Well, welcome to your first ministry meeting of this term, the 48th Parliament. It is an incredible honour to be elected as a Member of Parliament, but an even greater honour to serve in the Executive of a Labor Government and it's important that we repay the faith and trust that's been placed in us on the 3rd of May. We are ahead, at this point, in 94 electorates. There is a possibility of a 95th. We'll wait and see as counting continues there.
But what's clear is that we represent the largest Caucus of Labor members in Australian history since Federation. And that's because of the discipline and focus that we showed in our first term. We had a clear plan. We set about focusing on the issues that were close to people. We understood that we governed in really difficult global economic times and we were focused on cost of living relief whilst getting that downward pressure on inflation, whilst continuing to provide better services in health, in education. Dealing with the decade of neglect when it comes to climate change and the decade of neglect when it comes to building housing and increasing housing supply. We put forward a positive agenda in the election campaign. Our job is to go through every single one of our commitments and deliver on them. And that's what I expect Ministers to do over the coming three years.
We have an incredible honour of dealing with, representing, the best country on earth. And tomorrow, I will travel to Indonesia to meet with our friend the President and to renew that acquaintance. We've received well wishes from all over the world. It is important, our engagement internationally as well. We know that international trade and economic circumstances are difficult and are turbulent, and our job is to navigate those seas whilst keeping our eye on the horizon of how do we create jobs, how do we lift living standards, how do we transition our economy with the opportunities that are there with the clean energy economy. No one held back, no one left behind, as we have said very clearly going forward. So, I congratulate all of you. This morning was quite lovely and it was fantastic to have all of your families there as well. Cherish it and honour it through the hard work and the commitment and diligence to implement our agenda in this term.
We've got our first item today. The first submission is from Amanda and it is about the minimum wage. And Amanda and Jim, we did this in our last term. Indeed, it was the first item that came forward at that stage from Tony and Jim. Labor will always stand for improving people's wages and conditions, and we know that part of our agenda in dealing with cost of living pressures isn't just getting inflation down, it's getting wages up and maintaining strong employment. And we think that people on the minimum wage deserve a wage increase. And that will be the submission that we'll consider, that I've just pre-empted a little bit. Don't take that as something that we do around this table in general, but I know that it's so core to Labor values. It really is. It's why we're here - to make a difference. And that's why our focus has to be always not on what happens in this room and not on what happens within our great party, as much as we're proud of it.
Each and every day is about the people who we represent and who we seek to represent going forward. So, congratulations to all of you and thank you for the loyalty, for the support that you showed. I went during the election campaign with a great deal of confidence that the entire team was working in one direction with a very clear focus. After I go to Indonesia, I will have the great honour of representing Australia at the inaugural Mass that will take place in St. Peter's in Rome. And that will be, personally, for me, a great honour to be able to represent Australia there as well. So, thank you very much.
