Matters of Public Importance - Wages
This government was elected to get wages moving. That is why the people of Australia voted for the Albanese government on 22 May 2022, and we didn't waste a day in working to get wages moving in this country.
I've got to say it was a long time coming for that MPI from the member for Hume.
Some of us have been hanging out since last Thursday for that MPI, and I'll note that it wasn't those on this side of the House who denied him the opportunity.
I actually came into this chamber last week and voted for the member for Hume to be able to have his MPI.
Then I went back to the Hansard.
I thought, 'Why didn't he have an MPI on Thursday? What happened? Why did his colleagues abandon him?'
Then I went and looked at the Hansard, and it said very clearly:
The mover of the MPI does not appear to be present.
Having heard what I did for the last 10 minutes, it's not that much better when he is present.
That was a long time coming. After the amount of time he had preparing for that MPI, the quality that came with that long preparation, that long run-up, is deeply disappointing for the Australian people.
I'm getting a lecture about getting wages moving from those who sat around the cabinet table for almost 10 years when low wages growth was a deliberate design feature of their economic policy.
So, if I am going to give the member for Hume credit for anything, I will start by giving him credit for at least turning up to give his MPI.
But I haven't had a chance to fact-check everything that the member the Hume said.
What I do know is that, when we fact-check what the member the Hume says, often he gets things very deeply confused.
We know that in May of this year he burst out and proudly said:
… in the last month alone, the price of Vegemite has increased by eight per cent …
But the member for Hume was completely wrong.
He had managed to get annual and monthly inflation confused.
He managed to get it confused on peanut butter.
He got it confused on yoghurt.
He is probably fortunate that whenever he walks into a supermarket he manages to walk out with something given how confused he is over groceries and the basics over the difference between monthly and annual inflation.
What we have also seen in this MPI is a huge turnaround in the member for Hume's approach and that of the entirety of the coalition government when it comes to wages.
It was in June of last year that they were saying that they were worried about a wage-price spiral.
They were telling us that we had to be sustainable and responsible when it came to wages growth and they didn't want to see too much wages growth.
They were concerned that wages growth would take us back to the 1970s.
I know that KISS will be playing at the AFL grand final later this month, but I don't think we're actually going back to the 1970s!
But what we are seeing is the same reluctance that we have seen from those opposite for decades and decades when it comes to trying to get wages moving in this country.
I would say very simply that, if those opposite want to get wages moving, they should support the closing loopholes bill.
If they think that wages should go backwards then they should oppose the closing loopholes bill.
If they want wages to go forwards then they should stand in this place and support it.
What we have instead is those opposite opposing closing a loophole that prevents gig workers from being treated as workers.
They are defending that loophole in the way they are voting in this place.
They are defending the loophole that means that gig workers have no minimum standards of employment.
They are defending the loophole that stops people from be able to transfer into a permanent job.
They are defending the loophole that allows labour hire to undercut agreed and negotiated wage rates.
They come in here day after day with speech after speech defending those loopholes.
They are wrong on that just as they were wrong when they opposed the secure jobs, better pay bill.
We know that bill sought to make long overdue changes to make sure that people could get secure jobs and a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.
It was really simple stuff. Improving access to bargaining was opposed by those opposite.
Putting gender security and job security at the heart of the Fair Work Act was opposed by those opposite.
Expanding access to flexible rostering was opposed by those opposite.
Limiting the use of unfair fixed term contracts was opposed by those opposite.
We came into this place trying to terminate the Howard era Work Choices zombie agreements, and even that was too far for those in the coalition.
When there was one last little bit of Work Choices, they clung to it like a life raft and said, 'No, we can't ever truly let go of our commitment to Work Choices.'
They hung onto it.
They even opposed the idea to ban advertisements that advertised jobs below the legal minimum award.
They opposed that.
We had a speech that was the classic catastrophising in speeches we get from those opposite in November last year from the Leader of the Opposition.
He said, 'It doesn't improve the lives of Australians.'
He said it was going to lead to 'economy-wide strikes the like of which we have not seen in recent memory'.
November was a while ago.
Where are the Leader of the Opposition's so-called strikes?
Where are these people who are being sacrificed at the altar?
What I can tell you about, though, is the people whose lives it has improved.
It has improved the lives of people who want to get a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.
The one thing I did agree with in the Leader of the Opposition's speech on the 'secure jobs, better pay' bill last year was when he said, 'Our industrial relations system is far from perfect.' I agree.
It's another reason why those opposite should come into this place and support the closing loopholes bill, so we can continue to do the work of getting wages moving.
Last year the Australian people chose to elect the Albanese government, and we advocated for an increase in the minimum wage.
A 5.2 per cent increase was absolutely supported by members on this side.
In July this year, we saw the minimum wage go up by 8.6 per cent—the largest on record. I challenge any member of the opposition speaking on this MPI to tell me that would have happened if they were in government.
I think the Australian people know it would not have. We also had the very good news last month that the gender pay gap in this country, which has been too wide for too long, is the narrowest on record, at 13 per cent.
We know there's a lot more to do, but things are heading in the right direction.
Again, let's look at what's happened, taking aged care as one example.
We supported a wage increase for aged care workers. It took effect on 1 July this year.
We committed $11.3 billion in our budget to fund the Fair Work Commission's interim decision for a 15 per cent pay increase.
That has meant that 250,000 workers in aged care, over 85 per cent of whom are women, have been able to get a serious pay increase.
Registered nurses, enrolled nurses, assistants in nursing, personal care workers, head chefs and cooks, recreational activities officers—the largest ever pay increase for aged care workers, ensuring that they finally get some more recognition for the incredibly important work that they do.
When it comes to matters to support household budgets, outside of wage increases, we've delivered cheaper child care, benefitting 1.2 million families.
We've delivered cheaper medicines, helping 11 million people, saving Australians $138 million in seven months.
When that latest round kicked in, on 1 September, I was joined by the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Ged Kearney, at View Street Medical in North Perth, where we talked to GP pharmacists about how it would benefit their patients.
We've boosted bulk-billing.
Despite the lack of help from those opposite, we got the energy price relief legislation through last year.
We've expanded paid parental leave.
In the final moments available to me, I want to speak about industrial relations and the powers of the states, the territories and the Commonwealth. Industrial relations matters are something that the Australian parliament is able to act upon because of the powers that are given to us in section 51—subsections xx, xxix and xxxv—of the Constitution.
This is an important thing that we legislate upon, passing laws in this place.
Under what power do we do it?
It tells us at the start of section 51, which you might want to pass on to the Leader of the Opposition: 'The parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power'—that's where the power to make sure that we can get wages moving again comes from.