Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I rise to speak, firstly, in respect of the RBA hearing before the Standing Committee on Economics on 17 August. Much of the debate revolved around the slow wages growth that Australia has been experiencing. I'm not sure I agree with the chair in saying that we've turned the corner on wages growth. We've had another annoyingly slow year when it comes to wages growth, in that growth has been basically slow or non-existent for too many Australians. Workers and those on a wage are getting a dud deal, with a falling share of national income. It's really a tale of two nations at the moment, with a divide between those workers who are doing a fair day's work but waiting for a fairer day's pay and those who aren't.

This is a point that the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Philip Lowe, made in looking at and analysing wages growth in the Australian economy in recent times. He said that sustained low wages growth diminishes the 'sense of shared prosperity' that we all have as Australians. He said:

I have certainly been talking for a couple of years about the benefits of stronger wages growth.

The governor said that wages growth, unfortunately, in the lower levels of the wage price index is set to continue for some time. This echoes Labor's concerns about the growing inequality that we're seeing throughout the country. We all know that with low wages growth it's those who are in marginalised occupations and those who are on award wages that tend to suffer the most. Unfortunately, they are people who are working in casual and part-time occupations, with an increasing number of women in those occupations. That ensures that those who are at the lower levels of the wages bargain, if you like, continue to fall further behind.

There's a sense that we do need to do more to look at boosting wages growth in this country. We all know that the enterprise bargaining system has been smashed in recent years by this government, and we're starting to see, for the first time in Australia since the inception of enterprise bargaining in the 1990s, that the number of agreements that are being made is actually falling in this country. That's a great shame, because, to get real increases in incomes beyond those that are catered for by the awards system, people need to collectively bargain through that enterprise bargaining system, and changes to that system that allow companies to put workers back onto the award system if they can't reach an enterprise agreement with a company are, I believe, contributing to lower wages growth in this country. It is ensuring that we're not getting the boosts to incomes that will fuel consumption and bring us out of the economic malaise that we've had for some years now.

There was also quite a discussion about the cost of electricity, particularly for large and small businesses throughout the country, and the fact that very, very high electricity prices are contributing to inflated cost pressures for many of those businesses, which is impinging on potential growth and potential employment opportunities. We all know that this government has been in the midst of a war for the last decade about its views on climate change and its approach to improving renewable energy uptake in our economy and eventually reducing the cost of electricity throughout the economy. We all know that we have an obligation to make a smooth transition away from dirty coal-fired power to cleaner, renewable energy sources. But this government is intent on halting that process and, in doing so, has created uncertainty for investors in this industry, which is pushing up the cost of electricity for households and businesses in Australia.

All Australians are paying for this government's inability to work out its arguments and the war that's been going on around climate change and energy policy for the last decade. Nonetheless, I thank the Reserve Bank and the deputy governors who appeared before us on 17 August for, once again, being very frank and honest with the committee about the economic progress of the country.

Turning to the second report, about the ACCC, again there was a broad-ranging discussion. Electricity and the cost of energy were included in one of the principal discussions, but I want to turn my attention to some of the discussion that occurred about independent mechanics and the process that they have in potentially forcing up prices for motorists when they get their car serviced. In December 2017, the ACCC released its final report for the new-car retailing industry market, with studies and details of findings from almost 18 months of investigation, consultation and research. The ACCC says that independent repairers must be provided with access to the same technical information that car manufacturers make available to their authorised dealers and preferred repair networks at reasonable cost. This is something that the Labor Party wholeheartedly agrees with the ACCC on.

Everyone should be able to choose where they get their car serviced, but the car manufacturers have, unfortunately, been pushing a view that you need to get your car serviced with them if you're going to maintain your warranty and if you're going to be able to ensure that you can resell your car in the future. It is absolute garbage. It does not reflect the Australian law and these big dealerships are forcing many Australians into having their car serviced with them, at often inflated prices, by not supplying information to independent mechanics that can ensure that they can access the technical details that are required. Cars are computers on wheels these days and they need to access that technical information.

We had a review of the industry's voluntary code in September 2016 that this government promised to deliver. They failed to do so. They also promised to review the voluntary code by October 2016 and, again, the deadline came and went without action. Labor now, in the wake of the government's inaction on this issue, have developed a plan to ensure that car manufacturers share their technical information so that vehicles can be serviced by independent mechanics. Labor will require car manufacturers to share that technical information with independent mechanics on commercially fair and reasonable terms, with safeguards on the environmental safety and security related technical information to be shared with the independent sector. The result will be more money back in the pockets of car owners and a rev up for our nation's 23,000 independent repairers.

It's a shame that Labor has had to act on this when the government's had many, many months. For many years, they've known that this is an issue and they've been unable to work on developing the process of putting in place good policy. I urge the members of the government to support Labor's approach and to support the policy of ensuring that the big dealerships provide that important technical information on a fair and reasonable basis to repairers.

Once again, I thank the members of the ACCC who appeared before us and I thank the committee secretariat for their work in preparing both of the reports.

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