Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Cash for her question. Senator Cash, you have correctly identified the submission that we put to the Fair Work Commission last year, and, of course, we will prepare an appropriate response to the next national wage case. I think it's important to realise that, under your government, of course, low wages were a design feature of your overall economic strategy. When we went to the election, we said we were going to turn things around and start putting upward pressure on wages so that ordinary working Australians, who work very hard for their living, could get an appropriate recompense for their labour—and that's what we did.

Within weeks, I think it might have been, of coming to power last year there was a national wage case. My recollection is that we proposed a 5.1 per cent increase. The commission started out at 5.2 per cent. If the Australian people think about the difference between the two governments and what we have done in terms of putting upward pressure on wages to try to give people a chance to deal with the issue of rising prices then they will see we have delivered for the Australian people. (Time expired)