Scott Morrison delivers workers pay cut for Christmas

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will deliver working Australians a pay cut for Christmas, with today’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook confirming that, after years of stagnant wages growth under this Government, real wages will go backwards this financial year, with wages outpaced by inflation.

Today’s Labour Force data and the MYEFO confirm once again that Prime Minister Scott Morrison cannot be trusted to stand up for working people.

Today’s economic data proves yet again that Mr Morrison has no plan to address the cancer of insecure work plaguing this country. He has no plan to address the rampant casualisation of Australian jobs and no plan to end the labour hire rort, which a senior Government Minister has insultingly called a “made up problem”.

Mr Morrison’s only real plan for wages is to continue ramping up temporary migration, which will rob locals of opportunities, suppress wages growth and exacerbate the abuse and exploitation of vulnerable migrant workers.

Quotes attributable to ACTU Acting Secretary Liam O’Brien:

“Today’s mid-year budget update confirms that Prime Minister Scott Morrison will deliver working Australians a pay cut for Christmas. Shame on him.

“After years of stagnant wages growth under this Government, Mr Morrison still has no plan to deliver working Australians a long overdue and desperately needed bump to their pay packets. The Government’s own MYEFO confirms that real wages will go backwards this financial year.

“The Prime Minister’s only real plan for wages is to continue ramping up temporary migration, which will rob locals of opportunities, suppress wages growth and exacerbate the abuse and exploitation of vulnerable migrant workers.

“He has once again failed to produce any credible plan to address the cancer of insecure work, which is hurting working people and their pay packets. Too many people are stuck in casual and part-time jobs including the over 1 million Australians who can’t get enough hours.

“The Prime Minister has no plan to address the rampant casualisation of Australian jobs. His only response is to continue to peddle his con-job ‘casual conversion laws’, which have been exposed as a cruel hoax on working people.

“Mr Morrison has no plan to end the labour hire rort, which a senior Government Minister has insultingly called a ‘made up problem’, and he continues to stubbornly oppose ‘Same Job, Same Pay’ laws.

“Australia’s economic recovery relies on working people having money in their pockets and the confidence to spend. But Scott Morrison has once again failed working people.”

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