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

Order! Senator Cash, I've called you to order a number of times this question time.

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

Isn't it interesting that, if there is one thing that will set off the opposition, it's the idea that workers get paid fair wages. The horror! The horror that workers would get paid fair wages! You can be guaranteed the opposition will go off about that, because they always want to drive wages down.

We on this side of the chamber know that people in Australia are doing it tough right now. The cost of living is front and centre of people's minds, and it's at the top of our government's priorities. That is why we've delivered fairer tax cuts, which were opposed by the opposition; energy bill relief, opposed by the opposition; more bulk-billing, opposed by the opposition; cheaper child care, opposed by the opposition; cheaper medicines, opposed by the opposition; rent assistance, opposed by the opposition; and HECS relief for students and graduates—we're yet to have the vote, but I reckon that will probably be opposed by the opposition as well. We have done that because every bit of relief matters to Australians.

Unlike the opposition, the Albanese Labor government also sees strong wages growth as a key part of the cost-of-living solution, not the problem. When we came to government, annual real wages were falling by 3.4 per cent. Wages were falling dramatically compared to inflation. So it's no wonder that Australians are feeling cost-of-living pressures. It wasn't an accident that we saw that under the coalition, because, of course, we know that they openly said that low wages were a deliberate design feature of the economic policy.

Now that they're in opposition, Mr Dutton and the coalition have continued that approach, voting against almost every single measure to get wages moving, and now they're threatening to take it all away. After a decade of attacking workers and deliberate wage suppression under the Liberals and Nationals, real wages are growing again. At the same time, we're driving down inflation and keeping industrial action low. Labor's changes are working as we intended. In the last fortnight alone, we saw average private sector pay rises in new enterprise agreements hit four per cent for the first time in 12 years with the highest number of workers covered by— (Time expired)

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

Senator Sheldon, first supplementary?

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to 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.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

People are poorer than ever.

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

Senator Cash, I invite you to make your contribution at the time to take note, not during question time. Senator Sheldon, second supplementary?

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

The Albanese Labor government wants to see Australians earn more and keep more of what they earn, whereas Mr Dutton and the coalition want Australians to work longer for less. We know that's the case because that is their record every time they've been in government, when they've had an anti-worker and anti-union agenda. Now they're in opposition they're committed to ripping away rights for casual workers and forcing workers to do unpaid overtime by removing the right to disconnect.

We saw Senator Hume recently confirm that they are going to take a sledgehammer to wages and conditions and review multi-employer bargaining. As Senator Sheldon said, Senator Hume, on TV—it's there for you to have a look at—described more rights for workers as 'unreasonable'. What a terrible thing for workers to have rights! That would be a disgraceful thing! It would be unreasonable! Well, that's what we saw from Senator Hume, that it would be unreasonable for workers to have more rights.

What it means for early education workers is $155 more per week under Labor than what they were getting under the coalition. And that's what will happen to more workers if the coalition were ever elected— (Time expired)