Hi team, Just jumping in with some thoughts I haven't been able to shake since watching Treasurer Jim Chalmers and the man who wants his job, Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor, debate in Melbourne last week. It was prompted by a remark from a Liberal candidate for the Tasmanian seat of Braddon, Mal Hingston. He reportedly told a local forum the Dutton approach to workplace relations would be to "rewind stuff the Albanese Government has done and put things back to the way they were".
Workers "happy" with $10 an hour, candidate claims His point was that changes to work legislation by the Albanese government had brought unintended consequences, such as stopping older "grey nomad" workers from coming to Tasmania to pick fruit. "(They used to) come down here to Tassie, and just plod along, and they were happy with $10 an hour, or whatever it was." The suggestion was that the work was social in nature and the workers were happy with the lower rate for "piece work", which is about half the minimum wage rate.
The comments were seized up by ACTU secretary Sally McManus as evidence of a plan by the Coalition to cut wages and conditions. Here's a statement from the peak union body: "The Coalition say they won't release a workplace relations policy this election. Now at least one Tasmanian Liberal has been honest enough to say that a Dutton government would rewind Labor’s workplace reforms.
"The Liberals' Mal Hingston sees nothing wrong in expecting older workers to work for piece rates of $10 an hour. He'd like low wages to come back and confirmed that's what a Dutton Government would try to do if elected… “It means a total lack of government support for minimum wage increases in the upcoming annual wage review, which sets the floor under the wages of all award-reliant workers. "Wages would also be cut because all of the employers' wage-cutting schemes would be back again alongside the boom in wage theft we saw under the last Coalition Government."
To be clear, the ABC is not suggesting that the comments by a Liberal candidate constitute the industrial relations (IR) policy of the Coalition. Coalition: stuck on IR What the comments do show is how vulnerable the Coalition is on the issue of IR, and how reluctant it is to getting into a fight about it. Since the "WorkChoices" election that doomed John Howard's 11-year term as prime minister, the Coalition has shied away from using a megaphone to direct attention to its policies on working conditions and pay.
On the website that contains an extensive list of policies, these are the few I could find with direct links to the working lives of Australians: Reverse the damaging aspects of Labor’s complex industrial relations reforms, including returning to a simple definition of a casual worker. Reverse the damaging aspects of Labor’s complex industrial relations reforms, including returning to a simple definition of a casual worker. Curtail union militancy in Australian workplaces and reintroduce a tougher Australian Building and Construction Commission.
(There are many policies about workers paying less tax and elements like the cut to fuel excise. I'm talking about the 'earning it' side of the coin). Labor: stuck on tax reform But they're not the only ones stuck.
In 2019 Labor took plans to grandfather negative gearing (which essentially takes losses on property investment off the taxable income you pay) and franking credits (a benefit that goes to people with certain types of shares) to the election. It lost and has essentially disavowed any attempt to reform these elements of the tax system, which are in theory available to everyone but are largely used by people who are older and wealthier. That Dr Chalmers even requested Treasury do modelling on the potential impact of negative gearing caused a storm of debate.
Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor said the government must immediately "come clean" on its plans. "The Prime Minister last night denied his government had modelled negative gearing changes," he wrote this month. "The Treasurer confirmed in September it had.
The Prime Minister lied to the Australian public on camera about his hidden plans to raise taxes on housing. “If Labor has nothing to hide, it should release this modelling and allow Treasury to provide a full briefing to the Opposition on the detail, timing, and nature of these requests." The government has said it has no plans to change negative gearing or revive its franking credits plan.
So, where are we? Like I said, this still takes me back to a ballroom, listening to two eloquent people getting stuck into each other about the things they would do if returned or elected. But each of them doing their best to not talk about the substantial elements that affect our lives — work and tax — which have frightened voters off in the past.
As always, if you want to stay up to date on the campaign, open the ABC News federal election 2025 blog in a new tab.
