Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, it was a big one and it needed to be. The Fair Work Commission's most recent decision delivered a 5.2 per cent rise to minimum wage workers, which is slightly above inflation. But, depending on what the inflation figures are when we next see the accounts, it will be below inflation. It works out to be about $40 a week for a full-time worker on minimum wage and for those on low-pay awards. In some other industries, it's slightly less, depending upon where they actually sit. It works out to be about an extra dollar an hour—that's what we're talking about.

It's relief for a lot of these hardworking people. They're in industries like cleaning; they're in industries like security. They're the people who quite often are the hidden workforce that we have in these places. They include the cleaners and the hospitality workers of this place—people who do a tough job, who are proud of their job but are locked into the minimum wage. So this announcement by Fair Work is relief for so many working people. It helps them get by. It helps them pay their bills.

It wasn't just because our government supported the increase and called for it. The Fair Work Commission recognised that, because of the cost of living, a substantial increase was needed. High and rising inflation and weakening wages growth are reducing people's real wages. We do talk about that a lot. It's something that the other side seems to miss—if real wages don't keep up with the cost of living, people fall behind. They have less in their pay packet to be able to spend on what they need.

This is only the beginning. Our government, in our own submission to Fair Work, said that an immediate wage increase was needed and that we backed the call that it needed to be at least at the rate of inflation so that people didn't fall behind. But what we're also doing, and what came out of the Jobs and Skills Summit that happened last week, is that we've brought industry and business leaders together in a room with unions to say we have to do this better. Far too many workers are stuck on the award minimum, and I reiterate: it should be a minimum and not a ceiling. Productivity has also declined. The way in which we get productivity moving, which is what industry wants to see, and the way we get wages moving is by creating a bargaining framework that works, giving more people the opportunity to bargain.

That is why it is really exciting to see, coming out of the jobs summit, industry and unions and government working together. For the first time in over a decade, there's not one outside being the enemy or being ridiculed or dragged to a royal commission. Everybody is working together, because we have to get real wages moving and we have to get productivity moving. That is what is going to help our economy get back on track.

These people who are trying to survive on the minimum wage are doing it tough at a time when the cost of the basics are going up. It's not just electricity prices or fuel prices going up; your average grocery items are going up. The price of broccoli, at its peak, was $13 or $14. Lettuce was up around the same. The prices of the bare essentials that people need to survive are going up. The cost of child care, if people have their children in child care, is going up. These are all legacy issues, some of which we've inherited from the previous government.

A real wage increase will help people get by. It's about giving working people the dignity of being able to work one job, not multiple jobs, to make ends meet. It's about ensuring that people earn enough. When we think back to when the minimum wage was first introduced, it was introduced through the Harvester dispute way back when, in the Sunshine Harvester Works, with its legacies throughout Victoria. Basically, the judge back then decided that the main income earner should be able to live with their family frugally and afford to cover the costs of accommodation, food and other basics but also afford a holiday. Well, if you talk to a minimum-wage worker right now, you will find that they don't get that. They are struggling. They're struggling to survive.

This wage increase of 5.2 per cent is a relief. It's an extra $1 an hour. But it's not enough to really help people struggling with the costs of living. So I congratulate the government on what they've done and strongly encourage all those speaking to remember that our low-paid workers right now need our support so that they've got the means to live their best life.

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