Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. What will be the impact of today's national wage case decision in assisting working people with cost of living? What other support is being provided, and what opposition is there?

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

I thank the Chief Government Whip for her question. People in the electorate of Lalor will welcome the decision today by the Fair Work Commission for a 3.75 per cent increase. Because inflation is running at 3.6, that means a real wage increase. The minimum wage now is $24.10 per hour, a $3.77 increase since we came to office, more than $140 extra per week. It took the now opposition their entire wasted decade in office to lift the minimum wage by as much as we have in just the two years in which we have been in office. As a direct result of what we have done, 2.6 million workers will benefit—more money in their pockets.

I'm asked about alternatives. We know what those opposite's attitude is, because this morning they were out there—Senator Hume—saying that it would be the worst thing if low-paid workers got real wages growth. But that's consistent with what the Leader of the Opposition said when he voted against our IR legislation because it would result in higher wages. Well, we support working people getting ahead. It's just like in the election campaign, where we had the dollar coin. I brought it out in the election campaign, and, when asked if I would welcome people on the minimum wage not going backwards, I said, 'Absolutely.' I stand by that, and we've done that in government.

But of course it's not just higher wages; we want people to earn more and to keep more of what they earn. And on 1 July both of those things will happen, both of them opposed by those opposite, who have never supported a wage increase, who supported low wage growth as being a key feature of their economic architecture and who, when we proposed changing the tax cuts to deliver for working people, including for those earning under $45,000 a year, said that they'd roll it back, that they'd reverse it, that we should have an election on it, before they voted for it. We know that they are not concerned with the living standards of working people. How out of touch they are, which is why they've opposed all of our cost-of-living measures. On that note, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.