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Australia can afford pay rises: Frydenberg hints to wage umpire
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Australia’s government has dropped its biggest hint yet to the independent pay umpire that it should lift wages for more than two million workers when it decides on the next minimum wage rise.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Industrial Relations Minister Michaelia Cash have told Australia’s minimum wage-setting panel the economy is improving fast in a signal that could underpin a pay rise for low-income workers.
Tuesday’s budget started a political battle on wages when Labor and the Greens highlighted its forecast that wages would fall or be flat in real terms until 2024, drawing focus to this year’s minimum wage decision due next month.
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COVID-19 Ushers in Era of Big Government Spending in Australia
Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced a spending bonanza in Tuesday night’s budget speech, signalling a complete shift by the normally fiscally conservative Coalition government.
Frydenberg has defended the budget, which allocates billions across most sectors of society, manifesting in the form of tax breaks, job training programs, and boosting of critical services. It also precedes the next federal election, which is due between August and May next year.
“This has been the most significant economic shock since the Great Depression,” Frydenberg told the ABC, saying the impact of COVID-19 “dwarfed” the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.
Under-employment soars to record high in Australia
Workers attempting to practice social distancing while waiting to enter Leichhardt Centrelink office (WSWS Media)
In particular, full-time jobs are being eliminated and replaced by part-time, temporary and casualised work, driving down wages and working conditions throughout the working class.
Tonight’s federal budget is set to step up this assault by allowing the remaining international students and temporary visa holders to work unlimited hours, but only if they accept jobs in the low-paid hospitality and tourism sectors.
At the end of March, the Liberal-National Coalition government had already intensified this process, by simultaneously terminating its JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme and slashing JobSeeker dole payments back to pre-pandemic, sub-poverty levels.