QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator McALLISTER (New South Wales—Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) (14:25): As Senator Grogan knows very well through her work, health, disability and community services workers show up every single day to care for Australians. Their skills, their expertise and their compassion change lives, and they strengthen the communities that we all live in.

On this side of the chamber, we actually understand how important this work is, and we value it, but for too long these workers have been undervalued. We heard from the Fair Work Commission that gender based assumptions contribute to this. Our government has acted.

We changed the Fair Work Act to put gender equality at the heart of workplace relations, and now we are investing $630 million to help deliver fairer pay for more than 460,000 workers. We're backing the commission's decision with real funding because workers deserve higher wages and Australians deserve continued access to essential services. It's worth reflecting on what that means in practice.

It means that a disability support worker will be paid more fairly for helping people with disability live more independent lives. It means that an allied health assistant will be better rewarded for helping a person who's had a very serious injury rebuild their skills and rebuild their confidence. It also means helping organisations retain experienced workers and attract the next generation into these essential jobs because our population is growing, our population is ageing and more Australians will need care and support in the years ahead.

Today's announcement builds on the Albanese government's investments for the future workforce, including making prac placements free for eligible nursing and allied health students. We know that we cannot build the workforce of the future if we fail to value the workers that we need today, and that is what our investment in health, disability and community workforce is about.

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