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

I'd like to thank the member for Gellibrand for his question and his passionate support of workers right across this country, including, of course, in Melbourne. Our government is committed to getting wages moving. Today, our Labor government announced that we will again advocate to the Fair Work Commission for an economically sustainable real wage increase for our lowest paid workers on minimum award wages. This would help almost 2.7 million workers across the country, including cleaners, retail workers, security guards, hospitality workers—many of whom rely on minimum award wages. These workers are often on lower wages and are more likely to be women, be employed on a casual basis or working part time and be younger.

Our government's submission to the Fair Work Commission advocating for a real-wage increase is supporting these Australians—Australians like James, who I met today, who works in security at the airport. Workers like James rely on award wages to put food on the table, pay the bills and plan for the future. James told me workers like him 'deserve a real-wage increase for all the time and effort they put in to ensure that they can go home and not be stressed'. He said that's exactly what a wage increase will mean. This Labor government has advocated for a wage increase for minimum award wage earners every single year that it has been in government. Since coming to government, the minimum wage has increased by more than $9,000 a year, and, of course, we have legislated to protect penalty and overtime rates for these same workers because they are an important part of their pay packets.

Our government is also committed to getting wages moving through reinvigorating enterprise bargaining. Under this government, we've seen a record number of workers on enterprise bargaining agreements—the highest since enterprise bargaining first commenced. The most recent data shows that 2.7 million workers are on these agreements. The most recent data also shows workers covered by enterprise agreements are receiving decent annual wage increases. Whether it's sticking up for our minimum award wage earners, supporting workers in getting a better deal at work or ensuring workers who are doing the same job get the same pay, it is only this Labor government that can be trusted to support workers right around this country.

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