Jackie Kelly (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Would the minister confirm that this week Australia’s lowest paid employees are benefiting from the Howard government’s workplace reforms with a $27-a-week pay rise? Are there any alternative views?

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 Lindsay for her question. In answering it, I note that the unemployment rate in Lindsay now stands at 4.2 per cent. When this government was elected—in other words, when the Labor Party was last in government in 1996—the unemployment rate in Lindsay stood at 7.3 per cent. In answer to the honourable member’s question, it is true that this week a million of Australia’s lowest paid award-reliant workers are in receipt of a $27-a-week pay increase. It is the biggest pay increase that has been awarded to the lowest paid workers in Australia. This comes on top of other substantial benefits that have been gained by Australian workers and their families—for example, the 165,000 extra jobs that have been created in Australia since 27 March when Work Choices was introduced, the record low levels of industrial disputation in Australia, the record low retrenchment levels in Australia, the 20-year low of long-term unemployment, and the strong productivity growth.

I heard the new Leader of the Opposition ask about productivity growth. The Australian Mines and Minerals Association recently indicated that, because of the workplace relations changes that this government has put in place, there has been a productivity increase in that industry alone of over $6 billion a year. The commercial building and construction industry in Australia has indicated—again as a result of changes made to legislation particularly in relation to the industry—that there has been something like a 20 per cent increase in productivity in this industry. There is a $27-a-week increase to Australia’s lowest paid workers, all as a result of the good economic management of this government.

I noted that the new Leader of the Opposition has proffered new ideas and a fresh vision. We may have got what seems like an almost biennial makeover of the leadership of the Australian Labor Party but it is quite clear that, even within a couple of hours of a new Leader of the Opposition, it is the same old unions calling the shots in Australia.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

They laugh, but we had Sharan Burrow, the President of the ACTU, on the phone to Sky News this morning indicating that she had lined up a meeting with the Leader of the Opposition in order to tell him what the policies of the Australian Labor Party will be so far as industrial relations are concerned, and we had Mr Robertson from New South Wales, whose previous claim to fame was threatening the leadership of the previous Leader of the Opposition to ensure that he made a promise to rip up Australian workplace agreements. Here we had the union movement out once again within minutes, almost, of a new Leader of the Opposition, telling him what his policy would be.

And what did he say in his first press conference—this first letter from St Kevin to the people of Australia? What did he say? He said: ‘I’m going to implement the policies that have already been put in place.’ So what we have are the same tired, old prescriptions. All that is old is new again. What Ms Burrow and Mr Robertson have said is that, basically, there may be a new leader, but it is the same old Labor.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and International Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question again is to the Prime Minister. It relates to his previous answer, in which he referred extensively to his government’s industrial relations legislation. Prime Minister, is it not the case that the Office of the Employment Advocate statistics for the September quarter show that, since the commencement of the government’s industrial relations legislation, the biggest uptake of AWAs has been in the retail trade and hospitality? Prime Minister, is it not also the case that the labour price index for this September quarter shows that, since the commencement of the government’s industrial relations legislation, wages growth in these two areas has been less than the inflation rate? Prime Minister, is it not the case that this is the result of the government’s industrial relations legislation?

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

As was my custom with his predecessor, I always check before I accept as gospel what is quoted by the opposition in relation to statistics. But I can confirm that, since Work Choices was introduced, 165,000 new jobs have been created. I can confirm that unemployment has gone to a 30-year low. I can confirm that industrial disputes are lower now than in 1913, a year before World War I broke out. And I can confirm that, when Labor was in office, real wages recessed by 0.2 per cent. They have risen by 16.4 per cent in the time that we have been in government. I am very happy to confirm all of those facts.