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

I rise today to acknowledge an historic win for young Australian workers: the SDA's successful 'Adult Age = Adult Wage' campaign. This reform recognises a simple but powerful principle: if you are old enough to be treated as an adult in every other part of your life, you deserve to be paid as an adult at work. For too long, young people in retail and fast food have done the same jobs, carried the same responsibilities and faced the same cost-of-living pressures while being paid less simply because of their age. This campaign has been decades in the making, and its success will mean real, life-changing pay rises for workers across Australia.

On Monday, I was pleased to meet with the SDA's delegation here in Canberra as they continued campaigning for a better deal for their members. I particularly want to acknowledge two fine young Tasmanian delegates: Olivia Richardson, from Target in Mowbray, in Launceston, and Brayden Cox-Pregnall from McDonald's in Prospect, also part of the great city of Launceston---two wonderfully passionate young Tasmanians who deserve better pay and safer workplaces. They will get that because they're members of the SDA union, and they have the support of this government and the people on this side of the chamber here in the Senate.

I want to acknowledge the leadership of the SDA—Joel Tynan, the Secretary of the SDA in Tasmania, and Gerard Dwyer, SDA National Secretary—for their tireless work in helping and delivering this important reform for equal pay for 18-year-olds. I congratulate them on their campaign. They know they can depend on a Labor government to protect workers and to ensure workers get the pay and the safe work environment that they all deserve.