Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes the Fair Work Commission's annual wage review was handed down on 3 June 2024;

(2) acknowledges the decision means:

(a) 2.6 million low paid workers on awards or the minimum wage will receive a pay rise of 3.75 per cent from 1 July 2024;

(b) fulltime workers on the minimum wage will receive an extra $33.10 per week, or $1,721 per year; and

(c) that since the election of the Government, the minimum wage has increased by $143.30 per week and by $7,451.60 per year;

(3) further acknowledges the Government has delivered on its commitment for Australians to earn more and keep more of what they earn while also delivering cost of living relief without adding to inflation with measures such as:

(a) a tax cut for every Australian taxpayer;

(b) cheaper medicines;

(c) energy bill relief;

(d) cheaper childcare;

(e) strengthening Medicare; and

(f) increased support payments; and

(4) further notes that leaked plans from the Opposition reveal they want Australians to work longer for less by:

(a) making it easier to sack people by removing criteria including 'procedural fairness' and 'harshness' from unfair dismissal protections;

(b) abolishing the better off overall test;

(c) forcing workers to sign away their rights as a condition of employment in 'take it or leave it' contracts; and

(d) removing award protections for thousands of workers.

The secret is out. The Albanese Labor government wants two key things for Australians: we want Australians to earn more and keep more of what they earn. Today, we are just one week away from turning the page on a new financial year. In seven days it will be 1 July, the day that millions of Australians will have thousands of reasons to look forward to. On 1 July, 13.6 million Australians—74,000 of them in Spence—will get a tax cut from that day onward. Each of those 74,000 taxpayers in my electorate are looking at a tax cut, on average, of $1,200.

More importantly, 91 per cent of them will get more back because they elected a Labor government. They elected a government that would introduce policies to bring down cost-of-living pressures, like indexing student HELP debt more fairly and backdating it. They've put $3.5 billion towards giving 10 million households and one million small businesses, $300 or $325 off their power bills. And there are policies such as 60-day prescriptions, something that has saved people in my electorate of Spence over $2 million through cheaper medicines at the counter—that has happened in picking up their scripts from the chemist since this policy was enacted. These things are only the tip of the iceberg of what this government is doing to help everyday Australians. We're keeping cost-of-living pressures lower and doing it in a measured way, ensuring that we also keep inflation under control.

But this is just one side of the coin. Earlier this month, on 3 June, the Fair Work Commission handed down its decision as part of this year's annual wage review. This was a decision that was a significant win for Australian workers, particularly the 2.6 million workers on an award, including those who are on the minimum wage. From 1 July, those 2.6 million workers will see their wages go up by 3.75 per cent. This means that someone earning the minimum wage on full-time hours will receive an extra $33.10 per week and an extra $1,721 this year. Since the election of our government we have seen three annual wage review decisions handed down—decisions that have resulted in the wages of some of Australia's lowest-paid workers going up to the tune of $143.30 a week or nearly $7,500 a year.

These numbers aren't a statistic; they mean more food on the table for families who are working hard, both on the job and in supporting their families—for the millions of Australians who are just trying to get ahead in life. These are the Australians that the Albanese Labor government will always go into bat for. In all three of the annual wage reviews made under our government, all three submissions presented to the Fair Work Commission have done exactly that. These submissions led to a 5.2 per cent pay rise in 2022, an 8.6 per cent rise in 2023 and now a 3.75 per cent rise this year. These increases have contributed to wages growth rising to the highest level in 15 years. And this year's decision received a relatively moderate to muted response from many business groups, with many noting that at least it wasn't the five per cent that was being asked by the ACTU—although I should note that each of the major national business groups which made a submission wanted to see real wages decrease for workers on awards and the minimum wage, with only the Australian Retailers Association proposing an increase with a three in front of it at 3.1 per cent. Contrast that with the five per cent that the SDA, which represents their sectors' workers, had been seeking.

That stark contrast can be seen within this place too, with those on one side of this chamber doing its utmost to stop wages going up and to stop many low-income working families from getting ahead but those on the other side of the chamber instead fighting for those workers, and doing so from the very get go. It's that side of the chamber that I am so proud to be moving this motion from—this Labor government that is on the side of working families, families that remember those opposite fighting tooth and nail against our government's changes to close loopholes in our workplace laws that were seeing many workers worse off, with everyone from the Leader of the Opposition to the member for Hume decrying many of those changes because they would push up wages.

From the member for Hume we now go to Senator Hume, who on 3 June, in response to the annual wage review decision, said that providing real wage growth for Australia's lowest paid workers would be the worst thing for Australia. I can think of worse things for Australia than that. After hearing that, one of the worst things for Australia that immediately comes to mind would be another Liberal-National government, one that will keep Australians working more and earning less.

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