Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hawke for his question. Workers are both the beating heart and the backbone of Australia's aged-care system. That is why, from our very first day in government, we have been focused on ensuring there are more carers, with more time to care; focused on putting the nurses back into nursing homes; focused on making sure that these amazing and dedicated workers are properly valued for the crucial and skilled work that they perform. That's why we backed aged-care workers in their fight for better wages at the Fair Work Commission and we delivered a 15 per cent increase to award wage minimums for 250,000 workers—an $11.3 billion investment in the people who dedicate their working lives to caring for older Australians.

That increase is changing the lives of both the workers and the people that they care for. I recently met with aged-care workers and they told me about their colleague named Kylie. Kylie is a single mum, living, working and raising her family in Penrith, in the member for Lindsay's electorate. Before the 15 per cent increase in the award wage minimum, Kylie was trying to get approved for a mortgage, in order to buy a house for her and her kids. But the banks wouldn't lend to her, because, despite doing this incredibly valuable work, she wasn't paid enough. But under the Albanese Labor government that changed, and, after the pay increase on 1 July last year, Kylie has now been approved for a mortgage and been able to buy an apartment for the very first time. How amazing is that!

Our investment in workers like Kylie is paying dividends not just for her and her family but also for the people that they care for. Under the Albanese government, older people are receiving an additional 2.16 minutes of care every single day. We are seeing improvements in their star-ratings data, with fewer 1- and 2-star rated facilities now, and more 5-star facilities.

But we don't just want workers to earn more; we want them to keep more of what they earn. From 1 July, every single taxpayer, including our aged-care workers, will receive a tax cut. So not only can a personal-care worker like Kylie take home $7,300 more, every single year; they will now get a tax cut of more than $1,100 under Labor's tax cuts—almost double what they would have got from the coalition.

With my remaining time, can I give a shout-out to the students from the National Schools Constitutional Convention that we have here with us this afternoon, particularly to Sophie, from Aspley, who promises me she's going to give rebuttal a go—and she definitely has to, now I've shouted her out in the federal parliament for it! And, as she can see, from the standard we display here, it's really not that hard. Best of luck!

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