Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. How is the Albanese Labor government helping deliver pay rises for Australian workers after a decade of low wages?

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

I want to thank the member for Moreton. He's a fine member from Queensland who wants to make sure that workers earn more and keep more of what they earn.

I was talking to a Queensland worker this morning who's a bit south of your area, at Tallebudgera. Deborah is an aged-care worker and Deborah was explaining to me that in the last round of pay rises, as a result of the aged care wage case—which those opposite refused to contribute to when the Albanese Labor government said that aged care workers deserved a decent pay rise—her pay went up $500 a fortnight. You look at the pressure that people are under with cost of living, and for Deborah that pay rise came through at the exact time that her mortgage went from fixed interest to variable. For her, it's been life-changing and has ensured that she could deal with cost of living. A wage increase that those opposite opposed, never would have delivered and didn't want us to deliver.

That's how you help people with the cost of living. You don't do it by building expensive nuclear reactors. Those pay rises mean different things for different people. Deborah was going through some of the different workers. She was telling me for herself, every second week she's got the grandchildren and described herself as 'a glutton for punishment'. She said at the workplace that she's at, overwhelmingly it's women in the workplace there. She said more than half of the women at that particular aged-care centre are on their own caring for their kids. She was saying, across that workforce, how much each story was different, but, for each person, the fact that wages are now moving is life changing for those workers.

There are millions of stories like Deborah's. There are 2.6 million people who are on the award system who are about to get pay increases. Everybody—a wage earner in the PAYE tax system is about to get a tax cut. People on enterprise agreements are getting pay rises. People are seeing their wages moving because of the Albanese Labor government. People are getting more job security because of the Albanese Labor government. The gender pay gap is closing because of laws that were changed under the Albanese Labor government. People are earning more and keeping more of what they earn because of the Albanese Labor government.

And every one of these changes has been opposed by those opposite—by an opposition that has one simple premise, which is that it wants people to have to work longer for less. You can't talk about the cost of living without wanting people to get paid more, and those opposite want people to get paid less.