Australian Unions have released a new report outlining how workers would be $8,000 worse off by now, if Peter Dutton had achieved his goal of blocking the Government’s major reforms to get wages moving.
Wages grew by just 2.1 percent in the decade from 2013- 2022, when the Coalition government was in power, with Peter Dutton as a senior minister due to a deliberately designed policy to keep wages low.
Since 2022, due to legislative and policy changes by the Albanese Government there has been consistent wages growth averaging of 3.7 percent, leaving workers with more money to deal with the cost-of-living crisis they’re experiencing.
The report shows that the turnaround in wages since 2022 has occurred across all industries, in contrast to the slow rate of wage growth in every industry in the decade prior and outlines the policies that have been enacted that have brought this about:
The Coalition voted against every single one of these policy changes.
In addition, Peter Dutton is promising to axe the jobs of 41,000 public sector workers and return to the use of expensive consultants, in contrast to Labor’s reforms that have delivered higher wages for public sector workers.
Peter Dutton also voted against changes to equal pay and work value laws that mean Australia’s previously undervalued care workers, the majority of whom are women, are finally getting paid what they deserve. And while the Government has funded those pay rises in the Budget, the Coalition has made no promise to continue the funding and has described the pay rise for early childhood educators as a “sugar hit”, “unorthodox” and “radical.”
The report demonstrates the clear contrast between policies that will keep wages moving, and the policies of a Dutton Coalition Government that are a clear risk to wage growth.
“This report confirms just how much lower wages would have been in South Australia had Peter Dutton’s policies been in place for the last three years. While workers are doing it tough with cost of living, he would have made things a lot worse by keeping wage rises low.
“At a time of global uncertainty, it’s even more important for workers to have the confidence that the gains they’ve been making over the last three years continue. We do not need Peter Dutton importing more of that uncertainty here. Working people cannot afford to have anything cut.
“Peter Dutton cannot be trusted with working Australian’s rights.
“He voted against every single Labor reform driving wages growth, and nothing is surer than that he will reverse these reforms given the chance. The biggest risk to wage rises is a Coalition Government.”
“South Australians would be $8,000 worse off today under Peter Dutton. That’s the cost of his anti-worker agenda.”
“Dutton voted against every new right for workers that’s helped wages to grow in SA. He’d undo the progress we’ve made. Insecure work and low wages hit South Australians hard, and Dutton wants to bring that back?”
“South Aussie workers have finally started getting ahead. Dutton’s plan? Rip it all up and take us backwards.”