Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What we've heard this afternoon from this government is that it is a government that has no plan for good jobs, has no plan to support the TAFE training system, has no plan to get wages moving in this country and has no plan to create opportunity for young Australians to get into work. When asked how the government has managed to preside over a skills shortage and wage stagnation at the same time—which is quite the achievement—Senator Payne said that the government is 'absolutely committed' on skills shortages. The government says that the government is investing in vocational training. And when asked about chronically low wage growth in this country under this government, Minister Payne said that there's no problem, that everything's okay. She says Australians are looking forward to a future of opportunity. Well, yes they are—but not while this government is in office, because the reality of their record is not quite as rosy as the government would have you believe.

It truly seems that they think that if they can say, 'Everything is fine,' enough times then it might just become true, but the truth is that this is a government with absolutely no plan. They have no plan to deal with the significant issues facing our economy and facing our country. Their lack of leadership is really hurting Australians today, because wage growth is at record lows. In some sectors, it's not just that people's wages aren't going up; they are actually going backwards in real terms. With the most recent wage growth figures at just 2.3 per cent, this government's record on wages growth is absolutely abysmal.

Economists, and just about every other person in the country, are screaming out that wage growth needs boosting. We need a plan to get wages moving in this country, and we need that both to kickstart our flagging, faltering economy and to help Australian families that are struggling with the rising cost of living. Everything is going up in this country at the moment, except for people's wages, and families are struggling, but you wouldn't know that from the answers that the government gave us today.

It's obvious that this government just doesn't care. It didn't care when it stood by and allowed over 700,000 retail, fast-food, hospitality and pharmacy workers to have their penalty rates cut—penalty rate cuts that have not delivered a single new job in this country, despite the government's claims, and penalty rate cuts that cut the pay of some of Australia's lowest paid workers.

Let's think about the answers that Senator Cash gave to questions about apprenticeships today. When asked what's happening to apprenticeships, which have dropped by 12 per cent in Tasmania under this government, Senator Cash took the opportunity to talk about Senator Watt and to gloat again about the election result. She showed absolutely no care for apprentices in Tasmania or around the country today.

What can I say about Senator Colbeck's attempted answers to our questions? When asked about youth unemployment blowing out to almost 12 per cent, and hundreds of thousands of young Australian workers who are underemployed, the aptly named minister for youth, Senator Colbeck, said, 'Everything's under control,' but everything is not under control with this government. In fact, this government has cut $3 billion from our TAFE and training sector. Today, we have 150,000 fewer apprentices and trainees than when the Liberals were elected in 2013. They have cut and cut and cut. Today in Australia there are around 260,000 unemployed young people and many, many more thousands of underemployed young people. It's time that this government got a plan to get wages moving and support young workers today.

Question agreed to.