Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I hear those opposite. I hear the shadow Treasurer. It's amusing that he clearly hasn't looked at any of the businesses that have called for this. He hasn't looked at the Victorian childcare centres that have called for exactly this. He hasn't looked at the sheet-metal operators who have called for exactly this. He hasn't looked at the cleaning companies. They've tried to get an agreement, and what has then happened is that, when you get an agreement in place, some new operator comes in and completely undercuts. The good employer, who wants to compete on grounds like better equipment, smarter operations and quality of service, finds themselves straightaway losing their contracts because they're competing on the grounds of a race to the bottom on wages.

There are plenty of good employers who would like to be able to have the certainty of delivering the sort of pay they know in their current business operations they can offer without being undercut in a race to the bottom on wages. As long as you don't open up multi-employer bargaining, you will always have that problem. So—

And he's there again: 'It's going to force it up.' Yes, wages will go up. And those opposite, having spent 10 years determined to keep wages down are now saying, 'Well, can't we keep wages down for a couple more months?' Can I tell you, in terms of dealing with wages—

The shadow treasurer is saying, 'I said "prices".' Yet the quotation says: 'It pushes up wages. It pushes up wages.'

See this speech in context