Labor to ask Fair Work for 'sustainable real wage increase' for award workers

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Anthony Albanese says conversations about looming U.S. tariffs need to "have some perspective", as he and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton continue the election campaign in Victoria. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has defended not putting a specific figure on how much more he'd like low-paid workers to receive. Labor is making a submission to the fair work commission to push for an "economically sustainable" increase to award minimum wages, which it says will help nearly three million workers.

Transcript

00:00Anthony Albanese is campaigning in Melbourne's East, targeting the ultra-marginal Liberal

00:07seat of Deakin.

00:08Labor wants to put wages on the agenda, trying to pick a fight with the Coalition over a

00:12rise to award and minimum wages.

00:14It says it wants the rise to be above inflation, but Anthony Albanese won't put a figure on

00:19exactly how high wages should climb.

00:21Anthony Albanese visited a childcare centre to make his case, arguing childcare workers

00:26would benefit from a boost to the award wage.

00:28Wages became a central theme of the campaign three years ago, and Labor wants to pick a

00:32new fight on the issue this time around.

00:35It argues wages should rise in an economically sustainable way and above inflation, and the

00:40Prime Minister argues that small business can accommodate the cost.

00:43Well, there are today 130,000 more small businesses.

00:49We've had around, on average, around about 25,000 small businesses register every month

00:55on our watch.

00:57That is one of the reasons why we put in the submission economically sustainable.

01:03One of the things about low-paid workers is that if you pay a local paid worker more money,

01:13it doesn't go to savings.

01:15They do spend it, because they're doing it tough.

01:17And they spend it including in their local small business.

01:21So it has an impact that's positive in the economy, including for small business.

01:26One big unknown is what sort of tariff hit might be looming from the United States.

01:30Australia's exports to the United States represent about under 5% of our goods exports.

01:38Okay, so let's have some perspective here about standing up for Australia's national

01:45interest.

01:46I know there's a lot of focus on this, but put it in perspective.

01:50Less than 5%.

01:53And what I have done, and what the Foreign Minister has done, and our Trade Minister

01:58has done, is build relations since we came to office.

02:01Labor has tried to ground its campaign in safe areas in these early days.

02:05Healthcare and support for low-paid workers.

02:08But imminent news on tariffs from the United States could reframe the campaign and prompt

02:12further questions on how Australia might respond.

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