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

I'd like to thank the member for Barton for her question and her commitment to working Australians right across this country. Of course, the Albanese Labor government is focused on creating more jobs and getting wages moving for working people. Our government has achieved the lowest average unemployment rate of any government in 50 years, and more than 1.2 million jobs have been created since our government was elected.

At the same time as we are creating jobs, we're making sure that these jobs are well paid and secure. To support our lowest paid workers, our Labor government has made a submission to the Fair Work Commission each and every year since we've been in government advocating for a wage increase. Of course, under this Labor government, minimum wage earners are on average $9,000 a year better off. We sought to reinvigorate enterprise bargaining, which is now delivering results. Workers covered by enterprise agreements are enjoying the strongest wages growth in the nation, rising by 9.6 per cent on average over just the last two years.

I'm also asked about the biggest risk to Australian workers. Well, it's no surprise that the biggest risk to Australian workers is right over on the other side. The new Liberal leadership team features the shadow Treasurer, who made clear his deep disregard for jobs for Australians when he argued for the removal of the RBA's dual mandate. The new Leader of the Opposition has a long history of opposing every single one of our measures to create secure jobs and better pay for working Australians. He has regularly championed individual agreements that we know make the gender pay gap worse compared to enterprise agreements.

Of course, he handpicked Senator Hume, the new shadow minister for employment, who should otherwise be known as the shadow minister for unemployment because the first thing she was going to do was sack 41,000 people in this country. Senator Hume has also railed against wage increases for workers, claiming to Sky News in 2024 that a wage increase for minimum award wage earners would be, 'the worst thing for Australians'. They may have changed their leadership team, but they haven't changed their spots. These Liberals are never good for working Australians.

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