MATTERS OF URGENCY
Senator MARIELLE SMITH (South Australia) (16:30): I also rise to contribute to this debate. The Albanese Labor government agree that Australians deserve a fair return for the natural resources they own, and that is exactly why today we are introducing legislation to implement a domestic gas reservation scheme. This legislation is significant.
It will require gas exporters to supply a proportion of their total production to the Australian market, ensuring that Australians have the affordable gas that they need. From July next year, gas exporters will be required to supply the Australian market with the equivalent of up to 20 per cent of their annual exports. The domestic gas reservation scheme is a key part of our government's plan to build Australia's energy sovereignty, alongside growing our fuel reserves and supporting more fuels made in Australia to stay in Australia.
It's about using Australia's resources to power Australian jobs, manufacturing and our long-term economic security. It is about a future made in Australia. It's also about protecting Australian households from global price shocks and the cost-of-living pressures that are caused by external events that are beyond our control.
As a government we know Australians are doing it tough. We know that, and, since we came to government, we have strived to do everything we can to ease cost-of-living pressures and to support Australians. The reality is we are experiencing a once-in-a-generation global fuel shock, driven by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
We know that this global fuel shock is having widespread effects across the Australian community. It's putting more pressure on households and it's putting more pressure on our essential industries. That's why we are determined to deliver cost-of-living relief, and we're doing that through tax cuts for workers, we're doing it by ensuring multinationals pay their fair share of tax and we're doing it by backing in higher wages for workers in our essential services.
These wage increases are making a difference. We've backed increases to minimum award wages and funded pay rises for our aged-care workers and early childhood education and care workers. I know this is having a massive impact on those workers, who have for too long been underpaid and undervalued for the critical work that they do in our economy and who are doing it tough—who are struggling with the cost of living.
We are recognising the importance of their work and we're backing in higher wages. Just yesterday we announced a $630 million investment to support fairer pay for more than 460,000 health, disability and community service workers. This investment is the culmination of years of work and follows the Fair Work Commission's finding that work done by women has been undervalued for too long.
Our government recognised this by putting gender equality at the heart of the Fair Work Act and by backing fairer pay for workers in women dominated industries, who keep our essential services running and our communities healthy and supported. We all know that health, disability and community service workers provide essential care and support to Australians at every stage of life, and they deserve fair pay that reflects their skills, expertise and the vital contribution they make to our communities.
These are the sorts of policies that a Labor government backs in. This is what we do. This is about delivery.
This is about meaningful action on the cost of living, which is having a real and tangible impact on people's lives. There are people in my community who are doing it tough because of the cost of living and who do those jobs because they love those jobs and they care about the people they look after but who have been historically underpaid and undervalued. That's a policy choice too.
We are rectifying that and we are making a difference on that right now. We're also investing in fairer pay for workers across the board. We're doing what we can to back in pay rises for our minimum paid workers, backing in changes to the award system.
We're also addressing cost-of-living pressures through our tax system, giving first home buyers a fair go and better aligning the treatment of work with income earned in other ways. Our reforms are about building a better, fairer and simpler tax system by reducing the tax burden for over 13 million workers and about supporting 75,000 more Australians into the housing market.
That's, of course, on top of our substantial reforms to date, including three rounds of tax cuts for every taxpayer and making super fairer from top to bottom. Of course, the cost of living is top of mind for so many Australians at the moment. We understand that and we see that and we don't diminish that or seek to walk away from it.
In fact, it's the opposite. We're doing what we can to lift wages to provide that cost-of-living support. The legislation, like we have on the floor of the parliament today, is about making a difference there too—real, tangible delivery for Australians who need.
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