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

Thank you, Senator Green. The short answer to your question is we are doing plenty on these matters. Unlike the opposition, the Albanese government wants Australians to earn more and keep more of what they earn. We're not about reducing how much people get paid and making them pay more tax, like the opposition; we're about helping Australians earn more and keep more of what they earn.

From 1 July, as a result of the Albanese government's changes, Australian workers will be able to keep more of what they earn with Labor's cost-of-living tax cuts. Every single taxpayer in Australia will get a tax cut, different to what the Liberals and the Nationals put forward, and Middle Australia and low-income earners will get a significantly higher tax cut than they were going to get under the Morrison-Dutton tax cuts. We're also helping workers to earn more by boosting job security and wage bargaining, strengthening our awards system and closing loopholes that undercut pay and conditions.

Senator Green is right: low wages were a deliberate design feature of LNP economic policy, and they had the desired effect for the LNP by keeping wages down year after year. According to data released by the ABS last week, under the Albanese government real wages growth is back and ahead of schedule. Wages were 4.2 per cent higher through the year, the equal fastest annual growth since 2009. It took a Labor government, the Albanese Labor government, to see real wages growth returning to Australia.

This is the first time since 2018 we've seen three consecutive quarters of real wages growth, and the highest wage growth in health care and social assistance industry in the history of the wage price index—double the average wage growth under those opposite for nine years. Two-thirds of wage growth in the most recent quarter came from awards and enterprise bargaining—the direct result of actions taken by this government. Think back to the legislation we passed: the 'secure jobs, better pay' bill, the 'closing the loopholes' bill—both opposed by the opposition, both put forward by Labor and both delivering for Australian workers. (Time expired)