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

A trillion dollars in debt, Senator Polley. They are saying that these are the answers—sorry, they're not saying what the answers to the cost-of-living crisis are, because there are cost-of-living problems. There are challenges for everyone's hip pocket, and we as a country, as a government, as a Senate and as a parliament have to make sure that we take those pressures off. We have to strive to make sure that this is done in a sensible and economically sound way but also in a way that makes a real difference for hardworking Australians—for all Australians out there who are striving in these difficult times.

So what have we done? We've invested $23 billion to deal with cost-of-living pressures. There is an incredibly important 10-point plan that we've implemented—a plan that's gone through everything from investing in energy bill relief to cheaper medicines, cheaper child care, increased rent assistance and building more affordable homes. These are critical steps in making sure that we take the burden off our broad community. Another is fee-free TAFE.

Of course, on every one of those things that we've been doing and many others on those cost-of-living pressures—from the first and second ones right through to the 10th—those opposite have opposed it. They've said to the Australian public and the Australian people: 'We're going to abandon you. We are not going to support you through these cost-of-living challenges that we have right across the community right now.' Of course, when it comes to policies to make sure that we help the most needy but also bring people together to get productivity up—such as fee-free TAFE, child care and early childhood education—they opposed them.

When you start talking about some of the instruments to make sure that there is more effective bargaining so that wages can rise, what do they do? The Liberal and National parties are for low wages. They aren't for better business, they aren't for better rights, they aren't for better wages and they certainly aren't for better productivity, because they're opposed to fee-free TAFE, which unleashes the opportunity to have more apprentices and tradespeople out there in the community. What they've done is to oppose every arrangement to make sure that people have an opportunity to deal with the cost-of-living pressures, whether it's the 10 point plan, on which they opposed every issue, or important initiatives on the employment front.

As for the secure jobs, better pay act that the government passed at the end of last year, they opposed it. What did they oppose? They opposed the fact that employers can get together with their workforce across industries to have commonality and come up with arrangements based on productivity, efficiency and better wages. They opposed that, because heaven forbid! Would you want to see workers, companies and industries come together and try to work out solutions? What a horrific idea! Of course you do, because any sane, good employer wants that.

What the opposition are about is going to the lowest ebb every time. They want to go to the bad employers, the ones that are striving to bring unregulated gig work into arrangements where people don't have minimum rights. They want to make sure the big end of town are looked after, such as the mining industry. As for same job, same pay, they want to oppose that. They want to make sure that companies like Qantas can continue to create the Joyce effect that's starting to roll across the economy. They're supporting Alan Joyce, Richard Goyder and their like and then turning around and saying that the policies that have been implemented so that the workforce can deal with the cost-of-living pressures are something that they're not prepared to do.