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

I thank the member for Lalor for the question and for her commitment to getting wages moving in this country. Under the Albanese Labor government, women and men are earning more and keeping more of what they earn. If you look at the rate at which wages were growing in the decade where low wage growth was a deliberate design feature, the wage price index is now running at roughly double what it was previously.

There was a moment in the life of the previous government where there was a significant closing of the gender pay gap. It was not down to the levels we've got it to now, but there was one drop, where it came down from 14 per cent to 13.4 per cent. At the time, Senator Cash said this:

We are proud to stand on our record of dramatically reducing the gender pay gap in Australia and of raising workplace standards for women in Australia.

What Senator Cash didn't include in the release at that time was that the majority reason for the gender pay gap closing was that men's wages had collapsed during the lockdown period of 2020. What we have with the latest closing of the gender pay gap, down to the lowest level it has ever been, is a situation where men's wages have gone up, women's wages have gone up and the gender pay gap has closed, at the same time that inflation has been moderating. That's exactly what we have in this situation, with the latest data showing the gender pay gap is at its lowest level on record, at 12 per cent. I'm surprised there are angry interjections on that point—

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