Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) | Hansard source

As I said in response to her leader, I'd say to Senator McKenzie: Australians are doing it tough. We understand that, which is why working to lift wages, bring down costs, strengthen Medicare, increase bulk-billing, build more homes, deliver cheaper medicine and cheaper child care are all things that are our priorities.

I would make this point to the senator: we've seen wages growing for a number of consecutive quarters, and growth in, I think, the September quarter was the strongest in four years. That is a very important outcome for working people. It is a very important outcome for Australians trying to deal with cost of living, and it is an outcome that we have been working towards. We know that on this side we are supporters of higher wages for aged-care workers, for childcare workers, for workers on the minimum wage, and we understand that lifting wages is central to Australians who are struggling with the cost of living—just as we understood that making sure you can keep more of what you earn is central to meeting cost-of-living pressures. That is why it is this government that brought forward a revision to the tax cuts to ensure, instead of tax cuts which were unfairly skewed to those on very high incomes, we delivered a tax cut to every Australian taxpayer—every Australian taxpayer.

Senator McKenzie, I would remind you that you were so opposed to that for a period, when there was the rush of blood, you wanted to go to an election on it. Do you remember that, President? They were going to go to an election because they actually didn't want Australians to have a tax cut. So that does say something about the philosophical difference between our parties. We want higher wages and we want lower taxes for working people. You want lower wages and you want people to work more for less. (Time expired)