Kym Richardson (Kingston, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Would the minister inform the House how Australia’s workers are benefiting from the government’s workplace reforms? Is the minister aware of alternative proposals which would damage these benefits to minimum wage earners?

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 Kingston for his question and I say to him and to the members of the House that last Thursday was a great news day for Australian workers. More than one million award-reliant low-paid Australians know that from 1 December of this year they will be taking home more money in their pay packets—for some one million Australians, a $27 increase in their minimum wages. Prior to last Thursday, the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Perth and other members of the Australian Labor Party had been running around this country for the past year or so seeking to blacken the reputation of the Australian Fair Pay Commission by saying that this Fair Pay Commission would drive down the wages of ordinary Australian workers. They went around this country, day after day and week after week, seeking to traduce the reputation of the Fair Pay Commission before it had even given a decision.

In the light of that, I was very interested to look at what the Leader of the Opposition would say about this decision on Thursday. I kept my ears tuned to the radio, watched the television and looked at the wire services—I even went to the website—and I could not find a thing. Do you know that the Leader of the Opposition—having spent 12 months seeking to say that this would drive down the wages of ordinary Australians when, in fact, the Fair Pay Commission came out with a $27 increase—had absolutely nothing to say? There was dead silence from the Leader of the Opposition about this decision. He could not bring himself to say that this was a great decision for the workers of Australia, yet he sits in here each day pretending that somehow he and his party are the representatives of the workers in this country.

After Mr Combet came out and said, ‘On one hand this is a good decision, but, on the other hand, of course, we would still abolish the Fair Pay Commission that gave this good decision,’ the next day we had the Leader of the Opposition out there saying, ‘We will abolish the Fair Pay Commission.’ More roll back, more rip up. Rip up AWAs that deliver higher wages, roll back and rip up the Fair Pay Commission that delivers a $27 a week increase to the low-paid workers in Australia and even rip up the Office of Workplace Services, which has collected more than $30 million in underpaid wages for the workers of Australia.

You have to ask: why is this the policy of the Leader of the Opposition—to reintroduce an outdated and adversarial process for industrial relations that would take us back to the 1980s in Australia? There can only be one answer and that is that the Leader of the Opposition is only interested in shoring up the $70 million worth of cash that flows from the unions in this country to the coffers of the Australian Labor Party. The reaction of the Leader of the Opposition last week and this whole campaign from the ALP proves once again that they are not fit to govern this country and they are not fit to manage this economy. The reality is that this party—the coalition—remains the workers’ best friend in Australia.