Phillip Barresi (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

If you are trying to get on in life, you would know that a job is a great start. It is that first step on a career path. They will get a job, and they will be on $543.40—$338.10 better off. That is the reality of what is facing an unemployed person in Blacktown, in Wollongong, in Western Sydney. When they are going out there looking for a job they say, ‘Okay, I’ve got $205.30 per week on the one hand but I have an opportunity to get a start in life on $543.’ Any sensible young person wanting a starting job, any person who is unemployed, would say, ‘I will take that job and use it as an opportunity to move on in life.’ In itself, that $543 per week is above the current safety net wage, which was handed down by the Industrial Relations Commission late last year and sets a benchmark for our Fair Pay and Conditions Standard of $484. The member for Cunningham states that it is slave labour employment—$484 is the current safety net agreement. These people at Spotlight will be on an AWA of $543.40. The opposition ignore one simple fact: Work Choices is all about agreements—employers and employees agreeing to the new system they will work with. They make a decision about whether they accept it or not.

The ALP talk about the driving down of living standards of Australian families and their way of life. Since 1996 the contrast between what we have been able to achieve in this country and what the Australian Labor Party, through its 13 years in office, was able to achieve is quite stark. We have increases in real wages of 16.7 per cent compared with around 1.2 per cent under the Australian Labor Party. We have average mortgage rates of 7.15 per cent under the coalition versus 12.75 per cent under the Labor Party. Those reductions in interest payments would be put to good use by those families that the Australian Labor Party is talking about. We have 10.1 million people in employment versus 8.3 million who were employed in Australia during the Australian Labor Party’s term in office. The unemployment rate is now around five per cent. In Western Australia it is actually hard to find labour. In the member for Brand’s own state, where unemployment is coming down to around 3.8 per cent, it is tough to find labour. There are jobs there and not enough people to fill them. This MPI has been rerun. (Time expired)

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