wages

Worth knowing which.

Working families rely on wages to cover the mortgage or the rent, put meals on the table, and pay for their kids' education. None of that gets easier when wages stand still – and wages rarely rise on their own. It usually takes a vote in parliament to lift them, close a loophole, or stop pay being undercut.

So it's worth looking at what happens when those votes come up.

In 2023, parliament voted to make it a criminal offence for an employer to knowingly underpay a worker – wage theft, treated as the crime it is, for the first time at the federal level. Malcolm Roberts, a sitting One Nation senator, voted no.

We were surprised too, so we went back through the record. That vote wasn't a one-off. Over the past two decades, One Nation senators have repeatedly voted against or moved to weaken laws built to raise wages, protect penalty rates, or stop pay being undercut.

2014 – penalty rates and leave loading

In a 2014 interview, Pauline Hanson said: “Right across the board, get rid of penalty rates and I'd also say get rid of the 17.5% leave loading.” That's consistent with the One Nation leader's voting record since.

2023 – Same Job Same Pay

The Closing Loopholes laws included a simple principle: if you're doing the same job as someone employed directly, a labour hire firm shouldn't be able to pay you less for it. Malcolm Roberts voted no – twice, at both the second and third reading of the bill.

The change went through despite this, and it delivered real money. According to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, freight workers picked up as much as $8,000 a year under Same Job Same Pay, and flight attendants as much as $20,000. The same bill created the criminal wage-theft offence above. Roberts voted against all of it.

2022 – Secure Jobs, Better Pay

Pauline Hanson voted against the core of the government's Secure Jobs, Better Pay legislation – the package designed to get wages moving again after a decade of stagnation, including measures making it easier for low-paid workers to bargain together for a pay rise.

2025 – protecting penalty and overtime rates

When parliament moved to lock in protections against future cuts to penalty and overtime rates – the extra pay people earn for weekends, public holidays and late shifts – Hanson, Roberts and Tyron Whitten backed an amendment that would have weakened those protections before the bill passed.

The pattern

That's three separate laws, across three different parliaments, each built to lift wages or protect the pay people already rely on – and each time, One Nation senators voted against them or tried to water them down.

It's worth being straight about what this record is and isn't. On some wage questions, One Nation's votes have gone the other way, and independent trackers like They Vote For You show a mixed picture on a few specific measures. But on the major laws of the last decade built to actually move wages and protect penalty rates, the direction has been consistent.

Don't take our word for any of it. Every vote here is a matter of public record, and you can check all of it yourself at theyvoteforyou.org.au or on the Australian Parliament's website.