QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Mr RAE (Hawke—Minister for Aged Care and Seniors) (14:50): I was very, very proud to stand up with the member for Lalor in her community almost a year ago now as our new aged-care act took effect. I thank her for the question, and I thank her for her tireless advocacy for older people across Melbourne's west. Every day, hundreds of thousands of Australian workers turn up to care for some of the most treasured people in our lives: our mums, our dads, our grandparents.
They help them shower and dress and to take their daily medications. They keep them company when they might otherwise be alone. For years, those workers were told they weren't worth a decent wage, and they left the sector in droves.
In 2022, when the HSU, the ANMF and the UWU took their case to the Fair Work Commission, those opposite offered them two measly payments of just 400 bucks. Frankly, that's insulting. So, within 24 hours of being sworn into office, we joined their case and backed them in with real money, almost $18 billion into aged-care wages over four years.
A registered nurse on the most common classification is now more than $36,000 a year better off than in 2022. Here's the thing: when you pay people a decent wage for an honest day's work, they actually want to do it. Those opposite in their last four years in government granted just 88 skilled visas to personal care workers—88 personal care workers.
There are more members on the government side of the House of Representatives than that. In fact, those opposite have said that under their migration plan some aged-care workers would be told to pack up and go home. How many?
Well, of course, they can't tell us that. Imagine that. A young woman comes here, trains here, earns her qualifications here—under those opposite, she'd have to get on a plane, leave the country, rejoin the migration queue and apply for a visa from offshore.
All the while, someone's mum or dad is waiting for the care that she could have provided. This is a risk we cannot take. Under their migration plan, they're not satisfied with just tanking the economy.
They also want to take a sledgehammer to Australia's essential care workforce. The opposition wants to gut the visas that allow essential workers to stay in Australia and continue contributing to our economy and our communities. Under their plan, if they go, they won't be replaced.
That job becomes a vacancy, which isn't just a line on a spreadsheet; it's an older Australian waiting longer for care that they need and they deserve. That's the difference between us and those opposite. We have a plan for growing and strengthening Australia's aged-care workforce.
We've listened to those workers, and we've delivered for them five times. This side of the House will keep backing those workers every single day.