Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Grogan for her question. The senator has spent so much of her working life in so many roles advocating for working people and for disadvantaged Australians. She understands very acutely that people are doing it tough and what this government can and should do to ensure that we ease the cost of living for Australians. Of course, our cost-of-living tax cuts will deliver a better tax cut, a bigger tax cut, for more Australians. That's every single Australian taxpayer, not just some. Eighty-four per cent will be better off—90 per cent of women and 98 per cent of young people.

We know, unlike those opposite, aspiration isn't just something that belongs to the top tax bracket. We on this side want Australians to earn more and to keep more of what they earn. This week, the government will make its submission to the Fair Work Commission's annual wage review, and we will recommend that the commission ensures that the real wages of Australia's low-paid workers don't go backwards. The alternative, of course, is those opposite, who want Australians to work longer for less. That wonderful quote machine, Mr Barnaby Joyce, said raising the minimum wage was 'window dressing'. What sort of out-of-touch perspective is someone who reckons that a wage rise for the lowest paid workers in Australia is window dressing and doesn't matter? You have to really be pretty out of touch to think that that is the case.

Those opposite have spoken with pride about keeping wages deliberately low, claiming it's a feature of their economic policy.