Today I rise to speak in support of the private members motion of the Member for Throsby, which calls on this house to support the current system of annual wage increases to Minimum Award rates by the Australian Industrial Relations System.
This motion acknowledges the alarming growth in the ranks of working poor and the detrimental effects this can have on households due to the majority of working poor being totally reliant on minimum award wages.
We live in an economically prosperous country Mr DS – however today I would like to draw our attention to the other face of Australia’s prosperity, and that is poverty and the increasing number of working poor Australians who are not sharing in this country’s strong economic growth.
These working poor rely totally on minimum award wages as their sole income. They do not benefit from family trust funds, or grow wealth through property investments or the stock market, they don’t own credit cards or send their children to elite non-government schools, and they can’t afford to go on holidays.
Recently released ABS data showed that 810,000 families experienced a cash flow problem in the past year and that 537,000 people where unable to pay a phone, gas or electricity bill – the working poor need the wage increase Mr DS.
Mr Speaker these are the people who live in my electorate of Calwell, - in Calwell we know poverty well. ABS Census data in 2001 show that 58,212 people live on amounts below the minimum wage – that is about 47.9% of my electorate.
So this motion today is important to both me and the people of Calwell and it is also particularly timely given the Government’s action on Friday, calling on the AIRC to delay ruling on the current minimum wage case for six months, until the May budget.
The Federal Minimum wage in this country is only $467.40 per week, or $24,370 per year and the cost of living in this country is constantly on the increase so the 4 million Australian workers covered by Federal and State Awards rely desperately on these Minimum Wage Cases in order to make ends meet.
Mr DS this Government has looked after its mates at the top end of town, with tax relief for household incomes in the top twenty percent, individuals who have already received a 14% increase in their income since 1990.
I now urge the Government to provide wage relief for the low income households, the bottom 20% of workers who have received only a 1.5% increase in their income since 1990.
This government has no legitimate economic grounds to deny these workers their hard earned and deserved pay rise. Seeking to delay the wage hearing until the May budget on the basis that it wants to ensure that the economy can handle the increase is nonsense Mr DS How many more hits are the working poor expected to take for the benefit of business and employers? The Government’s track record on wage justice for low paid workers is nothing to be proud of, in fact Mr DS had the AIRC accepted the Government’s recommendations on wage increases over the past nine years workers today would be $44.00 a week worse off.
I have no doubt that the 21.1% of Australia workers who earn under the minimum wage and survive on incomes below the poverty line would be worse off without the Minimum wage protections that currently exist within the Workplace Relations Act. This is particularly relevant to me, as in my electorate of Calwell, this percentage of working poor is alarmingly higher than the national average.
Mr DS I commend this motion to the house and its call to protect the working poor in our Nation. A society can only be judged by the way in which it treats its most vulnerable and its weak, without the Minimum wage case protection, our society’s lowest paid workers will continue to be forced to live in desperation and poverty.
