Mr HARTSUYKER (2:30 PM) —My question is addressed to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Would the minister inform the House of the outlook for wages growth for Australian workers? Are there any alternative views?

Mr ANDREWS (Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) —I thank the member for Cowper for his question. As he knows, under this government, over the past 9½ years, there has been strong wages growth in Australia. Indeed, we have seen wages growth in Australia go up by over 14 per cent, thanks to the government’s strong economic management and the fact that we have a low-inflation and low-unemployment environment in which, throughout Australia, the demand for workers is strong. This will continue to increase wages in the future.

Unfortunately, some members of the opposition do not share this view. Last Thursday the member for Perth, in a lengthy speech, predicted that employers would drive wages down in search of quick profits under the new workplace relations proposals. He said:

This is not the first time that we have heard these sorts of comments from the member for Perth. I recall that, back in 1996 when the government introduced the Workplace Relations Act, he famously and incorrectly predicted that it would lead to lower wages and worse outcomes for Australian workers. The argument has been effectively shot down. The scare campaign which the Labor Party and the ACTU were running was effectively shot down last week by none other than John Maitland, the National Secretary of the CFMEU. Mr Maitland, speaking at an industrial relations conference, said:

He is saying that, if employers are into driving down wages, the reality in the current environment is that they simply will not have workers. I do not often agree with Mr Maitland, but in this case he was absolutely right when he said that employers who would seek to rely on a reduced safety net will not end up with workers in the future. That is the reality that Mr Maitland knows. It puts a lie to the campaign of scaremongering by the Labor Party and the ACTU about the government’s changes. The reality—as he has conceded—is that employers will continue to provide wage rises in order to be able to attract workers in the future.

The increase in wages under this government, an increase of over 14 per cent in real wages over the last 9½ years, stands in stark contrast to the record of the ALP. On 1 April this year, the Leader of the Opposition made this great boast about their record in government:

Here we have the Leader of the Opposition making the claim—proudly, it seems—that under Labor in government the wages actually went down. That stands in stark contrast to what we have achieved since we have been in government. We are about higher wages and better outcomes for Australians, not what the ALP have been about in the past and will be about in the future. We stand for higher wages and we stand for more jobs for Australians, and that is what we will bring about.