Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the shadow minister for finance on her position and thank her for the question. It is somewhat surprising that I would get a question like this this early on from those opposite. Let's not forget: a deliberate design feature of their economic architecture was to ensure low wages or no wage growth for a decade. I think since we've come to government we have been clear that getting wages moving is part of our economic plan. We have this challenging set of circumstances where the price of everything is going up and people's wages have been going back for the last decade, essentially, under your government's economic architecture. We have a job to do; there is no doubt about that. And getting wages moving is a key part of our economic plan, as is dealing with the decade of wasted opportunities and wrong priorities like a failure to land an energy policy, which is placing upward pressure on bills that people are feeling in their pocket.

So, yes, we have provided a submission to the minimum wage case. That has handed down a wage outcome for those on the minimum wage. We have supported that, something that never featured in your submissions to the Fair Work Commission when you were in government—not once. In fact, you had a whole section on the importance of low-paid workers in the economy. That's how far you went. We are absolutely determined to get wages moving. If you listen to the media reports and the questions of the Treasurer—