Doorstop, Federal Press Gallery

25 March 2024

JOURNALIST: Senator, do you support a pay rise in line with inflation for the lowest paid workers?

JANE HUME: Well, the Fair Work Commission will make up its mind as to what that minimum wage rise should be. And it'll take into account all of the available economic data that it has at its disposal, and that includes submissions that come from Treasury and from the Government. Now, the difference in the way that the Coalition have always handled these things in the past or the way that the Labor Government has is that while we've made submissions to the Fair Work Commission, have left the Fair Work Commission up to its own decision making as to what that minimum wage should be rather than making a recommendation. The Labor government has in the past said that it would like to see wages stay in line with inflation, even when inflation is high. The problem of course with that, is that when that minimum wage decision is made unless you 've got inflation under control, that minimum wage gets eaten up very quickly.

JOURNALIST: Given that inflation has been cooling. Last year, we saw the minimum wage has been quite significant been ordered by the Fair Work Commission. That was at a time when inflation was still quite high, considering it has come down. Do you think it is reasonable to expect or do you think low paid workers would find it reasonable to expect that their wages should still be keeping pace with that because it's more reasonable now?

JANE HUME: I think we know that low paid workers are really feeling the pinch of the cost of living crisis that hasn't abated under this government, in fact, has got worse. Yes, that inflation has come down but that simply means that price rises are slowing. They're still rising, though. It's not as if prices are going backwards. And that's why people are feeling it in a pocket and they're looking to the government for assistance. That could be assisting with the cost of living in far more effective ways. Quite frankly, the only way that you are going to really tackle the cost of living is to get inflation under control, bring it back to band, the RBA are telling us that they're not expecting inflation to come back to band now until the end of 2025 and probably not to the target until 2026. Now that's what that's called those people on minimum wages that are doing it tough. Whether they're doing it tough at the grocery checkout, when they're filling their car up with fuel when they're paying their rent or indeed for those that are paying mortgages, when they're paying their mortgages, because at the moment, it's costing around $24,000 a year more to pay your mortgage than it was just 18 months ago.

JOURNALIST: Is it your view that a minimum wage increase in line with inflation, so around 3%, at the moment, would be inflationary?

JANE HUME: Well, I know that those that are on the minimum wage would be grateful for anything that they can get. But the problem is, you have that minimum wage rise and there's still inflation out there. It's simply going to be eaten up. That's why getting inflation under control is the only solution to people's cost of living crisis.

JOURNALIST: The Treasurer is saying that the Fair Work Commission, he wants the Fair Work Commission to view a minimum wage increase as a very separate matter to the revised stage three income tax cuts. That one, the tax cuts should cancel out the need for a minimum wage increase. What do you think about that argument?

JANE HUME: Well, I think that if they're using the tax cuts as the only solution to the cost of living crisis, that's a recipe for disaster. There should be a far broader plan to tackle the cost of living and we've been saying this now, since Labor came to government because they went into the election saying that the cost of living was the number one issue. It remains the number one issue nearly two years on, and that's because Labor have failed in their task of managing the economy and bringing down the cost of living. The reason why they failed is because they've been distracted. They've been distracted with the wrong priorities. And they've been distracted by their own incompetence and don't need to look too far to border security and now immigration out of control immigration, to know what it is that this government's priorities truly, they may say that the cost of living is the number one issue, but what are they doing about it? They're not tackling it at its source and that is bring down inflation. How do they bring down inflation, they have to use their fiscal policy levers and not leave it all up to the RBA.

JOURNALIST: Just on energy bills. New figures out today showing that 116,000 people are having to pay their bills through hardship arrangements. Does this build the case for further energy relief from the budget will be supportive of that, we know last year you opposed it?

JANE HUME: There's certainly an argument that we're hearing in the Cost of Living Committee to say that people's energy bills are one of the number one drivers of the pain that they're feeling in their hip pocket. Around 116,000 was the number that we heard were on hardship payments, and around the same sort of number are affecting energy debt. This should be something of great concern to the Government because we've seen electricity prices increase by around 37% from or I think about 30%. Gas prices increase up to 37%. In some states, and that doesn't look like there's going to be a lot of relief out there. For Australians, even if they are seeing that wholesale price come down this year. And it's not as if electricity prices are going backwards. They are continuing to rise and people are going to fill it in their hip pockets. That will be one of the issues that I would imagine that the Fair Work Commission will take into consideration when they look at what the minimum wage should be.

JOURNALIST: Thanks.