Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Prime Minister. Australia has a history of complex industrial relations regulation and the multi-employer bargaining part of the 'secure jobs, better pay' bill is making many employers very nervous. Wages will not increase if businesses and their employees have to navigate an even more complex wage-setting system full of unintended consequences. What does the government think is more important: getting this bill passed urgently or getting it right?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Curtin for her question and for her constructive engagement with the government. We had a meeting earlier today in which these issues were raised and canvassed. I'm always happy to meet with members of the crossbench, as I am with anyone in this parliament who has serious policy issues to raise.

The fact is that the government that I lead was elected with a mandate to increase people's wages. We went to an election and can't have been clearer. We also can't have been clearer either in a speech I gave to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Sydney during the election campaign. I spoke about the need to get bargaining operating effectively. I spoke about the fact that productivity was flatlining over a considerable period of time, and that, as the Reserve Bank governor had indicated, we had a circumstance whereby wages just simply weren't keeping up and that was holding back the economy. That's a constraint on the economy.

What we've been doing with the industrial relations legislation is making sure that we consulted not just during that period and not just after we came to office but at the Jobs and Skills Summit, in the lead-up to the legislation being introduced by the Minister for Workplace Relations, and then during the inquiry that is taking place into the legislation, and also prior to the legislation being debated in this chamber. As a result of that extensive consultation, there are a range of amendments that will be moved by the government.

We do want to make sure that we get this right, but we also want to make sure that wages get moving because we understand the pressure that family budgets are under, and we understand that you can't have a circumstance whereby it is particularly in feminised industries—our cleaners, our childcare workers, our aged-care workers, our disability care workers. They are the heroes of the pandemic who deserve something more than our thanks; they deserve an increase in their wages. That's why our industrial relations legislation is aimed at working effectively and constructively with the business community, consulting with COSBOA, ACCI, the BCA, the Australian Industry Group and anyone else who wants to engage with us on that legislation. So I'd encourage the member and other members to contribute constructively to it. We're certain that we'll get it right and we're certain that we'll get it done.