Former prime minister Scott Morrison said that if he had asked the Fair Work Commission for pay increases significant enough to cover inflation, Premier Anthony Albanese would have been. That would make Albanese “a freeloader” for the economy. Yet Albanese and his labor relations spokesperson, Tony Burke, is poised to do exactly that before a commission deadline on June 7, to see an increase come into force on July 1.
The rise will be one dollar per hour, raising Australia’s minimum wage from $20.33 per hour to $21.36. New Zealand has raised the minimum wage from $20.00 to $21.20.
Morrison and his team have said on the campaign trail about previous governments shying away from specific recommendations that Morrison’s predecessors, Fraser, Hawke and Howard, did so over the years. However, the national government is still doing so. For example, as recently as March, when the official Australian inflation rate was 3.5%, and before it had gone up to 5.1%, Victoria recommended 3.5%.