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

We all know that workers need successful businesses to stay employed. Likewise, businesses would cease to function without workers. To retain quality staff, do you know what businesses need? They need to ensure their staff are paid appropriately. Because of the reforms the Albanese government has delivered, we are now seeing full-time minimum-wage workers earning an extra $143 per week. Again, if those opposite had their way, those minimum-wage workers would have been getting nothing more to deal with the cost-of-living pressures that they're facing. Under the Labor government, they're getting an extra $143 per week. As we announced last week, we are backing a 15 per cent pay rise for early educators that you still don't support, and that means a typical early childhood education and care educator will receive a pay rise of at least $103 per week, increasing to at least $125 per week from next December. Increasing wages is not only a win for workers; it's also a win for productivity and a win for the economy.