Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

Isn't it amazing to see that we've got a situation where we've got those opposite raising the issue of the minimum wage because these are the same people that had a design feature of keeping wages down in this country. They went to the extent of having the case where workers were seeking a $1 an hour wage increase in the minimum wage, and they opposed it. When it came to job security and pay and the arrangements to turn around to make sure we had wages moving in this country, they opposed it because they have always been about making sure they can keep wages as low as they possibly can. What we've seen, case after case, is how it's inherently part of their make-up. It is in their DNA right across the opposition. Even more recently, when I was in a cost-of-living committee hearing on 1 March, we heard from Senator Hume, the shadow finance minister when I asked questions of the major supermarkets, who have had soaring profits during this period of inflation. We've seen Woolworths post a 25 per cent rise in profits. Coles posted a net profit that grew by 11 per cent. And Senator Hume said that the issue of raising issues with those particular retailers and retailers like them was inappropriate, when you talk about the cost of living and wages in the context of those real retailers. Quite clearly, when you're looking at wages in this country, you need to be looking at all the effects that the previous government's legislation had on the cost of living.

That's why we've turned around and made so many important changes. As I said, we supported the $1 an hour increase in the minimum wage, an increase that supported both men and women in low-paid roles, but 55 per cent of those workers in low-paid roles are women. It was opposed by those opposite. You see it in the various issues that have been brought up in the cost-of-living inquiry, as touched on before. We saw those opposite say that their view is that the wages factor in the cost of living is irrelevant, that it is inappropriate to ask some of the most profit-taking corporations in this country about what's happening with their wages and the cost of living for their workforce and other workers across the economy. They said it was inappropriate because they don't think that people's wages have anything to do with the cost of living. It is all about profit-taking. In fact, did they ask questions about profit-taking? No, they asked about the price of eggs, the comparison between barn eggs and cage eggs and free-range eggs. They said this was an inappropriate way of pushing the cost of living. My goodness—I was in an inquiry about the cost of living, and we were talking about the difference between barn egg prices and cage egg prices and free-range egg prices, rather than talking about the issue that's actually at the heart of one of the biggest problems we have across this country, and that is the cost-of-living pressure on our family budgets.

I want to go what to the history of those opposite has been because, during the election campaign, the then Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, was asked by the now Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, if all workers deserved to be paid the minimum wage. The Prime Minister refused to say yes. When asked a question about the pay rates and the minimum wage being paid to gig workers and food delivery workers—the workers who turned around and were some of the heroes of the pandemic, delivering to households that were in isolation and putting themselves at high risk—and some of the lowest-paid workers and underpaid workers in this country, he could not say that he supported the minimum wage being paid.

That's in their DNA. We've got the shadow minister for finance saying that the cost of living isn't a wage based issue either. We've got them opposing the $1-an-hour increase to the minimum wage. We've got them opposing legislation to get wages moving again through the secure jobs package. We've got the previous Prime Minister saying the minimum wage being paid to food delivery workers and gig workers is inappropriate. And, of course, as I talked about— (Time expired)