Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) | Hansard source

I thank the deputy leader for her question, which contained a fair bit of imputation, let me say. What we have done is take inflation to almost halve it from what it was that we inherited. Instead of low-wage design being a policy feature of our economic architecture, as it was for those opposite, we support workers earning more. That's why we have supported three wage increases in the minimum wage in our submission to the Fair Work Commission in a row. We're pleased that, from today, that will make a substantial difference. Those workers will also get to keep more of what they earn.

What the Deputy Leader of the Opposition said was worthy of not just the opposition in the parliament. The deputy leader said that she would oppose it. In one of her best, she said: 'We will fight this legislation in the parliament. We don't even know what it will look like'—you can't make it up! 'When this legislation hits the parliament, we will fight it! We will fight it all the way! I am digging in, along with my colleagues and our leader, Peter Dutton, to fight this fight really, really hard!' That was just before she voted for it.

What do those opposite have? They've got a tax policy designed to roll back tax cuts, they've got an IR policy designed to reduce wages, they've got a fiscal strategy designed to rack up debt, they've got a housing policy designed to wreck super, they've got a health policy designed to destroy Medicare and they've got a nuclear reactor plan designed to jack up power prices. That's the alternative. The difference in our approaches is very clear: earn more and keep more of what you earn, on this side, or work longer for less, over there. It's pushing wages up on this side or holding them down over there, and building more homes all over Australia over here or wrecking the superannuation system over there. It's cheaper, cleaner energy, which is what we want, or more expensive nuclear reactors sometime in the 2040s, which is what they want.

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