Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Those opposite want to continue. Having had 10 years of deliberately keeping wages down, they are now saying ,'Can't we have a few more months?' And what would happen if it went through to January? They would have another reason: 'Can't this bit be delayed a bit further? Can't we keep delaying it?' That has been the experience of workers. Let me tell you: if inflation is now running at 7.3 and is projected to get to eight per cent, I can't think of a time, certainly in my working life, where delay would have a greater impact on households around Australia.

I'll leave it there because I did see members of the crossbench jumping up when I jumped up and I don't want to use up all the time, but allow me to simply say that the government is determined to get wages moving. We are in the hands of the Senate as to when this legislation gets through. I want to make sure that we have the legislation in front of them as soon as the Senate returns. We will continue to push for wages to get moving because households that are feeling the pinch of higher prices need to see improvements in wages after 10 years of them being held back.

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