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

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Wong. The Albanese Labor government went to the federal election with a commitment to get wages moving after a decade of neglect by the Liberals and Nationals. How will the government's industrial relations policy agenda benefit Australian workers?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you to Senator Sheldon for the question. I thank him and many on this side for their continued commitment to ensuring Australian workers get a decent share, both before they were in the parliament and subsequently. We have a different view from those opposite about the importance of getting wages moving again.

The reality is, as Senator Sheldon outlined in his question, that for 10 years Australia had a government for whom low wages were a deliberate design feature of the Australian economy. They've never resiled from that. They didn't resile from it in the federal election campaign, where they opposed a dollar wage increase, and they don't resile from it now. They continue to argue that ensuring that Australian workers get a decent share of the economic benefits that this nation produces is somehow a disaster for the Australian economy.

Well, we on this side have a different view, and so, too, do so many working people across Australia. With our IR policy and legislation, we are making a choice—a choice to end the era of deliberate wage stagnation, a choice to get wages moving again, a choice to work to close the gender pay gap and to take long-overdue steps to put gender equity at the heart of our workplace laws, a choice to improve job security, and a choice to wind up those institutions established with nothing more than a political agenda to promote conflict. It is a bill and policy agenda that will help real people and workers across this country who for too long who have paid the price of the coalition's view that we weren't allowed to get wages moving again in this country.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Sheldon, your first supplementary.

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

Can the minister outline how the government's industrial relations policy agenda will benefit Australian businesses?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Those on the other side want to try to distract attention from the fact that they actually don't want wages to increase, as demonstrated by the last 10 years. They have focused a lot on small business and a lot on a scare campaign which Senator Watt has very effectively shot down in this chamber.

I would remind those opposite that rates of bargaining for small businesses have dropped by over 60 per cent between 2010 and this year—that was under you. Unlike you, we think it's a good thing to support small business participating in bargaining if they want to. Why? Because bargaining can help make a business more productive and flexible. That's why we have the co-operative workplaces bargaining stream, which is especially relevant to small business. It ensures that business can opt in to relevant agreements negotiated by their industry associations. Of course, we will provide funding to the Fair Work Commission to provide small business bargaining support. You pretend to be the friends of small business— (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Sheldon, a second supplementary?

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

Can the minister outline how the government's industrial relations policy agenda will benefit the Australian economy?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our legislation and our approach makes gender equity an objective of the Fair Work Act, bans pay secrecy clauses in employment contracts, creates two expert panels in the commission to deal with pay equity and the care and community sector, ensures that employers have a duty to prevent sexual harassment, makes the sexual harassment dispute process fairer and more effective, empowers the Fair Work Commission to settle disputes over flexible work requests by arbitration if necessary, prohibits the advertising of jobs at below legal minimum wages and, importantly, does what 18 out of 26 OECD countries do, which is to prioritise multi-employer bargaining.

Those opposite seem to think the sky will fall down. You're behind the OECD, and the reason so many of our competitor economies are going down this path is that it's good for productivity and it's good for co-operation. We want to get wages moving again. You are stuck in the 10 years of wage stagnation— (Time expired)