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

Thank you to my fellow South Australian Senator Walker for that excellent question—and welcome to our American friends. Welcome to the Australian Senate.

Our government, the Albanese government, is building on our record in our first term, focused on delivering our commitments to the Australian people to ease cost-of-living pressures, and that focus puts us in stark contrast with those opposite, who, really, have spent this week focused on themselves—on that side, division; and, on this side, delivering. Division and delivery.

Just in this fortnight we have passed our payday super bill to require employers to pay workers super at the same time as salary and wages. We've passed Baby Priya's bill, which means that parents who experience the stillbirth or death of a child will have their parental leave protected—and I want to express publicly my personal appreciation for the sensitivity shown by Ms Ley, Senator Hume and others in their comments on this matter. We have strengthened Medicare with the largest investment since its inception, through Labor's tripled bulk-billing incentives. We are giving women better access to affordable contraceptive options through our landmark women's health package. We're making cheaper medicines even cheaper.

And this government backs high wages. We back higher wages after a decade in which lower wages were a deliberate design feature of those opposite. We've delivered income tax cuts for every taxpayer, with more to come, and we are cutting student debt by 20 per cent because we on this side of the chamber want to make sure Australians earn more and keep more of what they earn. That's right—earn more and keep more of what they earn. It's a far cry from the divided rabble opposite, who have forgotten about the people they represent.