Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Labor government has been more active than any other on attacking inflation and lowering the cost of living. In fact, our workplace relations agenda is helping Australians. It's about better pay, safer workplaces and getting more secure jobs. Next Monday, 1 July, we are delivering a tax cut for every Australian wage-earning taxpayer. We're delivering $300 in energy bill relief for every household, a freeze on previous medicine costs, a pay rise for 2.6 million people and more dollars a year for workers on the minimum wage. We're talking here about real wages in the context of Australia's cost of living.

Funnily enough, every one of those measures was opposed by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Dutton. It seems that they don't believe that getting wages going is part of cost-of-living relief. They don't believe that controlling the price of medicines is an anti-inflationary measure. They don't believe that energy bill relief helps us tackle inflation, when quite obviously it does. What we also know about the previous government is that, irrespective of inflation, they had a wages policy of deliberate design of a system of low wages. It was a deliberate feature of our nation's economic architecture. Now in opposition, the coalition have, in addition to their record in government, voted against every single one of our workplace relations measures. We recently learnt that their industrial relations spokesperson, Senator Cash, has stepped in behind the New South Wales Liberal Party's state government WorkChoices style platform. It's the kind of platform we've seen state Liberals pursue in the state of WA to undercut wages and conditions. So it's little surprise to me that Senator Cash is now applauding such actions in the Liberal Party of New South Wales. These kinds of so-called good ideas include making it easier to sack people, abolishing the better off overall test, removing rights as a condition of employment and removing award protections for thousands of workers.

When you look at cost-of-living pressures and inflation in our nation, you have to look to what an active and good government does in response to those issues. The simple fact is that those opposite left our nation bereft of the tools to support Australians at a time of growing inflation that was well apparent when they lost government. As Minister Watt highlighted in question time, it's interesting that Senator Cash is here to talk in this place about so-called good ideas that are actually there to remove minimum pay and conditions for truckies, nurses, schoolteachers, police, shop assistants, early childhood educators and coalmine workers. But on our agenda is a tax cut for 2.6 million workers in our nation.