Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Sorry, a 10 February date—we know you want to defer it until next year. I think anybody in this country who remembers Senator Cormann's declaration that low wages are a design feature of the Australian economy knows that that was the policy under the coalition government. Here today, yet again, we see how slavishly they are wedded to that proposition, in wanting to defer a bill for which this government has a very clear mandate—it's not as if this wasn't clearly discussed in the election—and which is needed for our economy, particularly for low-paid men and women throughout this country who are battling inflation and battling rising costs of living at a time when they have experienced wage stagnation for years under those opposite. So, when the opposition come in here and ask questions about the cost of living, let everybody remember what they are trying to defer is changes to our industrial relations system which have, at their core, a desire to get wages moving again. So I would say to the Senate: don't give them that. They have to learn that people in this country, workers in this country not only want but are entitled to a better deal than they had under Scott Morrison and the coalition.