Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the lead-up to the 2019 election, even before the economic devastation from the COVID-19 pandemic, former Labor leader Bill Shorten stated: 'Everything is going up except your wages.' After three further years of inaction by the Morrison Liberal government, Labor leader Anthony Albanese echoed the exact same concerns in the lead-up to the 2022 election, stating: 'Workers deserve more than our thanks. They deserve a pay rise.' On 3 June 2022, 11 days after being sworn in, Prime Minister Albanese submitted to the Fair Work Commission for a minimum pay rise of at least 5.1 per cent for the Australian workers. On 15 June, it was announced that an increase to the minimum wage of 5.2 per cent—that's $1.05 per hour—would come into effect on 1 July, to be slightly above the rate of inflation. For those workers on award minimum wages, a 4.6 per cent increase for those earning above $869.60 per week, and a minimum of $40 per week for those earning $869.60 or below per week, came into place. This is now law—a proud reform, because Labor will always stand up for working Australians.

While some business groups and the Australian Chamber of Commerce have expressed concern about further stresses being put on businesses due to the increase, the Prime Minister, Iain Ross of the Fair Work Commission and Sally McManus of the Australian Council of Trade Unions have all assured the Australian people that the minimum wage increase will not adversely affect the economy. This is good policy.

During the Liberals' nine year reign in Australia, the government had ample opportunities to increase the national minimum wage to be in accordance with inflation. But they did nothing, as on so many issues that they just left in abeyance.

It is no secret that the cost of living in Australia is spiralling out of control. While the inflation rate should sit between two and three per cent, it is currently at 5.1 per cent and the Reserve Bank of Australia estimates that it will hit seven per cent by Christmas. So, as the Prime Minister has said, this minimum wage increase is just the beginning of our Labor government's plans for financially securing all Australians in these turbulent economic circumstances.

There are so many issues contributing to inflation, but wage growth is not one of them. What our newly elected Albanese Labor government understands better than any Liberal government of the past nine years is that wages must rise in accordance with inflation for Australians to be able to afford the cost of living. The prices of groceries, fuel, rent and houses move a lot faster than the rate of real wage increases, and one of the biggest culprits of inflated cost of living is electricity. Labor is addressing this cost-of-living pressure. Under Labor's Rewiring the Nation plan, $20 billion will be invested in the partial rebuilding and modernisation of the electrical grid. This investment will help to ease the cost of electricity bills, as well as helping to further futureproof the grid for the use of electric vehicles, boosting the economy by upwards of $40 billion and creating thousands of jobs in construction.

This latest increase in the national minimum wage of $1.05 per hour proves that, as the Prime Minister said during the election campaign, Labor cares. Labor cares about workers. Labor cares about the cost of living. Labor cares about people. In just 10 weeks, Labor has cared enough to make meaningful changes to improve people's lives. After all, that is why we are gathered in this place: to improve the lives of all Australians—unlike those now in opposition, who had almost a decade to support Australian workers and to tackle the decrease in wages of Australian workers. But they did nothing, because they had no plan. They had no vision. You can tell from the very short week we've had in this place how they are trying to rewrite history. I have no doubt that the next contribution that will be made in this chamber by a senator from the opposition will continue to try to rewrite history. (Time expired)