Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What a big surprise—only one member of the coalition has spoken on a motion before this House on low-paid workers. Nobody else has bothered to turn up to speak on this very important matter affecting millions of Australians. Shame on those opposite!

We in the Albanese Labor government know that Australians are doing it tough. The Albanese Labor government is working hard every single day to ensure that hardworking Australians, including students and pensioners, are all getting cost-of-living relief through this tough time. In the past few weeks we have seen global stock market volatility due to a drop in US job growth and tech earnings, and we've seen Japanese interest rates affecting Asian markets, which in turn has affected the Australian dollar. Some things are out of our hands; we are a small boat on global seas. But there are things we can control, and we are getting on with that job.

On 1 July, there were six reasons for hardworking Australians to celebrate. On 1 July, every Australian taxpayer received a tax cut, with almost 11 million Australians receiving a bigger tax cut than they would have under the Liberal's stage 3 plan. I'm pleased to say that something like 90 per cent of Tasmanian workers received a bigger tax cut than they would have under the Liberals. On 1 July, every household received $300 in energy bill relief.

On 1 July, there was an increase to superannuation from 11 per cent to 11.5 per cent, and that will increase to 12 per cent next year. These incremental increases, which come after a long period of nothing happening under the Liberal Party in government, will go a huge way towards helping workers retire with thousands more so that they can enjoy a dignified secure retirement, which is what superannuation was designed for.

On 1 July, the Labor government improved Paid Parental Leave. We've increased PPL to 26 weeks by July 2026. We've removed the dad and partner pay in favour of an expanded gender neutral and flexible scheme, and we've expanded eligibility to access the scheme. On 1 July, we expanded and strengthened our cheaper medicines policy, freezing PBS co-payments for five years for healthcare cardholders and pensioners, saving Australians millions of dollars.

On 1 July, 2.6 million Australian workers received a pay rise, including those on the minimum wage. That's 20 per cent—one in five—of the Australian workforce. Australians can now compare their pay slips from this financial year to one from June and they can see the difference that Labor's cost-of-living measures are making to the everyday cost of living. For the average Australian working family, it can mean a saving over the year of the cost of a monthly mortgage repayment. We're talking, sometimes, in the order of hundreds of dollars extra in people's pay packets, which means thousands of dollars over the year.

I'm pleased to say that our Labor government has granted aged-care workers a 15 per cent pay rise, and, just last week, we announced that early childhood educators will get a staged 15 per cent pay rise too. This retains and attracts new employees and gives carers and parents the ability to work more hours in these critical industries, which, for too long, have attracted such low rates of pay.

Becoming a family carer of the old or an educator of the young is, of course, a big part of life. Having the peace of mind that your loved ones, young and old, are cared for or educated while you earn a living alleviates the financial family burden that comes with it. There's a lot more work to do. We recognise that on this side of the House. We know the job is not done. There's a lot more work to do as we finally balance these cost-of-living measures with responsible economic management.

The Reserve Bank has forecast that headline inflation is expected to dip below three per cent in the next year due to the government's cost-of-living measures, so we are getting it right. Let's remember that when Labor came to government inflation had a six in front of it and low wages were an intended economic outcome. In 2019, a former Liberal minister was quoted as saying that under the Liberals low wages were 'a deliberate feature of our economic architecture'. Our government knows we've got work to do, and we're getting on with that job every single day.

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