Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. How has the Albanese Labor government's workplace relations agenda contributed to strong wages growth after a decade of wages being kept deliberately low?

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

I thank the member for Hawke—someone who came to this place campaigning to get wages moving and is now part of a government that wants people to earn more and keep more of what they earn. It was no accident that we had a decade of wage stagnation. There are decisions that governments take that determine whether or not wages move. If you don't advocate for a pay rise for low-paid workers in the annual wage review, if you don't advocate for a pay rise for aged-care workers, if you see a broken bargaining system and you refuse to act to fix it—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Fisher is now warned.

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

and if new loopholes turn up and you don't act to close them, you end up with what those opposite got, which is a decade of wage stagnation. The figures that were released last week show that wage growth now is running at roughly double what it averaged for nearly 10 years under the other side. Just as wages flatlining was no accident under them, wages now moving is no accident under this government. Read the ABS section where it goes through what drove that 4.2 per cent figure that came out last week. Two-thirds of the improvements in wage growth came from awards and enterprise agreements—the two measures that are directly affected by amendments to the Fair Work Act and by submissions taken by a government. The actions taken by this government to sunset zombie agreements which were freezing wages and conditions—sometimes back to 2005 levels—has helped to get wages moving. Fixing the bargaining system has helped to get wages moving. Securing record pay rises for workers on the minimum wage and on awards and delivering a 15 per cent pay rise for aged-care workers are all part of that 4.2 per cent figure of getting wages moving again at roughly double what they were under those opposite.

What does that all mean for family budgets around the country? Obviously, people are still doing it tough, but not nearly as tough as they'd be doing it if wages were still stagnant, as they were under those opposite. An average full-time worker now every week earns $120 more than they did when we came to government. Under Labor's tax plan, they'll now get a tax cut of more than $2,100 a year. That's the alternative—having a government where people earn more and keep more of what they earn, versus those opposite committing when they were in government and now still committing in opposition to Australians working longer for less.