Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Ciccone. It is disturbing that, when Australians are dealing with cost-of-living pressures, Mr Dutton is so reckless when it comes to workplace laws—laws that have meant Australians are now earning more to deal with the very cost-of-living pressures that they're facing. The inconvenient truth for Mr Dutton is that he and the coalition have voted against every single Labor measure to lift wages and improve the conditions of workers. Not once, not twice but 48 times in this parliament they have voted against Labor's measures to increase wages and improve conditions.

In fact, when we were passing the labour hire laws, Senator Cash in a Sky News interview described them as 'the most radical shake-up of Australia's industrial relations system in decades' and said, 'Labor is making a bad situation worse,' and, 'These changes were an attack on the labour hire industry.' Rather than support workers struggling to pay their bills, the coalition 'will always stand on the side of employers in Australia, even when they're underpaying their workers'. (Time expired)