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

the previous government's management of the economy to a government that has been determined to get wages moving. Every measure that we've had to get wages moving has been opposed by those opposite. They've opposed them right from the start. During the election campaign, the Prime Minister was asked the question of whether he would support a wage rise being backed at the Fair Work Commission. He had a one-word answer that will be very familiar to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition: 'Absolutely.' He would absolutely support those wage rises—the same word that was used by those opposite to say that they would oppose a tax cut for every Australian and would roll it back.

Opposition members interjecting—

Those opposite ask, 'How's it going?' with the wage rises for these workers. Let's start with some workers who the Leader of the Opposition will be familiar with. Let's start with workers at Woolworths. He'll know about Woolworths workers because he called for a boycott that, if successful—if any Australian had followed his advice—would have meant fewer jobs for those workers. Not only did he oppose their jobs and oppose their pay rise; he opposed their tax cut. Those checkout operators who irritated, so much, the Leader of the Opposition, in the life of this government, are now earning an extra $95 a week. Thanks to the action that this government has taken, not only do they now earn an extra $95 a week but they are also now up for a tax cut of an additional $920 a year. They will earn more and keep more of what they earn.

To those opposite who say, 'Maybe they support the tax cut': if you support it, why are you so angry about it?

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