QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Ms RISHWORTH (Kingston—Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) (14:32): I'd like to thank the member for Adelaide for the question but also, of course, his commitment for working Australians to get a pay rise. The Albanese Labor government is absolutely committed to delivering higher wages for working people, and the Minister for Education just highlighted the action that this government has taken to give early educators a pay rise, backing these hardworking Australians to get the wages they deserve.
Another one of our reforms that we've introduced to improve wages for many hardworking Australians is our same job, same pay reforms. This law is based on a simple idea: if you're doing the same work, you deserve to get paid the same. Our government had to act because labour hire arrangements were being used to undercut wages across a range of industries.
Our government fixed this through our same pay, same job legislation, and we are now seeing many workers, right across Australia, receiving thousands of dollars in extra wages and, importantly, offered direct employment. For example, at warehouses across South Australia, workers have secured up to a 20 per cent pay increase. Merlin, who works at a warehouse in Adelaide, said that, when our same job, same pay laws came in, it made a massive difference for his co-workers, who are now earning $10,000 more.
This government absolutely believes workers deserve a pay rise, and this government will back them. I've said it once or twice about the risks there are to workers' wages in this country, and I'm going to keep saying it, because the biggest risk to working people's wages is if the Liberals, Nationals and One Nation were ever to form government. If they were ever to form government and had their way, workers would be earning tens of thousands of dollars less than their colleagues doing the exact same job.
And why? Because all three parties refuse to vote for our laws that are delivering these pay rises. They're delivering pay rises in warehouses, and to flight stewards and coal miners.
The Leader of the Opposition described these laws that are delivering for workers as 'disastrous', while One Nation opposed these laws, calling them a sham. If those three parties were ever to form government, these pay rises that these workers are getting would be placed at risk. We know that it would be a race to the bottom when it came to wages for ordinary workers in this country.
It is clear that Labor is the only party that backs everyday working Australians.