Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

This government recognises that it is not just about creating jobs and economic growth. It is also about the quality of those jobs and about ensuring people are properly rewarded for the work they do. That is particularly important for the professionals in the social and community services sector. They are some of the lowest paid in Australia as a result of their work being dominated by women employees, and they have not been traditionally valued. The historic equal pay case from Fair Work Australia for those 150,000 workers provided a recommendation for increased rates of pay. These people are working in refuges, running support centres and programs for people with disabilities et cetera. They work hard and they deserve to be recognised. That is why the government will introduce legislation to ensure that our $2.8 billion contribution to their pay increases can only be used to fund these wage increases.