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

 And isn't Senator Hume grumpy about that? That means more money in people's pockets since we came to government and more money again since the beginning of this year. These figures show our policies on wages and the cost of living are delivering real change for Australians. Average weekly earnings growth is much stronger under this government, after a decade of Liberal and National Party governments that delivered a deliberate policy of wage stagnation, backed all the way by their allies in One Nation. Since coming to office, wages have grown under Labor by an annualised average of 4.2 per cent, compared to 2.5 per cent under our predecessors. Average weekly ordinary full-time earnings are now $2,084 per week or higher, or $180,350 per year.

Women are big beneficiaries of the substantial increase in average weekly earnings under Labor. Along with the increase in average weekly earnings in today's data, we've seen the gender pay gap fall to another record low of 11.3 per cent. The gender pay gap has now fallen 2.8 percentage points under this government, ensuring that women workers get the better pay they deserve. By contrast, the gender pay gap was stagnant in the four years prior to the 2022 election. We're acting to boost wages, close the gender pay gap, deliver workplace relations reforms and secure pay rises for some of the lowest paid workers in our community, and that compares very well to the coalition, who admitted low wages were part of their economic architecture. (Time expired)