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

How is the government helping workers earn more? It may be a novel idea to those opposite, but we are actually doing it by improving workers' pay and conditions. The Albanese Labor government's workplace relations reforms are helping low-paid workers who are doing it tough to earn more by criminalising wage theft, stopping the underpayment of workers through the use of labour hire and stopping unpaid overtime—all things that were opposed by the coalition in opposition, just as they opposed those types of changes when they were in government. Our reforms are clearly working, with average wages growing at 4.2 per cent, double the rate that occurred under those opposite. But Senator Walsh also asked me how we are helping workers keep more of what they earn, and, of course, from 1 July, Labor is delivering a tax cut for all Australian taxpayers. All 13.6 million taxpayers will receive a tax cut, and more than 95 per cent of nurses, teachers and truckies will receive a bigger tax cut under Labor.