Damned if you do, damned if you don’t

JOHN Howard’s new wage tribunal for low-income earners has been accused of lacking credibility by a prominent union official, who claims it granted higher pay rises than expected to help the Government at next year’s federal election. Bill Shorten, national secretary of the Australian Workers Union and a future Labor leadership contender, says the Fair Pay Commission would not have awarded a $27-a-week increase in the minimum wage last week without the forthcoming election. That presumes Howard has the power of veto over the Fair Pay Commission and I’m not sure if that’s the case. However it is good to have the AWU’s election tactic out in the open. If any result from the IR laws is at risk of being seen as positive for the workers then Shorten can claim it is a Coalition re-election tactic. Look, the unemployment figures are the best ever. Ah yes but it’s because of the forthcoming election. Look, workers have just got another pay rise and they’re so happy. Ah yes but it’s because of the forthcoming election. Not much threat to us conservatives in that ploy.