Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hume for his question. What I can guarantee and what every member of the Albanese Labor government can guarantee is that we stand for higher wages. We stand for workers having a fair go, being able to negotiate on an equal basis with employers and being able to get wages moving again. This is in stark contrast to the policies of those on the other side of the House, because for nine long years on their watch we saw wages stagnate.

For households which are struggling with cost-of-living increases there are two ways to deal with this, and one of them is to ensure that we get wages moving again. We've heard time and time again from employers in the childcare sector, in the aged-care sector and in other caring sectors across the economy that they cannot attract workers, and one of the reasons they cannot attract workers is that their wages aren't able to compete with other comparable jobs across the economy. So what we on this side of the House can confirm is that our policies—

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