Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Under our government—thank you for asking that, Senator Hume. I will take that interjection. Under our government, real wages are growing. Real wages have been growing for three quarters under our government. Real wages are growing today, as you have just acknowledged, and I thank you for that, Senator Hume. That was the most honest thing that has been said by you in this chamber right now. Real wages are growing. Australians are keeping more of what they earn, and every single Australian taxpayer will get a tax cut under the Albanese Labor government. So I would like to thank Senator Hume for giving us the opportunity to talk about exactly how we are cutting taxes for working Australians and how working Australians will get to keep more of what they earn under our plan.

We are putting more money in the pockets of working Australians. That is what we are about. We are making much-needed and important tax reform. That is what we are about. From 1 July, every single Australian taxpayer will get a tax cut—all 13.6 million taxpayers. That is nurses, it's tradies, it's librarians, it's early childhood educators, it's aged-care workers, it's teachers—every one of those workers is getting a tax cut under our plan. They are all going to be keeping more of what they earn, because that is what we want—we want people to earn more, and we want people to keep more of what they earn. And the good news is that that is exactly what is happening. People are earning more, and people will be paying less tax under this government.

But we do know that the damage done by those opposite from their wasted decade in power lives on. Those opposite used low wages as a deliberate design feature of their economic architecture. It is sickening, really, to imagine that a group of people were sitting around the cabinet table and thinking it was a good idea to keep Australians' wages low as a deliberate design feature of their economy. They thought it was a good idea that Australians should have to work more for less.

As for Labor, we support working Australians. We know the value of a good wage. We know the value of a secure job. Since coming to government, we have consistently supported an increase to wages in this country—wages for minimum wage workers, wages for aged-care workers and wages for all Australians through our secure jobs and better pay legislation. Those opposite, the Liberals and the Nationals, stand for low wages and higher taxes. That is clear, because under their proposal 2.9 million taxpayers would not have benefited at all. There was not a single change to those people's tax, and those Australians will now be keeping more of what they earn under our cost-of-living tax cuts. For example, a nurse earning $76,000 will get a tax cut of more than $1,500 a year—more than double what they'd get under the coalition's plan.

So we thank Senator Hume for inviting us to talk about our economic plan. We thank Senator Hume for inviting us to talk about our tax plan, a plan under which every single Australian taxpayer will get a tax cut. When? On 1 July. How many Australians will get a tax cut? All 13.6 million of them. We thank you for inviting us to tell you our plan.