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

That is a great question, Senator Sheldon. I think it'll be hard to top that question today. I'm pleased to let Senator Sheldon know that, under the Albanese Labor government, more people are earning more and keeping more of what they earn. Our workplace relations agenda is helping Australians with secure jobs, better pay and safer workplaces. Those people in the gallery want to hear about that: about getting higher pay, more secure jobs and even more. Thank you for the applause. I'm pleased to tell the gallery that on 1 July, next Monday, Labor is delivering a tax cut for every taxpayer, including every taxpayer up there in the gallery; $300 in energy bill relief for every household, including the households of those up there in the gallery; a freeze on their PBS medicine costs; a pay rise for the 2.6 million people on awards; and 1,721 more dollars a year for workers on the minimum wage. Every one of those measures was opposed by Peter Dutton and the opposition. Unlike the opposition, we believe that helping Australians get higher wages is a key part of providing cost-of-living relief.

We know that the previous coalition government kept wages low as a deliberate design feature of their economic architecture, but now we know that, in opposition, the coalition have voted against every single one of our workplace relations measures. Of course, we recently learned that their industrial relations spokesperson, Senator Cash, has given her support to the New South Wales Liberal Party's Work Choices style policy platform. In a leaked letter to the New South Wales Liberal Party, Senator Cash said their platform had 'several good ideas that align with the coalition's approach to industrial relations'. What are those good ideas, according to Senator Cash? They 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. (Time expired)