Mr REPACHOLI (Hunter) (14:29):

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations.

How have the Albanese Labor government's workplace relations reforms delivered better pay and more job security and closed the gender pay gap, after a decade of wages being kept deliberately low?

Mr BURKE (Watson—Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Minister for the Arts and Leader of the House) (14:29):

I thank the member for Hunter for his question, in particular his commitment to closing the labour hire loophole and delivering same job, same pay.

I previously referred to the statistics on the three issues the member for Hunter has gone through. Of the 870,000 jobs created under the Albanese Labor government, more than half a million of them had been full time in a real shift for job security. Wages are now running at 4.1 per cent, whereas they averaged 2.2 per cent under those opposite. And the gender pay gap has never been lower than it is now. But I think to explain the difference that it makes in people's lives, there's nothing stronger than to go to an individual example, and an individual example of a mine worker in the Hunter—a mine worker by the name of Danielle.

In mining, when we talk about the labour hire loophole, it's actually one of the ways that the gender pay gap has remained so big in mining because, disproportionately, men in the industry have been directly employed and women in the industry have worked through labour hire. So, disproportionately, you end up with the lower pay scales going to where women are more likely to work.

I referred to Danielle in an answer to a question asked by the member for Paterson a few weeks ago. At that point, the company had announced they were going to employ people directly. We didn't yet know what the pay difference would be for those workers. For Danielle, she has now been given confirmation of what her pay change will be as a result of the laws that were changed by this government. It is $33,000 a year. It's $33,000 a year for a woman who works driving trucks at a coal mine in the Hunter—$33,000 a year! On top of that, she's also getting a tax cut of $3,700 a year. For workers like Danielle, this is absolutely life changing. When I called her, she told me it brings her a bit closer to reaching her dream of pulling together a deposit and owning her own home.

Being paid more is an essential part of housing affordability and an essential part of cost of living, but those opposite, at every opportunity they've had, have wanted people to be taxed more and paid less. On this side and with this Prime Minister, the Albanese Labor government is making sure people like Danielle are earning more, and they are keeping more of what they earn. It is life changing, but every one of the changes that have made a difference for Danielle have been something that we have had to fight to get through this parliament, that those opposite have opposed at every single turn. If you support more secure jobs, if you support better pay, if you support closing the gender pay gap then you have to support the exact laws that those opposite are targeting and wanting to repeal.