It is important that the former Treasurer get a history lesson. Public sector workers had their wages capped in 2011. Initially it was a budget repair measure, but despite the budget returning to surplus a few years later, the wages cap was retained by the O'Farrell‑Baird and Berejiklian-Perrottet governments. During the election, the member for Hornsby and then Treasurer said the quiet part out loud when he revealed that the reason for retaining the wages cap was to drive down wages across the private sector as well as the public sector. In contrast, the Minns Labor Government has offered public sector workers a 4.5 per cent wage increase in 2023-24. That is comprised of a 4 per cent pay rise and a 0.5 per cent superannuation increase. It is the biggest increase to public sector wages in more than a decade. Importantly, it is 1.5 percentage points higher than what was offered by the previous Government. Further, it is an important first step to resolving the State's essential worker crisis of both recruitment and retention after 12 long years of the Liberal‑Nationals wage suppression.

Are the unions lobbying strongly on behalf of their members? You bet they are. That is their job and we expect nothing less. But the Minns Government was elected with a clear mandate to scrap the wages cap and to have genuine negotiations with our essential workers. Let us talk about some of them. Our healthcare workers are on the front line every day. They are caring for us at our worst and at our most vulnerable. Members in my community and across south-western Sydney recall them turning up to work every day at the height of a pandemic that kept the rest of us at home. We recall them bearing the brunt of our confusion, our distress and our fear for our family members, neighbours and friends. I particularly recognise the community health workers at Hoxton Park Community Health Centre, whom I and the member for Leppington visited for International Nurses Day. They told me that they were often the only people who could provide support for vulnerable young families, older people and those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds who could not access family or kinship support due to the strict COVID lockdowns in south-western Sydney.

Those workers deserve more than thanks. They deserve to have the arbitrary and punitive cap on their wages and conditions scrapped. Our healthcare workers are feeling the effects of 12 years of a Liberal-Nationals Government. They are feeling it in the city, in regional New South Wales and in Greater Western Sydney, where retention is at crisis level. In 2022 the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association took statewide industrial action on five separate occasions. The association is part of the group of public sector workers whose real wages have declined by 8.7 per cent since June 2020. They were listening when we brought an ambitious suite of health policies to the election, which included our vow to lift the wages cap. Under Labor's policy to deliver fair wages to public sector workers, a 4.5 per cent wage increase means that a first-year registered nurse will receive an additional $2,694 a year. For some, this could mean that they actually see a future in New South Wales, which is what we want.

The former Government's policy to impose a cap on the wages of essential workers has seen their wages and living standards go backwards. In fact, more than a decade of wage suppression by the former State and Federal governments has been a key driver of the cost-of-living pressures facing so many households today. I was shocked to learn that the rate of part-time workers living in poverty has increased by almost 50 per cent, and people in Greater Western Sydney are feeling the brunt. In fact, 28 per cent of part-time workers in Liverpool are living in poverty. That is unacceptable. The situation will not change unless we start with our clear mandate to scrap the unfair wages cap.

We are committed to rebuilding essential services in this State. We have been clear: we have said it will take time. We need to get this right. Fixing the 12 years of neglect of our health system and health workers is not an overnight job. Our communities understand. They want us to start by scrapping the wages cap and ensuring that those who serve our community when we are at our most vulnerable are rewarded for their hard work. Our communities want to make sure that the people on the front lines who deliver government services every day are able to stay in this State so they can build a future for themselves and their families. That is what they deserve.