Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks again, Senator Sheldon. It is absolutely vital that Australians' wages continue to rise, particularly for low- and middle-income earners. Lifting wages is a key part of our government's laser-like focus to reduce the impacts of cost-of-living pressures. But, at every stage, we've seen the Liberal Party oppose any measure we've put forward to increase the wages of working Australians. They voted against our reforms in the last term, and current Leader of the Opposition, Ms Ley, has said she absolutely wants to start a new battle with us over industrial relations. Now, we know Ms Ley is certainly fighting many battles on many fronts at the moment, and that's just within her own party room. We saw that on display last week when her own shadow ministers were caught on film in their own boys'-own adventure plotting against Sussan Ley's leadership mere hours after Senator Paterson had rung into radio to back Ms Ley on radio. There he was with Senator Duniam and Senator O'Sullivan, plotting to dump the first woman leader of the Liberal Party. 'If you don't support the leader, you stand aside—' Ted's words, not mine.