Employment Minister Tony Burke has suggested the federal government will again recommend the minimum wage rise in line with inflation.Credit:James Brickwood
Asked whether this year’s submission,to be lodged on Friday,would be in keeping with his belief that the minimum wage should keep up with inflation,Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a press conference the government would act in a way that was “absolutely consistent with our values.”
“And what we don’t do in submissions,[as] we didn’t do it last time,was put a dollar figure on that,” he said.
Asked whether the submission would show more restraint than the previous one,given the higher rate of inflation,Albanese said,“it will be consistent with our values.”
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Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil told the National Press Club on Tuesday the peak body’s influential submission would be released within days,“and we’re always going to ask the federal government to back that in”.
Earlier this year,ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the government needed to consider maintaining real wages.
“The principle that they should be supporting is an increase that maintains the real value of the wages of low-paid workers,” McManus said.