Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We asked Senator Birmingham a very simple question today, a question that Australians want an answer to: how long will they have to wait for a pay rise under this government? They are still waiting for an answer to this critical question, and they are waiting for some evidence that this government even cares about their wages. We can find some evidence for the Australian people to help answer this critical question, which we asked today on their behalf, in this government's pathetic record on wages. There have been eight long years of record low wage growth under this government. Low wages are a deliberate design feature of their economic plan.

Today Australians are expected to believe that Australia is coming back, as the Treasurer said last night—coming back while their wages are falling behind. There is no recovery from this pandemic that leaves workers behind. There is no recovery that lets Australians' wages go backwards. There is no recovery without good, secure jobs for Australian workers. The government needed to deliver that plan this week, and they failed. Australians are still waiting for answers to their questions: When will we have good, secure jobs under this government? When will we have a pay rise under this government? When will we even have an answer to these questions from this government?

Beneath the gloss of last night's announcements, there was a very clear message to the workers of Australia: the Liberals love low wages. They love Australians having low wages. According to them, low wages are a deliberate design feature of their economic plan. Under this budget, real wages for Australians go backwards. It is not good enough. It's not good enough for workers who have been waiting years for a pay rise but who have, instead, seen wage growth slow, going to record lows under this government. It is not good enough for the essential workers, who have carried the nation through this pandemic. The thanks they get for that from Scott Morrison and the Treasurer is a cut to their real wages. It is not good enough for the low-paid workers of this country and the growing number of people in insecure jobs, who find it harder and harder to make ends meet. Labor knows and Australians know that there is no recovery when workers are left behind.

We know that the Liberals' happy place is attacking wages. They have been doing it for years. They were coming after workers' wages earlier this year with their nasty IR bill. The budget speaks for itself on wages. You only have to go to page 9 to see that wages for working people will fall even further behind and won't even keep up with inflation. After all of this, after the government announcing spending of $100 billion and racking up a trillion dollars in debt, Australians will not see a pay rise under this government.

Let's be clear about what this means. Real wages are continuing to fall, and the government will not be putting any more money into the pockets of working Australians. They have no plans to get wages moving. What an admission of failure. How many times did the Prime Minister go out to try to thank essential workers and shake their hands during the pandemic? Those low-wage workers—the supermarket workers, the cleaners, the early childhood educators, the delivery drivers—proved themselves to be essential day in, day out. Who does the Prime Minister think will suffer the most from wages falling behind even further? Those essential workers, who got us through 2020 with their hard work. That is the thanks that this government gives them.

Question agreed to.