Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make a contribution to this debate in support of the motion moved by my colleague the member for Werriwa, and I thank her for moving this motion. It is important to speak about the economic circumstances that the Albanese Labor government inherited when it took office, particularly concerning the state of the labour market and wages, the gender wage gap and the efforts that government has undertaken to get things back on track by way of the Jobs and Skills Summit, the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022 and the establishment of Jobs and Skills Australia.

When the Albanese Labor government took office, it inherited what can only be diplomatically described as a mixed economic bag, especially when our gaze turns towards the labour market and real wages. On one hand, we have an unemployment rate of 3.4 per cent and a tight labour market, but, if you look beyond the headline figure and dig a little bit deeper, you'll see a very different story. The story you'll see, when you pair the wage price index alongside the consumer price index, is that real wages are going backwards. How could unemployment be so low? Employers are crying out for vacancies to be filled, yet wages still stagnate. Now we have identified some key ingredients that were baked into our economy by those opposite. When I hear rhetoric from the other side of the chamber about what a strong set of economic fundamentals were left to the Albanese Labor government by those opposite, I'll call a spade a spade and call that nothing but economic gaslighting. Those opposite likely refer to this flaw as a 'design feature', depending on the audience they have at the time.

Coupled with stagnating wages and going backward in real terms, we also have a gender pay gap sitting at 14.1 per cent. From the latest figures across all industries, women are earning $263 less than men every week. It adds up, particularly when it comes to someone's ability to save, pay down debt and, most importantly, grow their superannuation. We have heard, as part of this debate, that it has sat stubbornly between 14 and 19 per cent for 20 years—a problem of governments of both persuasions—and it's the Albanese Labor government that feels persuaded to tackle this problem head on.

I vividly remember the final leaders debate during the election campaign. As a candidate at the time, I was watching intently. It was a watershed moment, especially for those out there in the community who felt there was really no difference between the two major parties of government. What you had was our Prime Minister up against the former Prime Minister—the former minister for most things, as we discovered later—the member for Cook. During that debate, our Prime Minister was asked if he backed an increase to the minimum wage in line with inflation. The answer was simple, yes. This was met with derision from the member for Cook and sections of the media. Within days of the dust settling from the election, the government stood up for the lowest paid workers and made a submission to the annual wage review, bringing about a win for workers who needed it the most. Low wages won't just fix themselves when the system is stacked against workers.

Lastly, I'd like to touch on another part of the member for Werriwa's motion concerning the Jobs and Skills Summit that was held in early September this year. The summit was something our country sorely needed in order to hit the reset button on some of the factory settings that are holding us all back. In the lead-up to the summit, I held a roundtable in my electorate of Spence. I know that many others in this place did the same. Many of the key findings at the end relate to getting wages moving. Other findings involved the need to expand educational opportunities.

This is why I'm extremely pleased to see the Albanese Labor government sign a skills agreement with the South Australian Malinauskas Labor government as the first cab off the rank. The agreement will see around 12½ thousand fee-free TAFE and vocational education places open up in 2023. Many of these places involve industries of high need, such as the care, hospitality and agricultural sectors, to name a few. As we know, we can upskill people into these industries, but we also need to make joining these industries a worthy endeavour. Having a government that is committed to increasing wages, improving industrial relations settings and boosting conditions, particularly for highly feminised industries and for some of our lowest paid, goes a long way to unwinding the industrial malaise of the previous government.

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