Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. What action has the Albanese Labor government taken to get wages moving, and what approaches to wages has the government ruled out?

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 Macnamara. There are 95,000 taxpayers in his electorate, who are heading on 1 July towards a tax cut, and there are also a whole series of award workers among the 2.6 million around the country who get a pay rise on 1 July this year. Those pay rises and tax cuts are possible because we have an Albanese Labor government. That's why they're there. A Labor government will always fight to get wages moving, while a coalition government will always fight to keep wages low.

It's not simply the award workers who are seeing changes coming. Gig workers, delivery riders and truck drivers are now on a pathway to having some minimum standards where previously they had none, because we changed the law. Aged-care workers have a 15 per cent pay rise because you have the Albanese Labor government. Retail workers are now bargaining with companies that had left the bargaining table for years because the bargaining system was broken but that, because we changed the law, are back at the bargaining table now.

Teachers and support staff in non-government schools: there are a whole lot of teachers and support staff in non-government schools who for years went from one short-term contract to the next. Some of them would have qualified if they were permanent for long service leave, yet they still didn't have a secure job. Those workers are now finding themselves being transferred to permanent, direct, secure employment. Sheet metal workers—the people who put the air-conditioning systems together—because we changed the bargaining system, now have a single-interest enterprise agreement, a multi-employer agreement, together, which means they're looking down now at six per cent pay rises every year for four years because we changed the law.

There are women working in the finance sector who used to not be able to find out what the men were being paid, because of secrecy clauses that those opposite voted to protect. They weren't successful, we changed the law and people are now able to see where pay equity needs to be fixed. Early childhood education and care workers are at the bargaining table now for pay rises because we changed the law. Coalmine workers are already getting employed directly and seeing increases in their pay because we changed the law. Flight attendants are now seeing—because we changed the laws on same job, same pay—that they're going to be paid properly. Manufacturing workers are now looking down and knowing that they have a government that is backing their secure employment with a future made in Australia. On every one of these, the common factor is that it has happened because of the Albanese Labor government and those opposite said no.