ANIKA WELLS, MINISTER FOR AGED CARE AND SPORT: Good morning everyone and it is such a pleasure to host the Prime Minister here on the Sunshine Coast with good news. As the Minister for Aged Care, yesterday the Fair Work Commission delivered some hugely welcome and desperately needed good news for aged care workers and for everyone in Australia who desperately wants to see our aged care crisis fixed.
A 15 per cent interim pay rise is a really strong first step in the fight to get aged care workers paid and valued in the way that they so thoroughly deserved. This was absolutely a top three issue at the election. People did not care about parties and politics, people just wanted to vote for someone who would actually tackle the aged care crisis head on, clear eyed and with a sense of urgency, and that's what we've done. In the first 24 hours as the Aged Care Minister I wrote to the Fair Work Commission to support the case for an aged care worker pay rise and yesterday the Fair Work Commission delivered an interim 15 per cent pay rise for those workers.
And you might remember Jude from the campaign, she was one of those aged care workers. Jude lives in Perth and she has been fighting for decades for a pay rise. She has been working in aged care for decades. Jude is exactly the type of person who you want to look after your mum and dad and she has been maxed out at about $27 bucks an hour for her work for decades. And yesterday's decision means that someone like Jude will get a $4 an hour pay rise. We asked for this pay rise to be meaningful. And I really think it is. It’s the first step and I'm so pleased to be able to continue that work for the people like Deb who’s here today, and Glenn, who are aged care workers, hoping that the Albanese-Labor government will continue this fight for them and I want to say we absolutely will. I’ll hand you over to the PM.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well thanks very much, Anika. And this announcement is such welcome news. We know that we had an Aged Care Royal Commission. The interim report of the Aged Care Royal Commission was titled with one word, Neglect. It documented over half of aged care residents not getting the nutrition that they need. It documented a crisis in the aged care workforce. And it basically said unless we did something about lifting up the wages of people in the aged care sector, then we won't have a workforce to look after our older Australians. To look after our mums and dads, brothers and sisters, our grandparents, all those who deserve dignity and respect in their later life.
Now, yesterday's announcement is an interim decision, but it's very, very welcome. I was asked during the election campaign, would I support a Fair Work Commission decision to lift the minimum wage by around 5.1 per cent, which was the inflation rate at that time and I answered, absolutely. And the Fair Work Commission handed down a 5.2 per cent increase. This 15 per cent increase will impact some 300,000 workers in the aged care sector. These are the heroes of the pandemic. They deserve more than just our thanks, they deserve a wage rise. They deserve a wage rise because the sector needs it, if it's going to be able to survive. The idea that aged care workers can work physically demanding work that it is, but also very emotionally demanding as well. For many aged care workers, they are the friends, the family of those that they look after. They don't do it for the money. But so many aged care workers over recent years have said to me, we can’t continue to work in the sector, when I can earn more money stacking shelves than they can looking after our older, vulnerable Australians.
So yesterday's decision by the Fair Work Commission is welcomed. Absolutely. It's an important decision. It's just interim, there are a couple more stages to go, but it's a sign that the Fair Work Commission understand how important it is. It's also about closing the gender pay gap. Eighty five per cent of these workers are female in the sector. And we need to recognise that as we've been saying that it is many of the feminised industries, aged care, early learning, disability care that are dominated by women. Where women don't have the same bargaining power as other sections of the workforce. And that is one of the explanations for why wages have been held back. A major difference between us and the Coalition at the election, was the Coalition wanted low wages be a key feature of the economic architecture, Labor doesn’t. Labor wants to see wages increase and for living standards to improve . And yesterday’s announcement is very, very welcome. It’ll be welcomed not just by the workers, not just by the government, but importantly, all those who have loved ones in aged care.
JOURNALIST: PM, on the jobs and retail award, the IR bill if that passes can you guarantee that retail workers and hospitality workers will see higher rates of pay and higher rates of overtime?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Fair Work Commission make decisions. So the idea that government guarantees things, what we are doing is introducing a system where government will determine the wages of people in any sector. What we're doing, though, is introducing industrial relations legislation that will provide an opportunity for wages to be lifted. That will produce better outcomes because we know that both business and unions are saying that the current system isn't working. And we know as well that the Reserve Bank Governor and other economists have said that the low wages that we've seen occur over the last decade, were actually holding back the economy.
JOURNALIST: How much is the aged care wage increase going to cost the budget?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is an interim report. So we will wait for the next step, there’s a second stage and the third stage of these reports. I can say that we allowed for a contingency in the budget that was handed down on Tuesday night, two weeks ago because we anticipated a wage increase coming through.
JOURNALIST: How much was set aside in that contingency?
PRIME MINISTER: It’s a contingency because we don't declare it, that's why it's called the contingency and what we will have is, we will await the decision. This is an interim decision. What happens now is that the parties will make submissions as a result of this interim decision. And that will determine the final outcome.
JOURNALIST: And are you confident the Fair Work Commission will eventually lift that to a 25 per cent increase?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Fair Work Commission are independent and Anika might want to comment on this. The Aged Care Royal Commission was very clear in outlining the case for an increase in the wages of the aged care workforce. And they did that, not just out of a positive feeling towards aged care workers. They did that because it was essential for the sector to have a workforce to be able to provide the support the that older Australians deserve in their later years. This is something that would have had to have been provided for regardless of who was in government. The difference is that we're a government that isn't deliberately holding wages back.
WELLS: Just to the detail on that, the decision yesterday with the 15 per cent interim decision is for workers who directly care for people in aged care. The commission said that we’d talk next about sequencing, the timing of this decision. Then we’d talk about people in administrative work. So a lot more to come.
JOURNALIST: The Premier says the Gabba is locked in, the Gabba rebuild. Her deputy Steven Miles said it's very unlikely that your government wouldn't support the Gabba rebuild. Then Anthony Chisolm says there's been no decision made on whether or not the Gabba’s going to be rebuilt. So is the Gabba getting rebuilt or not?
PRIME MINISTER: We support Brisbane, we’re strong supporters of the proposal. We await the information from the Queensland Government including all of the business cases. That is the way that we make decisions, but we’re strongly supportive. We think this would be great for Queensland it will also be great for the nation to be hosting these Olympics.
JOURNALIST: … If it doesn’t stack up then you won’t be supporting the rebuild of the Gabba, if the business case doesn’t…
PRIME MINISTER: I'm very confident that the Queensland Government is working to get these details right. But my government isn't like our predecessors, who decided things without any detail but we're very confident working forward. Anika is on the Board as our representative and Sports Minister. We're very confident that the proposals going forward are for two major stadiums of which the Gabba is one. That it will be an important legacy for Brisbane and for Queensland. One of the benefits of the proposals that are being put forward is that it will create a real precinct in that inner area that will serve Queensland for a long period of time. I think Suncorp is the best stadium to watch rugby league in Australia, for example. It’s closer to the crowd and it's been an amazing investment that produces a legacy.
JOURNALIST: Have you got a dollar figure in mind, if that billion dollars becomes $2-3 billion. Will you be telling the Premier that’s too much?
PRIME MINISTER: You’re just speculating. Plucking figures out of the sky.
JOURNALIST: That’s the Premiers figures.
PRIME MINISTER: You're channelling the Morrison Government.
JOURNALIST: No, I’m quoting the Premier who said it would cost a billion dollars.
PRIME MINISTER: And then you use a double of that figure and then more than two and a half times that figure. That's quite frankly, what Queenslanders want is for us to work cooperatively with the Premier. We'll do that. The Sports Minister is a Queenslander, not by accident is the appointment of Anika Wells as the Sports Minister so that she can work really closely, which we will continue to do.
WELLS: To that end, we have to make sure that we are getting good value for money in the federal spend. I am a Queenslander, I love the Olympics, I can’t wait to do this. But I’m also the Aged Care Minister and we are at a press conference talking about how we are going to fund really meaningful, really important pay rises for aged care workers. There’s nothing ominous about this.
JOURNALIST: Are you still pushing for an independent Olympics Infrastructure Authority to look over this kind of thing?
WELLS: I think you’re talking about the Morrison Governments approach to this before the election.
JOURNALIST: Is that something you still want?
WELLS: We’re still getting advice like the PM said. We’re still in the initial stages and we’re waiting to see the business cases for these proposals. So until we get those things we can’t speculate.
JOURNALIST: Will there be 50-50 funding split for the Olympics?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve just answered the question. I’ve said we will cooperate and work between the Commonwealth and state government on all of these issues and we certainly will front up for our share of the investment. We want it to happen, we want it to be successful. For a lot of the projects, of course, that you can talk about, are they Olympics projects or are they not Olympics projects? Are they transport projects or are they infrastructure projects? We will work cooperatively for us and the Queensland Government.
JOURNALIST: PM, you said the previous federal government was signing up for things without seeing the detail of it and you're not like that. Do you think it's inappropriate that the premier says the Gabba is 100% locked in if there isn't any detail about this?
PRIME MINISTER: No, the Premier is doing her job and is doing a fantastic job as not just Premier but she's Minister for the Olympics. She's very passionate about it. I admire her passion and I'm sure that is one of the factors that will help deliver a fantastic Olympic Games.
JOURNALIST: Just on aged care, we know that aged care in the budget will cost $35 billion in 2025-26. Considering the wage rise and the importance of that does this strengthen the case for rethinking Stage Three tax cuts for other revenue measures?
PRIME MINISER: I admire the creativity in linking aged care with a question about something that is due to come in 2024. We have no plans. Refer to previous answers. If I get the same question next week relating to the Olympic Games. Or to aged care or to childcare, or to infrastructure. They'll get the same answer. We have no plans to change any of arrangements.
JOURNALIST: On the recommendation of public service reformer Peter Coaldrake, the Premier banned people who worked on her election campaign from lobbying her government for the rest of the term. Why haven't you done the same?
PRIME MINISTER: There are eight states and territories and there are eight different systems in place. I'm not aware of the details, if you've got something specific then ask it.
JOURNALIST: Do you it’s think it's appropriate that people who worked on your election campaign should then be allowed to lobby your government?
PRIME MINISTER: Who?
JOURNALIST: Anacta, Alex Cramb who worked in your office during the election campaign is now a registered lobbyist. Do you think that’s appropriate?
PRIME MINISTER: Alex Cramb has more integrity, that's the first I've even heard of it, so if you’re going to raise something raise it specifically.
JOURNALIST: I just did. Lobbyists.
PRIME MINISTER: Alex Cramb is entitled to, last time I looked at Alex Cramb, if you look at Instagram images, which is my only contact I've had with him is him raising goats in a farm down in regional Victoria. Alex Cramb is a very decent, honourable human being who left my office some time ago. He chose not to continue to work for government. I recruited, Alex came in to help out, he’d stopped that sort of work. So if there's something that you think is inappropriate.
JOURNALIST: It’s not about him specifically, it’s about lobbyists like Anacta.
PRIME MINISTER: Like Anacta?
JOURNALIST: Anacta, David Nelson…
JOURNALIST: It’s a lobby group.
PRIME MINISTER: I've never even heard of it. I’ve never heard of the group.
JOURNALISTS: Do you think it’s appropriate for people who working on your campaign to then lobby you? Is that appropriate, yes or no?
PRIME MINISTER: I've never heard of the company that you raise. My government has in place, very strict and diligent integrity measures. I stand by the integrity measures that my government has in place.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, slight topic shift, what is your reaction to the news that a Brisbane man has been killed while fighting in the front line in Ukraine?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, my condolences go to this gentleman's family and friends. This is tragic news. I remind people that the DFAT advice is that you should not travel to Ukraine. It's a dangerous place. But my heart goes out to the family and friends of the gentleman involved.