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‘Really clear’ wages are not driving inflation, Tony Burke says
Circling back to the interview with employment relations minister, Tony Burke. He’s asked about soaring corporate profits, which were up more than 10% in the December quarter compared to wages which rose 2.6%, and whether that demonstrates that it’s corporate profits driving inflation – as the union movement is arguing – not wages.
It is really clear that wages are not driving inflation, are not the principal driver of inflation here. It’s really clear we don’t have some sort of spiral of inflation being caused by high wage growth. It’s also really clear we don’t have high wage growth.
I was pleased that the last wage price increase got up to 3.3%. To the extent that that’s the highest it’s been for some time and had we not taken actions that we took last year, particularly with respect to the minimum wage and awards, you wouldn’t have got to figure as high as but it’s still much, much lower than inflation.
Supermax prisoners are served better food than the workers building Snowy Hydro 2.0.
You have workers living, literally locked up in a camp with limited recreational facilities in the middle of nowhere, being fed maggot-infested food.
The problem is the joint venture who was awarded the contract is pinching every penny they can to try and improve their profit margin.
The whole site’s a tragedy waiting to happen.
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