TRANSCRIPT - SKY NEWS, NEWSDAY WITH KIERAN GILBERT - MONDAY, 3 JUNE 2024

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TELEVISION, SKY NEWS

NEWSDAY WITH KIERAN GILBERT

MONDAY, 3 JUNE 2024

SUBJECTS: Fair Work Commission Annual Wage Review, wages moving again, Immigration portfolio, Josh Frydenberg.

KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: Welcome back to the programme. Live in the studio now is the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Tony Burke. You happy with this outcome from the Fair Work Commission?

TONY BURKE MP, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS, MINISTER FOR THE ARTS: Absolutely welcome the decision. Absolutely welcome the decision. We've been arguing ever since we came to Government in each Annual Wage Review that we didn't want people on low incomes to be going backwards, particularly at a time with what was happening with inflation. What we've consistently seen is as inflation moderates, real wages have been growing, and today's decision locks that in again.

GILBERT: So, this will lock in real wages growth, in your view, because it's not much above where the inflation rate is right now.

BURKE: They can only work on the Treasury projections. You look at where the projections are for the future of inflation. You look at where this is at, it starts above inflation. It gives a guarantee that we already wanted that people wouldn't be going backwards in any way. The impact on this is real.

Let's not forget the number that averaged under the previous government for wage growth, for nominal wage growth, had a two in front of it. That's what happens when low wage growth is a deliberate design feature of how you manage the economy. What's happening now is wages are deliberately growing.

I know this is not the decision that Jane Hume wanted. Jane Hume was calling for a real wage cut, as though somehow low wage earners should be personally blamed for inflation. This says to people, the system is continuing to try to make sure that your wages stay in front of what is happening with prices. For 2.6 million Australians, this decision is a really good one and a good day for them.

GILBERT: The Commissioner also pointed out the productivity challenge. What's your response to that? The fact that productivity today is where it was basically four years ago, as he put it.

BURKE: Turning around productivity is about making the sorts of investments that the Government's making. It's why we needed to turn around the investment in training. It's why we need the sorts of investments that are there with a Future Made in Australia. It's what happens when you go for ten years without an energy policy, instead of actually getting moving on making sure that you're investing in all of these things.

There's another approach to productivity which we hear from the Coalition from time to time, which is effectively the answer to productivity is to pay people less. Who gets a share in that? You want people to be getting ahead year after year, and certainly the people who have the least capacity to ever deal with rising prices are people on the lowest incomes and you've got 2.6 million of them who had a pay rise guaranteed today.

GILBERT: You know the argument that your IR changes are anti-productivity as well. You've heard that before. What do you say to that?

BURKE: I hear it from people who are in love with underpayments. I hear it from people who think there should be loopholes to be able to undercut wages that have been agreed to. I hear it from people who say that in the gig economy there should be no minimum standards at all, and we should be a country where you have to rely on tips to get by. I hear that argument from people who I think don't understand the expectations of what it should be to work in Australia. Australia's had a principle for a very long time where we believe in paying people decent wages, and just because we had a decade where that all ground to a halt doesn't mean we shouldn't restore to what has been a core value in this country of people being paid properly and of returning to real wages growth.

GILBERT: A couple of other issues, while I've got you, as leader of the Government in the House, the detainee matter. Andrew Giles is moving quickly over the weekend, I think more than 20 visas now re-cancelled. Is the government getting this back on track, this issue?

BURKE: There is no doubt that we had an announcement last week in the Parliament about what was, from the Prime Minister and from Andrew Giles, about what the next steps would be, and we're seeing them now. In terms of the new direction that will be given, and also in making sure that where there have been decisions that were not what the Government wanted to happen from the independent tribunal, that we would step in and cancel those visas, which you're now seeing happen. I might add, though, all of this has been against a backdrop of extraordinary hypocrisy.

When you go through the record, as the Prime Minister did last week, of the number of people who Peter Dutton just let out. Now let's remember, he didn't wait for an order of the High Court before he was releasing various criminals. He was just making sure that this happened. The complete hypocrisy of that with no decision from the High Court, no one went out on an ankle bracelet, and yet Peter Dutton has been wanting to suddenly say it was different under him. What we are dealing with is a decision of the High Court that wasn't there at the time that he was there, but basically was made because of laws that he'd put in place, and the principles that Andrew Giles and the Prime Minister made clear last week in the Parliament is what we've seen over the weekend.

GILBERT: You know, it's not an easy job. You've done this job before, I remember, in the former Labor government years ago. Is Andrew Giles - is it better for the Government if the Prime Minister moves him on and has a reset?

BURKE: Andrew Giles, you listen to the detail with which he has gone on with this job. Andrew is impressive. Andrew has been doing a fantastic job. Yeah, it's a hard portfolio. Yeah, it is. But I've got a lot of faith in Andrew Giles.

GILBERT: Josh Frydenberg might be back in the Parliament, according to some suggestions at this stage with the Kooyong draft redistribution. Is that a good thing for the parliament to have as many senior figures as possible in the place?

BURKE: It's never a good thing when every member of Parliament on one side of politics, being the Coalition, is talking about themselves and that's what's going on right now. They're having this huge conversation and they're all obsessed with whether or not now that they think the margin looks a bit better, that they'll knock off the pre-selected woman to bring back the man.

It's not a surprising argument to have from the Coalition. But you look at it, every outcome is probably bad for Peter Dutton. Either Monique Ryan wins again, or Josh Frydenberg comes into Parliament, which Peter Dutton wouldn't want. Or another woman comes into Parliament in his own backbench, which Peter Dutton never seems to advocate for.

I just think while all of this is happening, we're focused on getting wage increases for people, which is exactly what's happened today. That's a bit more relevant than the nonsense and the self-obsession from the Liberal Party.

GILBERT: Workplace and Employment Minister Tony Burke. I appreciate your time as always. Thank you.

BURKE: Great to talk.

ENDS