Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

The reality is that, under the former government, wages were growing at 2.4 per cent for average workers, and they are now increasing by 3.9 per cent in the first year of the Albanese government. Workers are always better off under a Labor government, because they know that we have their back, that we care about the wages they earn, because we know what a difference it makes every day and every week, when you're putting your household budget together, if you are seeing improvements in your wages and improvements in the security of your jobs. That's what those opposite spent 10 years undermining. They undermined wage increases. They undermined job security. And we are here in yet another area cleaning up the mess that was left behind by those opposite.

The average worker is earning $1,400 more a year under the wages increases under our government than if wages had continued to grow in the way they had been growing under the former government, at just 2.4 per cent. That's $1,400 more for the average worker to help pay their bills, put food on the table and deal with some of those cost-of-living increases. So, workers are better off from wages under this government, and they always will be. Those opposite spent their whole time trying to undermine them and make sure wages went backwards. (Time expired)