Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I take the interjection from the shadow Treasurer who can't ask a question of the Treasurer, even though he's back today. He's back. Get ready, Jim! The fact is that the figures released today show that wages rose by 1.3 per cent in the September quarter—higher than the inflation rate. Real wages rose in the quarter. They rose. They went up, because 1.3 is higher than 1.2. It's pretty simple. It's the highest quarterly growth on record. People will recall, of course, that those opposite said that lifting the minimum wage would wreck the economy. But they had more to say than that, because, when they were voting against the 'secure jobs, better pay' laws, their spokesperson on workplace relations, Senator Cash, said:

It will return Australia to the dark ages. It would close down the economy. It would leave supermarket shelves bare. There will be nothing there.

The fact is that they voted against this legislation. They opposed the increase in the minimum wage, and we are getting real wages lifting. And they opposed a lot of the other measures.

But, just like they opposed all the other measures, they opposed cheaper medicines—$200 million on 17 million scripts. They voted against it six times in the Senate. We know that the Leader of the Opposition wanted no-one to be able to see a doctor for free and wanted to jack up the price of medicines by $5 a script. They opposed fee-free TAFE. The deputy leader said that this was a waste of taxpayer dollars. There are 214,000 Australians who have benefited already from free-free TAFE. In relation to energy bill relief, the member for New England claimed that this was 'Venezuelan communism'. That was what he said. They opposed the Housing Australia Future Fund as well. They opposed the biggest investment ever in bulk-billing, even though now the AMA vice president, Danielle McMullen, has said in Townsville that she's going back to bulk-billing as a direct result of our policy. (Time expired)

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