Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Penalty and Overtime Rates) Bill 2025

Senator WATT (Queensland—Minister for the Environment and Water) (11:13): I don't need to look at my talking points for this one! Since the time we were elected in May 2022, we have made it very clear that we as a government intend to lift Australian workers' wages. We wanted to get wages moving again.

We were coming out of a 10-year period of coalition government that deliberately suppressed wages, that was affecting living standards, and we continue to make no apologies for introducing a series of amendments, including these ones, which are about getting wages moving again and allowing Australians to deal with cost-of-living pressures. I'm not sure what the opposition's position is on this bill, but we'd like you to support this one as well.