Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is backing a real wage increase for 3 million low-paid workers, as he seeks to position Labor as the party that will boost living standards for Australians doing it tough and fend off Coalition attacks on the government's economic management.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The Labor Party will on Wednesday make a submission to the Fair Work Commission recommending it award an "economically sustainable", above-inflation increase award wages - arguing that this can be done without reigniting inflation.
The announcement comes as shadow treasurer Angus Taylor prepares to deliver his post-budget address to the National Press Club in Canberra, where he will unveil a pre-election pledge aimed at boosting the nation's productivity with a new body to facilitate private sector investment.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Labor's election promise was to ensure Australians "earn more and keep more of what they earn" and that higher wages were "a central part of our efforts to help Australians with the cost of living."
He characterised the wage push as part of "rebuilding living standards and rolling out responsible cost-of-living help".
Labor's submission to the Fair Work Commission states that a real wage increase should be consistent with inflation returning sustainably to the Reserve Bank of Australia's target band of 2 to 3 per cent this year, a crucial measure of the Albanese government's success in taming inflation.
It will also push for an increase to the national minimum wage, which is currently $24.10 per hour or $915.90 per week before tax.
Cleaners, retail workers and early childhood educators are among workers covered by more than 100 industry or occupation awards, which set pay rates.
Mr Taylor will announce on Wednesday that the Coalition will, if elected, establish a statutory office within Treasury called Investment Australia to "consolidate and streamline investment facilitation across government".
The new body would bring the Major Project Facilitation Agency into Treasury, "consolidating the market and infrastructure functions of the Treasury, and bringing Foreign Investment screening and the Takeovers Panel under a united function with clear leadership that reports directly to the Treasurer and the cabinet," Mr Taylor will say in the speech.
Its legislated powers would include being able to "hold regulators and agencies accountable for bureaucratic delays for economically beneficial projects".
Treasury modelling in last month's federal budget said headline inflation was expected to sustainably return to the RBA's target band in mid-2025, six months earlier than previously forecast.
Dr Chalmers said on Tuesday after the RBA board announced it was keeping the cash rate on hold at 4.1 per cent: "This Albanese Labor government is getting inflation down."
The Albanese government's submission to the Fair Work Commission 2024 annual wage review argued for an increase to ensure minimum and award wages do not go backwards.
The commission increased the national minimum wage by 3.75 per cent in June - a rise of about $7500 a year - but deemed at the time it was "not appropriate" to increase award wages "by any amount significantly above the inflation rate".
The government, which accuses the Coalition of having kept wages "low by design" through its industrial relations regime, has seized on this as evidence it protected real wages from going backwards during the inflation fight.
Mr Albanese sought to contrast his position on wages with the opposition, saying when he told voters during the 2022 election campaign that he would back a wage increase for low-paid workers, "the Liberal Party said this would wreck the economy."
"Since then, we've seen wages going up, inflation coming down and interest rates starting to fall," he said.
"This campaign we will again be advocating for workers to get a pay rise to not only help them deal with the pressures of today, but to get ahead in the future."
Employment Minister Murray Watt said workers who did "the heavy lifting" deserved to be paid "a decent wage."
