Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Holt for the question but also for her amazing advocacy for working women right across Australia. The Labor government has put gender equality at the heart of the Fair Work Act, which is delivering real results for Australian women. We as a government have taken action to reinvigorate enterprise bargaining. Recent ABS weekly earnings data show that women on enterprise agreements earn 12.4 per cent more. The Albanese Labor government has consistently advocated for a pay increase and protection of the penalty rates for minimum-wage and award-reliant workers, many of whom are women. Under the Albanese Labor government, the gender pay gap is now at its lowest on record, at 11.5 per cent. When the coalition left government, the gender pay gap was 14.1 per cent. The progress that we have seen hasn't happened by accident. It's the result of a government that prioritises gender equality.

I'm asked what could put this at risk. Well, the biggest risk is those opposite, because the new Leader of the Opposition is no different to his predecessors when it comes to his opposition to better wages and conditions for working women. For example, following the good news of a minimum award wage increase—which many working women rely on—the member for Hume could not hide his disappointment, when he said, 'No doubt there'll be tough days ahead.' I'm not sure what he was referring to, but it certainly wasn't the low-paid workers that rely on these wage increases. When the Labor government took action to deliver pay increases to low-paid female workers and increase flexibility in working arrangements, the response from the member for Hume, in an interview on Sky News, was, 'Well, these changes just weren't necessary.' The member for Hume, the new Leader of the Opposition, needs to tell that to the working women of Australia who are benefiting from $255 a week more, on average, under this government.

In an interview on Canberra radio, he was very, very critical about our laws. His big criticism? 'They were going to push wages up.' The Leader of the Opposition may have missed the memo, because that's exactly what our laws were designed to do. Of course, he may have got a bit confused, as he was a member of the former Liberal government that had an economic plan to keep wages deliberately low. We know that this government will get on and increase wages for working women, while those opposite are just the same old Liberals.

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