As the 2022 Australian election looms, Australia has a choice: Liberals and Scott Morrison OR Labor and Anthony Albanese. I argue that Labor deserves your vote primarily because of their superior policies. From better health care to better education as well as stronger climate policy, Labor has proven it is ready to take on the top job.
Labor will provide better health care. They have confirmed that new urgent care clinics, covered by Medicare, will be introduced to provide care on extremely short notice to those with minor complications. Under the Liberals, many hours of notice are required at the very least. Labor will also establish an Australian centre for disease control to control and prevent the spread of diseases – something the Liberals have not yet done. Also, Labor will cut the cost of medicines. Currently, the Pharmaceutical Medical Scheme (PBS) ensures most medicines must be under $42.50. The Liberals have pledged to cut that to just $32.50 – $10 less – but the Labor goes one step further, bringing the maximum medical cost to $30.
Labor will also provide better education. They will increase the childcare subsidy from a max of 83% to 90%, with the ultimate goal of universal 90% subsidy. The Liberals have re-iterated that all those families earning $400,000+ get 0% subsidy. Labor only hits 0% at $530,000 family income. This is because cheaper childcare encourages women participation in the work force, boosting GDP and addressing the gender equality.
For Primary and Secondary schools, ventilation and air purifiers will be funded to fix the problem that the Liberals created because of underfunding. COVID-19 could have been prevented in schools with adequate funding. Labor will also introduce 45,000 new TAFE places and 420,000 free places. This will help address skills shortages, where the Liberals aren’t funding vocational education enough. Labor will also provide 20,000 new University places to increase the number of students who go to Uni.
Climate change is also being addressed by Labor. The Liberals will have a 26-28% reduction on 2005 emissions by 2030; Labor will make that 43%. The Liberals pledge net zero emissions by 2050 but their plan only gets us 85% of the way there. The remaining 15% supposedly comes from miraculous technological breakthroughs. Environmentalists have commended Labor’s climate change policies focussed on renewables. Renewable energy will be encouraged and incentivised and ultimately prices will go down. The Liberals are betting on unproven development such as “green hydrogen”.
Ultimately, neither party is perfect. There’s always better way to do things. Labor has admitted that, under their policies, deficit will increase by $7b – but the whole purpose of the investment is that over time, they pay for themselves and this is true for many Labor policies. It is for these reasons, Health, Environment and Climate change as well as many more that Labor is a superior party.
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