Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to Freehills, the government’s law firm of choice, which helped draft the government’s industrial relations changes. Is the Prime Minister aware that, in a presentation in February this year, Freehills concludes that the average annual wage increase between June 2004 and June 2005 for employees on AWAs was 2.5 per cent—the same as the inflation rate? Is the Prime Minister also aware that Freehills concludes that average annual wage increases over the same period were in non-union collective agreements, 3.5 per cent; in agreements generally, four per cent; and, in union collective agreements, 4.3 per cent? Prime Minister, isn’t it the case that the government’s own hired legal gun says that AWAs will deliver lower wages than collective agreements?

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