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

It is important, at a time of cost-of-living pressures, that Australians are earning more and keeping more of what they earn. That is what is happening under the Albanese Labor government. As I said, in the last fortnight we saw average private sector pay rises in new enterprise agreements hit four per cent per annum for the first time in 12 years. How long was the coalition in power? Ten years! Twelve years ago: it must have been the last time Labor was in power that we saw private sector rises hit four per cent an annum. We've also seen the gender pay gap fall to historic lows under Albanese Labor government, and annual real wages have been growing now for three consecutive quarters. That wasn't what we saw from Mr Dutton and Senator Cash, who told us we would enter the dark ages and would close down the Australian economy if we passed our IR laws. In fact, what's happening is that wages are increasing, industrial action is falling, more jobs are being created than ever, and Australians are moving forward.