Mark Bishop (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry, Procurement and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Abetz, the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations in this place. Is the minister aware of comments by the President of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission that using the Fair Pay Commission to set minimum wages will see a slowdown in the rate of growth of minimum wages?

Didn’t the president say ‘that is what the Fair Pay Commission is for’? Don’t these comments by the President of the AIRC, who of course was appointed by this government, highlight the impact on the low paid of the government’s new workplace laws? Can the minister now explain why the government thinks the nearly two million Australians already only getting the minimum wage of $12.75 an hour should get smaller pay rises in the future?