Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's always fascinating when the Liberals and Nationals bring forward these matters of public importance, but, even by their standards, Senator Hughes's motion today is truly something to behold! They've come here preaching about the cost of living as though they care, but let's be real. The only game they're playing is a never-ending tennis match. Every time we serve up a real solution to help Australians, they return it with a swift, resounding no: no to Labor's tax cuts that are helping 13.6 million Australians earn more and keep more of what they earn, no to cheaper medicines that will help patients save billions over the next four years, no to the energy price relief that helps the average family save $230, no to wage rises for 2.6 million low paid workers, no to helping build 30,000 social and affordable homes, no to helping over 200,000 students gain access to fee-free TAFE and no to never-before-seen historic wage rises. They just say no, no and no.

But of course, when it comes to things such as lowering workers' wages, worsening their rights and conditions, and stripping away their protections, suddenly they're all for it. When it's about helping billionaire business groups that pay for their campaign, they're quick to jump on board. This was never more evident than in Senator Cash's leaked secret letter in May of this year. In it, she described New South Wales Liberal workplace policies as 'good ideas that align strongly with the coalition's approach'. And what were those good ideas? They were scrapping the better off overall test, which would wipe protections for millions of hardworking Australians; making it easier for bosses to unfairly sack all Australians; gutting minimum wage awards for millions of Australians; and reintroducing individual contracts for all hardworking Australians. Now, imagine being 18 years old and having to negotiate directly with your employer, like the CEO of Westpac, or being a struggling single parent of three and having to negotiate directly with corporate giants like BHP or Qantas. That's what this would lead to.

These are also the same people who repeatedly endorsed the building code—the building code that smashed productivity by putting a limit on the number of apprentices working on site. We have abolished these horrendous laws, but the effects are still being felt in the construction industry. There are not enough apprentices. That's because they abolished those arrangements. That allowed that to happen. And, of course, these issues aren't just isolated to one sector. It is a recurring pattern that we see across every industry that those opposite interfere with.

Take mining, for example. Thanks to Labor's historic closing loopholes bill, the same job, same pay laws have led to over 300 labour hire workers at Queensland's Batchfire Callide mine receiving pay rises of up to $20,000, and we've seen the same results at Qantas operations time and time again. Now, for the first time in nearly a decade, these laws are making industry giants like BHP negotiate collective agreements in the Pilbara. They're working together to get better productivity and fairer wages, which I suggest they should do. They should take up the opportunity, and approach and deal with these laws in a productive, positive way.

Yet again, of course, we've seen those opposite staunchly oppose all of these initiatives. Peter Dutton and his so-called working-class Liberals and Nationals, along with their working-class billionaire paymasters—