QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Mr RAE (Hawke—Minister for Aged Care and Seniors) (14:14): I thank the member for Chisholm for her question. She's always been a champion for working people and for the people that they care for as well. On 1 August, aged-care nurses got their fifth pay rise under this government.
It means a registered nurse on the most common classification is now more than $36,000 a year better off than in 2022. An enrolled nurse on the most common classification is almost $32,000 a year better off. That's the type of money that helps people buy a home, take their kids on holiday or just set up their family for a better future.
All up, this Labor government has invested almost $18 billion into aged-care wages in the past four years—the biggest investment in the history of our country. The Fair Work Commission determined that aged-care work had been undervalued for decades. Let's be honest—a bloody big part of that was because it's mostly done by women.
Better pay isn't just giving nurses what they're owed; it actually means better care for the older people who built our communities. We need those nurses, so we need to pay them properly. It seems fairly self-explanatory.
It's a bit of a no-brainer. Yet, in a cosy speech to the Sydney Institute last month, the Leader of the Opposition didn't quite agree. He said that the care economy has exploded.
He said that this workforce is disproportionately unionised. He said that it's been awarded hefty pay increases, and he said that Labor then backed those increases with billions in additional taxpayer funds. I've read that passage a bunch of times now, and, for once, the Leader of the Opposition might actually be onto something—because you know what?
That's all right. That's all correct. It's all true.
When he says the care economy has exploded, he means we hired the nurses that Australians need. When he says they were awarded hefty pay increases, he means we gave them the pay rise they deserve. The Leader of the Opposition calling nurses disproportionately unionised, I can assure him, will be a badge of honour for the mighty ANMF.
When he says Labor backed it with billions in taxpayer dollars—yes, we did. That's not an attack; that is our record. He put 'care economy' in inverted commas in his transcript—inverted commas around the word care—like it's a rumour going around the place.
Then he told us that the country is in a death loop. He had aged-care nurses in the frame when he said it. When an aged-care nurse's pay goes up— (Time expired)