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Five years ago, your union put Same Job, Same Pay on the national agenda.

Two years ago, our Government made Same Job, Same Pay national law.

Today Same Job, Same Pay is making a difference to workers and families and communities all over Australia. 

And now, on the 3rd of May: the future of Same Job, Same Pay is on the ballot paper.

You championed it. We delivered it.

Australians are benefiting from it.

Now all of us have to defend it - and campaign for it.

These are new laws, responding to a new challenge.

But at their heart is a principle as old as the labour movement itself – a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.  

It was the Mining and Energy Union that exposed a fundamental flaw in the industrial relations system.

A broken business model of using and abusing labour hire to undercut enterprise agreements.

Your union shone a spotlight on this, through the expertise of the McKell Institute and the courage of your members.

People like Danielle, who I met at your National Conference last year.

Working at the Mt Pleasant coal mine - she wore the same uniform as workers who were directly employed.

She had the same skills, reported to the same supervisors, drove the same vehicles, worked the same rosters.

But she was paid over $30,000 less than people she worked side by side with.

Today, because of laws that the MEU championed, because of laws that our Labor Government delivered.

Danielle is a permanent employee – and has secured a pay rise of more than $30,000.

Iain at Mt Arthur was employed by a string of labour hire companies for 13 years.

Now he is a permanent employee: not just earning more, but with better security.

There are thousands of stories like these, not just on mine sites but flight attendants and retail distribution workers.  

Hard working people all around Australia who are now being paid more because they are being paid fairly.

A new report from the McKell Institute today confirms two things.

One - the scale of this problem was bigger than anyone imagined.

And two - the benefits of the solution have exceeded all expectations.

This year alone, they are estimating a fair-go dividend of nearly one billion dollars.

That’s the direct boost to people’s pay packets.

And then there is the multiplier effect: a $2.5 billion flow-on economic benefit to communities, especially regional communities.

The other point I want to make is this: those labour hire loopholes didn’t just dud workers.

They also penalised all those employers who had done the right thing.

All the businesses who had sat down and negotiated a fair outcome – only to have the legs cut out from under them by the abuse of labour hire contracts.

That’s why Same Job, Same Pay is pro-worker and pro-business - just like our Government.

Because we know fair wages are not an obstacle to economic growth, they are fundamental to it.

Under Labor, real wages have grown 5 quarters in a row.

Yesterday we committed to backing another real pay increase for nearly 3 million award workers.

We want people to earn more – and to keep more of what they earn.

Which is why we are cutting taxes, again and again.

Under Labor, every Australian taxpayer got a tax cut last year - and every Australian will get a top-up tax cut next year and the year after.

This will mean an average tax cut of $2,500.

That is the choice at this election: lower taxes and higher wages under a Labor Government.

Or a Liberal Party promising to undo both.

Promising to increase your taxes – and scrap your pay rises.

The Liberals need to find $600 billion to pay for their nuclear reactors.

They are keeping most of those cuts secret. But on this one, they are right out in the open.

They are promising to abolish Same Job, Same Pay.

To take away all those pay rises that workers have earned.

Ripping money out of people’s pockets – and out of communities.

Whether it’s your Medicare, your wages or your conditions - when Peter Dutton cuts, you pay. And he’s not stopping there.

He wants to strip away the new protections and new security we’ve delivered for casual workers.

He wants to ban working from home except from Kirribilli House.

We’re focused on everyone’s living standards. Peter Dutton is focused on his own living arrangements.

Labor harbour ambitions for all Australians - Peter Dutton only has ambitions for the harbour.

He denigrates people from home and wants to abolish the right to disconnect: think about the logic of that combination for a minute.

The Liberals say parents with young children shouldn’t have the flexibility to work from home but if someone gets an email from their boss on a Friday night, they have to drop everything.

In other words, the Liberals are OK with Australians working from home, as long as they’re not being paid.

For over 130 years fair wages for working people has been a guiding light for Labor.  

Every generation of our party and our movement has renewed that promise and strengthened it.

Against all manner of uncertainty, in the face of all kinds of challenges.

Now, on the 3rd of May we have that responsibility. All of us.

To protect the progress we have secured, the pay and rights that workers have earned.

To build on the strong foundations we have laid.

To keep building Australia’s future, together.