Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. How is the Albanese Labor government delivering for workers, including in South Australia? How does this compare to other approaches?

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

I'd like to thank the member for Adelaide for his question. Of course, he is a proud South Australian, always standing up for the city of Adelaide and, of course, the whole of South Australia in this place.

The Albanese Labor government's No. 1 focus is delivering cost-of-living relief while building Australia's future. Our Labor government has delivered significant workplace changes and investment in critical industries to deliver better outcomes for working Australians, including, of course, for South Australians. I'm very pleased to inform the House that, in good news in my home state of South Australia, more people are in work and, of course, they are earning more. In the last four years, South Australia's unemployment rate has dropped from five per cent in March 2022 to four per cent in February 2026. That is an extra 90,000 people in work, and that is good news. Compared to four years ago, the average South Australian full-time worker is now earning an additional 19 per cent extra in wages.

Again, good news for South Australians—200,000 workers in South Australia are benefiting from our government's advocacy to the Fair Work Commission for a real wage increase to the minimum wage, and these workers are also benefiting from the action our government took to protect penalty and overtime rates. We are creating well-paid jobs in South Australia and it hasn't happened by accident; it's because of state and federal governments working together to deliver.

The state and federal Labor governments have worked in close partnership and have jointly invested to back over a thousand workers at the Whyalla steelworks. Action was critical not only to save jobs in South Australia but also because it is in our national interest that we have structural steel-making capacity in this country. Together with the Malinauskas government, we've made significant investments in the AUKUS program to secure Australia's defence future capability and the lasting prosperity for jobs in the state of South Australia. This investment will directly create close to 10,000 highly skilled, well-paid jobs in South Australia alone and this will provide enormous economic opportunity to lift skills, wages and living standards for generations to come. Not only is this a good thing for South Australia; it is a good thing for the country.

With the re-election of the Malinauskas Labor government, our two governments will continue to work to deliver for South Australians. This is in sharp contrast to the coalition, who dared Holden to leave South Australia when they were last in government. They destroyed local car manufacturing. It's only this government that will deliver for— (Time expired)