Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

'The member for Goldstein is not the Messiah.' That was the quote, and I think that's the one thing we can all agree on. But if the member for Goldstein is to achieve his goal of coming to a higher office, as he himself expresses, then he will have to do so as part of this new coalition of chaos that has been formed between the Liberal Party, the National Party and One Nation. We know they voted together when it came to opposing cutting student debt. We know that he voted happily with One Nation when it came to opposing the three-day guarantee for child care. We know that they voted together with One Nation to oppose closing loopholes and, indeed, to oppose free TAFE.

The other thing that no-one opposite wants to talk about is that this government has a record of delivering for working people. This government has delivered when it comes to wages. I remember when they opposed a single-dollar increase in the minimum wage. They refused and went into an election saying, 'Don't give people a $1 increase.' Under this government, we've seen those on the minimum wage get a wage increase per hour of $4.62, and those opposite are now interjecting again, opposing even a $1 increase, let alone $4.62 per hour. Those opposite might not care about those on the minimum wage, but I care and people on this side of the House care that those on the minimum wage are now earning, as a result of the efforts of the Albanese Labor government, an additional $9,120 a year.

It is similar when we talk about what's happened when it comes to penalty rates. Again, those opposite contested that we should not do anything to protect penalty rates. We had a different view. We saw the benefits of making sure that we protected the penalty rates of working people, and 2.6 million Australians have benefited because of our efforts to protect penalty rates. Further, those opposite opposed measures for those who work in early childhood education, but we thought it was necessary to support the early childhood workforce. As a result of the wage supports that we have put in place, now fully delivered, some 15,000 additional people have gone into the sector, removing the shortages that had been hurting parents, hurting families and denying children the education and care they deserved.

I will finish with some facts that I know those opposite don't like. Under this government, a record number of Australians are in work. Under this government, Australia's unemployment rate is just 4.1 per cent. We have incredibly high participation, at 66.7 per cent. In December alone another 66,000 Australians were in work. Did we see any celebration of that from the shadow minister? No, he must have been too busy on 'Tim TV'.

We will always look for ways to support working Australians so that they can earn more and keep more of what they earn. I think Australians have already seen enough of the clown show opposite. They have definitely seen enough of 'channel Tim'.

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