Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you again, Senator White. As I say, the Albanese government are proud to have done a lot already in our first 12 months to get wages moving again, even though we know it's the thing that those opposite hate most. Enterprise bargaining is key to getting wages moving again. Under the coalition it fell away and more people became reliant on awards than should have been the case.

Since our secure jobs, better pay bill was passed—against the opposition of those opposite—employers are now back at the bargaining table, many of whom have not been bargaining for many years. Thanks to our important secure jobs, better pay reforms, we've seen workers in traditionally feminised sectors accessing the supported bargaining stream to reach agreements across multiple employers. Workers in early childhood education are now using this stream to negotiate wage increases across the sector. We've got the single interest bargaining stream starting to be strengthened to stop a race to the bottom on wages and conditions. Every single one of these things was opposed by the LNP. Every single one of those wage rises that we called for was opposed by the LNP. We've now got a government that supports wage rises and that's helping Australians. (Time expired)