Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to refer to the minimum wage submission that has been submitted by federal Labor in the upcoming national wage case. Federal Labor believes that Australians deserve a pay rise. It's the case that for too long workers have been struggling to make ends meet because real wages have been falling in many sectors of our economy. In fact, wages are flatlining across this country and we don't see any efforts by the federal government to address this problem. Instead, what we have is a government that is keen to see further cuts for hospitality and retail workers, and we will see further penalty rate cuts for those workers on 1 July this year. That, of course, follows the cuts for those workers last 1 July, in 2017. So they look forward to more cuts occurring, cutting wages in real terms at a time when we have the lowest wage growth in 20 years.

One of the reasons we have lodged a minimum wage submission is to say to the Fair Work Commission that the proportion of the average wage that now makes up the minimum wage is falling. In fact, the bite, as it's called—the proportion of average wages—has been in decline for some years. We are concerned that whilst we believe the Fair Work Commission must determine this matter, and is the best place to determine the actual wage rise, we do consider it necessary to see a real wage increase. Energy prices are going through the roof, medical costs are rising and waiting lists are getting longer and longer for people in too many medical procedural areas. We are seeing people struggling, and we do not see any response from the government. For that reason, we say that it needs to happen, and it needs to happen as quickly as possible.

The government also indicated at the time of the Fair Work decision in relation to cutting penalty rates that there would be no further cuts in this area. But, unfortunately, there is now a further application before the commission to cut the wages of hairdressers and beauticians, under another award. So, not only do we have 700,000 workers already subject to penalty rate cuts, reducing their income in real terms, but we now have further threats of cuts to the wages of low-paid workers in this country. Every electorate in this land has beauticians and hairdressers, and most people would know that they are not on a very significant wage. They are an important service, and we understand, of course, that those businesses need to be able to afford the wage increases that occur, but this is an instance where there is an effort to cut these wages when they have not been receiving any real wage increases in quite a long while. We would argue strongly that they do not deserve to see their wages fall even further than is occurring because of the stagnation of wages in this country.

We don't support the proposition put by the Prime Minister that providing a $65 billion tax giveaway will somehow lead to a wage increase for Australian workers. There is no evidence that when you cut taxes you immediately see some commensurate wage increase. In fact, a recent survey conducted by the BCA has made it clear that they are not intending to provide wage increases if this tax bill goes through this week. Big business has a primary interest in ensuring it delivers to its shareholders, and that's absolutely proper. But the idea that we would have an unfunded tax cut to the big end of town, not provide support for workers, continue to see further cuts in wages for hospitality and retail workers, and now have further threats to other workers—hairdressers and beauticians—is not the way in which we should conduct public policy.

What should occur is that the government should firstly identify that people are struggling to make ends meet; that cost-of-living pressures are becoming more acute; and that household expenditure, in certain areas in particular, is rising far, far greater than wages are rising, in nominal terms. For that reason they should first be considering the plight of the members of ordinary households, who just want to have a decent standard of living, a decent quality of life. Instead, the government has chosen to provide $65 billion, predominantly to foreign shareholders, multinational companies, big corporations and big banks, and to impose taxes on all workers earning between $21,000 and $87,000 a year. They will have to pay an extra $300 in tax, on average, when their wages are falling in real terms. They will be subject to increased taxes as they watch people who earn $1 million per annum receive a $16,000 tax cut. That's not the way to go in this country, and we think the government fundamentally has got it wrong. They fundamentally either do not understand or do not care about the bulk of the Australian population that is struggling each and every day. Instead, we would say, the government should consider supporting Labor in its submission to the Fair Work Commission to increase the minimum wage in real terms; support Labor's private member's bill, moved by the Leader of the Opposition and seconded by myself, to prevent further cuts to penalty rates in this country as a result of the decision that was made last year; and not increase taxes on 75 to 80 per cent of the workforce that are subject to the proposed tax increases as a result of the last budget. That is going to compound inequality, it's going to punish people who don't deserve to be punished and it's going to provide an enormous largesse to the big corporations, who are doing quite well. If you look at the story of many big corporations at the moment, either their profits are very, very healthy—and it is a good thing to have healthy profits—or, in some cases, because of their investment and restructuring, they've not paid tax in recent years, and I don't think that is the priority of a federal government in the circumstances that we are in.

Profits are outstripping wage growth enormously. Indeed, there seems to have been a break in the nexus between productivity growth and wage growth. There was a time when they ran together. You, Mr Deputy Speaker, having held the position of employment minister in earlier parliaments, would understand that there was a closer correlation between productivity and wage growth or at least profits and wage growth. But what we see now is a break in that nexus. What we're seeing is that profits are outstripping wage growth significantly. We're seeing areas of the economy where productivity is rising and rising in a very good way, but we're not seeing that provide a dividend to workers, who are partly the reason for the increase in productivity. So who are the losers in the economy at the moment? They're workers whose wages are flatlining, they're workers who are precariously employed and don't have guaranteed hours and they're workers who will be subject to a $300 tax increase. And that is difficult enough for those people, but it's particularly difficult when they're watching their government choose to give an unfunded $65,000 million to big corporations in this nation. And, as I say, 60 per cent of the shareholders who will be receiving that relief are foreign shareholders. That is fundamentally, fundamentally unfair, and I do believe that the Australian people believe it is unfair. And, if the government does not recognise that and change its ways, this government will soon be in the dustbin of history.

Malcolm Turnbull has a tin ear. The Prime Minister of this country has no understanding of, or empathy for, working people. He's never struggled financially. He can't even understand that there are those in the community who do struggle, and he doesn't seem to want to do a thing to look after their interests. For that reason, he doesn't deserve to be Prime Minister of this nation.