QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator WATT (Queensland—Minister for the Environment and Water) (15:01): Thanks, Senator Dolega—who's got a very proud record of standing up for the working interests of people in Tasmania. Well, traditionally July the first has been a time of celebration for the nation's accountants and tax agents. But this year, 1 July has been a time of solidarity with every Australian worker because the Albanese Labor government is helping Australians earn more and keep more of what they earn—and even the people in the gallery are very excited about that!

This week we've heard about Labor's tax cuts for every worker, the cheaper health care and the expansion of Paid Parental Leave. Beyond that, from 1 July millions of minimum wage and award-reliant workers have received a real wage increase of at least 4.75 per cent. For two years in a row, our government has strongly advocated to the independent Fair Work Commission for an economically sustainable real wage rise for Australian workers, especially those on the minimum and award wage, and what that real wage increase that's now been delivered means is that, a personal care worker in aged care will get a pay rise of about an extra $59 per week; a registered nurse in aged care, an extra $86 a week; and an enrolled nurse, an extra $67 a week.

Since the Albanese Labor government came to office, we've advocated for Australian workers to get a pay rise at every single annual wage review—that is, five years in a row—and, for five years in a row, those workers have got the pay rise that Labor has argued for. Now, in contrast, of course, the only pay rise we've seen the Liberal Party remotely interested in is the pay rise that goes to their party leader.

Let's just think about the last fortnight in the Liberal Party. It started with anonymous Liberals briefing the media saying that Mr Taylor's leadership is on borrowed time and it ends with his rival, Mr Hastie, denying rumours that he's about to give politics all away. The Liberals end this autumn session in disagreement and disarray.

Labor, on the other hand, remains exactly where we started, utterly focused on relieving the cost-of-living pressures of Australians. The PRESIDENT: Senator Dolega, a first supplementary?