every taxpayer, abolish bulk billing and make Australians pay more.
That’s why I need your support at this election.
As published in the Dandenong Star Journal on 16 April 2025
