House debates

Monday, 5 September 2022

Private Members' Business

Cost of Living

10:29 am

Photo of Peta MurphyPeta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was just speculating with my colleagues whether the shadow minister wrote that speech, and, given he seconded it, perhaps he did. I'm going to give the member for Hughes this credit: she wasn't in the parliament for the last term, so, of course, didn't witness firsthand, in this place, what that government was like. It was not the fairytale that was just contained in that speech, that's for sure. But I assume the member for Hughes was in the community in the last three years and was in the community for the nine years in which the Liberal-National government did everything it could, one suspects, to trash the Australian people's trust in politics and government. It did everything it could, one suspects, to undermine the fundamental institutions of this democracy and government for—I don't know what. For their own benefit? It wasn't for the benefit of the Australian people. The member for Hughes started her speech for her motion by saying 'Real wages are rapidly eroding.' That hasn't happened in the last 100 days, you need to know. Eroding wages was part of the deliberate design feature of the last government. It's something which Australians have been struggling with for a very long time and which the previous government ignored because it was a deliberate design feature.

Here we have a new government that, in the first 100 days, argued to the Fair Work Commission to increase the minimum wage so that the wages of the lowest paid workers in this country could at least keep up with inflation. Now we have a government that is prepared to go to the Fair Work Commission and literally put its money where its mouth is and support a pay increase for aged-care workers—a highly feminised industry with some of the poorest paid workers in this country and some of the most important workers in this country, who are caring for older, vulnerable Australians—so they can get a pay rise. And we finally have a government that says, 'We're prepared to do the work we need to do to back that pay rise.' The member for Hughes says, 'Oh, well, this government has no credibility because it would spend more than the last government.' It would spend taxpayer money in areas that benefit the people that are struggling, not in areas that benefit the people who are already doing so well and are already privileged. That's the difference.

I kick myself because sometimes I give the other side a bit of credit, thinking maybe, if they've been running a line that's not particularly truthful and isn't working, they might give it up and come back to the next sitting of parliament with something else. But, no, we're going to hear again, apparently, for the next two weeks, that the government has walked away from its election promise to reduce power prices. I don't know if I have to remind you, Member for Hughes—and the shadow member at the table, Member for Herbert—but I will: there was a report about the increase in prices that was hidden by the former government before the election that we had to release. I also will explain to you that our promise about reducing power prices is part of our promise to act on climate change and invest in renewable energy, to have 83 per cent of the grid be renewable energy by 2030, to reduce emissions by 43 per cent by 2030. That's how prices will be reduced and that's how we will be working towards protecting our environment and protecting the future. A ridiculous debate based not on fact about promises from the election is going to do nothing to address the cost of living or to move things forward.

When you say we don't have a plan, we've got a plan that's already helped low-paid workers increase wages. We've got a plan to address the bargaining system in this country, which has meant that wages and productivity haven't increased. The budget has measures for cheaper medicine. We've had a jobs and skills summit which has come up with a range of options to increase workers' value and productivity and deal with cost of living. We've got a plan for cheaper child care. We've got a plan for more bulk billing. (Time expired.)

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