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

Now that we are more than a full 24 hours after the Fair Work Commission handed down its annual wage review, like each successive annual wage review under the Albanese Labor government, it saw wages for 2.6 million Australians go up yet again. Every one of those 2.6 million workers knows that they have a government standing in their corner. Many of those workers hail from my electorate of Spence. Because of yesterday's decision, some of Australia's lowest paid workers will be receiving an extra $33 per week or an extra $1,700 every year. Across the past three wage reviews under our government, that same worker will have seen an increase in their pay of $143.30 per week or nearly $7,500 per year. Low wage growth wasn't just a bug in the system of those opposite's time in government; it was a design feature. Many of Australia's lowest paid workers will remember the former member for Cook fighting against the raising of the minimum wage up until the very end of ridiculing the Prime Minister for daring to commit to intervene in the upcoming wage review after the election. We won, and we did.

Workers hearing yesterday's news will also know that they will be receiving an even bigger tax cut come 1 July. That's because they elected a government that wants Australian workers to earn more and keep more of what they earn.