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

My question is again to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to comments on Sunday by the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, about the government’s industrial relations changes:

I don’t like, particularly like the new IR laws because I’m frightened they could be used to force down minimum wages.

Given that the government submissions to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission over the last 10 years would have seen the minimum wage reduced by $2,600 a year—

Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I believe that it is outside of the standing orders to put up a prop. You can anticipate that the member for Perth, in his question, will be displaying a prop.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Boothby will resume his seat. All members are well aware that I have made it very clear I do not expect the member for Perth to abuse the forms of the House. I call the member for Perth and ask him to come back to his question.

Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on the point of order: if the member for Perth will not be abusing the forms of the House, he can leave the prop at his seat.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Boothy will resume his seat. That is not a point of order.

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

Given that the government submissions to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission over the last 10 years would have seen the minimum wage reduced by $2,600 a year—

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Perth has the call and he will get straight to his question.

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

Will the Prime Minister guarantee Archbishop Pell that the minimum wage will not be reduced in real terms?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I did see the remarks attributed to His Eminence, the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, last night on television. Let me say that I do not entertain the concerns expressed by the Cardinal. The basis of that is that this government has been a good friend of the low paid in this country. I might say that measured by some of the principles of both more broadly Christian social justice and more specifically Catholic social justice, this government has been a good friend of the low paid in the Australian community. In fact, more Australians have jobs under this government than was the case 10 years ago.

It is true that the rich have got richer in this country over the last 10 years, but they have not got richer at the expense of the poor. Most of the studies that have been carried out produce evidence on some occasions—indeed, to the great surprise of the researchers—that the low paid enjoy a higher relative increase in their position than people in the middle and at the upper end. Any fair analysis of our family benefits system will reveal that low-paid, single-income families, including single parents, have, relatively speaking, been the best endowed of all as a result of the family tax benefit and welfare policies that have been introduced.

I remind all of those who follow this debate that, when we introduced our industrial relations reforms 10 years ago, people said that all sorts of terrible things were going to occur. They have not occurred. In fact, we have seen real wages go up by 16.8 per cent, we have seen unemployment fall to a 30-year low and we have seen 1.8 million new jobs created. It is my confident prediction that, just as the doomsaying of the Labor Party 10 years ago was proved wrong, so the doomsaying of the Labor Party in 2006 will by 2016, and through the 10 years to then, also be proved wrong.

Stewart McArthur (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Would the minister update the House on the protections available to employees under Work Choices? Are there any alternative policies?

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for his question and his interest in this subject. I can inform him and the House that there are significant protections available for workers in Australia under the Work Choices legislation—in particular, the significant increase in funding to the Office of Workplace Services in this regard.

It is interesting in this light that the ACTU have been using workers in their advertising that they claim to be victims of Work Choices. The reality is that the Office of Workplace Services has power to enforce compliance with the Workplace Relations Act. It has staff trained, and additional staff who have been brought on board, to do that and who have been appointed as workplace inspectors. They have power to go into workplaces, to require the production of documents and the giving of evidence about a range of matters and to take action on behalf of employees against employers where they find that there is a need to do so.

Despite the ads that have been run, the very interesting thing to note is that the unions have not referred a single one of the people featured in these advertisements to the Office of Workplace Services. Not only that, the ACTU on its website does not refer workers who have a complaint to the Office of Workplace Services, despite the fact that significant resources are there for workers to make a complaint if they believe they have been hard done by.

The Labor Party and the unions claim that they have the interest of workers at heart. If that were true, they would stop playing politics with these people and refer these cases to the Office of Workplace Services. There is no clearer indication that this is simply a matter of the unions and the Labor Party playing politics. If they did have the interests of these workers at heart, they would refer them to the Office of Workplace Services, where a proper investigation could be carried out.

Daryl Melham (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is directed to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, I refer to comments on Sunday by the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, who said of the government’s industrial relations changes: ‘I’m not in favour of anything that will drive down the minimum wage, especially when some of the top wages are so enormous.’ I also refer to comments made by the chair of the low pay commission, Professor Ian Harper, on 31 May when he said that the government’s legislation ‘pushes’ the low pay commission to reduce the value of the minimum wage in real terms. Will the Prime Minister guarantee Archbishop Pell that the minimum wage will not be reduced in real terms?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, through you to the member for Banks, there is no low pay commission that I am aware of. I am very happy to engage with the member for Banks on these matters. He is a hardworking member and a good member. Let me simply say, though: don’t be deluded into asking questions—

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Crean interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Hotham is warned!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

based on false assertions. I would say to the member for Banks, by all means engage in vigorous debate, but do not be lured by the tactics committee into making false statements; otherwise, Joe de Bruyn will have a go at you as well. That is what will happen. And if Joe gets amongst some of the branches in Banks you never know what might happen, because he does not have a bad track record. I have made this remark before and I will say it again: people ask me for guarantees—my guarantee is my record. My record is of somebody who has led a government that has presided over huge increases in real wages and who has presided over the introduction of a tax and welfare system which I think, compared with the tax and welfare systems of other governments, has been far closer to the aspirations of Christian and specifically Catholic social justice than have been the programs of other governments. I am very proud of that record. I always welcome the contributions to public debate made by that very eminent, ecclesiastical figure, Cardinal George Pell, for whom I have great regard.