QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Mr RAE (Hawke—Minister for Aged Care and Seniors) (14:44): Thank you to the member for Werriwa. I know many colleagues on this side of the chamber share my great admiration for her and the fearless way that she fights for the people of South Western Sydney. When we came to government we found an aged-care sector on its knees after a decade of neglect—a workforce stretched beyond its capacity to deliver care to our loved ones and wages that didn't reflect the value of the skilled and challenging work that they do.
On this side of the House we know that better care for workers means better care for older Australians. We came to government with a commitment to rebuild aged care. Keeping skilled workers in the sector has been central to this promise, and it's why we've invested almost $18 billion to increase aged-care worker wages.
This morning I had the pleasure of joining the Treasurer, the Minister for Social Services and the member for Bean to celebrate yet another wage rise for workers around the country, including our aged-care workers. Tomorrow's increase means an extra $85 per week in the pocket of a registered nurse on the award, $67 per week for enrolled nurses and $59 per week for personal-care workers.
That's around $3,000 to $4,000 a year, depending on your role. That's food on the table; it's rent or the mortgage paid; it's a family holiday with the kids. It comes on top of our previous increase to aged-care wages, which already have the average registered nurse in aged care more than $28,000 a year better off under this Albanese Labor government.
It's tens of thousands more than what workers were receiving in the nine miserable years under those opposite. After just four years, our work to boost wages for those in aged care is helping us keep the dedicated people who do the work in this sector, in the sector for even longer. All of this comes on top of our focus on delivering real change for every working Australian.
Five tax cuts, cheaper health care, more homes and more home owners—we're delivering more cost-of-living help and building a more productive economy, a better tax system, a fairer housing market and a stronger and more sustainable budget. Today isn't the last of our work delivering better wages for workers in the sector, with another increase for nurses to be delivered in just a month on 1 August.
If there's one thing that we learned from the Liberals' time in office, it's you can't have a strong aged-care system without a strong and supported aged-care workforce. Our aged-care system is better when workers are properly supported at work and at home. To every single aged-care worker across Australia, thank you for the work that you do.
Thank you for the dignity and the compassion that you bring. Thank you for working around the clock. You're the best of us and you deserve every dollar that these wage increases deliver.