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

Thank you, Senator Green. We understand very well that Australians are dealing with cost-of-living pressures at the moment and that, despite the various things our government is doing, people still need help. That's exactly why we are working so hard to get wages moving again and delivering Labor's cost-of-living tax cuts. I'm really pleased to see that our policies are starting to pay off, with the strongest annual wage growth in over 14 years under the Albanese Labor government. The average full-time worker now earns $120 a week more since we came to government, and, under Labor's tax cuts plan, they will get a tax cut of more than $2,100. Wages have been growing at almost double the average compared with when those opposite were in power. The gender pay gap is at 12 per cent, down from 14.1 per cent—the lowest ever level—and this is a direct result of the government's policies to lift wages for workers, including fixing our bargaining system, banning pay-secrecy clauses, and fixing gender-equality and job-security objectives of awards in the Fair Work Act.