Australia`s Parliament resumed Tuesday for the first time since the centre-left Labor Party won one of the nation`s largest-ever majorities in the May elections. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese thanked the traditional owners of the national capital Canberra at a Welcome to Country ceremony in Parliament House. He noted that such ceremonies performed by Indigenous people to welcome visitors to their traditional land at the start of a new parliament had been introduced by a Labor government in 2007.

`In the 48th Parliament, we write the next chapter. Let us do it with the same sense of grace and courage that First Nations people show us with their leadership,` Albanese said. The government has said the first legislation will be a bill to reduce student loan debt by 20 per cent. The measure to be introduced Wednesday will benefit 3 million Australians with student loan debts and cost the government 16 billion Australian dollars ($10 billion).

The government also plans to introduce laws that would cut funding to child care providers who fail to meet quality standards and that would provide legal protections for some wage rates. Labor won 94 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives where governments are formed. Labor`s majority is the largest since Prime Minister John Howard`s conservative coalition won 94 seats in 1996, when the lower chamber had only 148 seats.