Latest news with #AmandaRishworth
Sky News AU
19 hours ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
Labor Minister admits federal politicians will ‘not have to pay' super tax until retirement
Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell says Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth has admitted that federal politicians on the old pension scheme will not have to pay the superannuation tax until they retire. Two leading Coalition frontbenchers have called on Labor to scrap taxing unrealised gains and index the threshold in its controversial superannuation proposal if the Opposition is to consider bipartisan support for the plan. 'That puts them in a different category to ordinary Australians, who, controversially, we know under this legislation, will be paying tax on money they don't have yet,' Mr Clennell said.
Sky News AU
a day ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
Millions of workers set to receive pay rise from July 1 following major Fair Work Commission decision
Millions of Australians on minimum and award wages will receive a pay rise from July 1 following a decision handed down by the Fair Work Commission on Tuesday. The commission's expert panel revealed that the national minimum wage will increase by 3.5 per cent, or $0.84 per hour. This will lift the weekly full-time wage to $947.95, or $49,294 annually—an overall increase of $1,666 per year for full-time workers. The change affects approximately 2.6 million workers, including those on modern awards, and comes amid ongoing cost-of-living pressures. The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) had called for a 4.5 per cent increase to lift the minimum wage to $25.18 per hour. Employer groups had argued for a more modest increase of 2.6 per cent, in line with the current inflation rate. The Albanese government, which did not nominate a specific figure in its submission, urged the commission to deliver a real wage rise above inflation. Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth told Sky News on Sunday that she supported an increase. 'We have put forward a submission that has called for an economically responsible real wage increase,' she said. 'That's been consistent with the position we've taken as the government. We don't want to see our minimum and award wage workers go backwards.' She added that critics of the government's approach had underestimated the strength of recent economic indicators. 'Now, of course, the Prime Minister was derided for this, like as if this was somehow economically irresponsible,' she said. 'The last 18 months we've seen real wages grow. We've also seen inflation coming down. And in the last monthly jobs figures we've seen 89,000 jobs created.' The increase will come into effect from July 1, giving a boost to low-paid workers, particularly casual employees. The minimum wage was previously $24.10 per hour, or $915.90 per week, equating to an annual salary of $47,627.06 for a full-time worker.
West Australian
a day ago
- Business
- West Australian
Fair Work Commission to hand down Annual Wage Review, Aussies on minimum wage to get pay bump
Australians on the minimum wage are set to receive a pay increase on Tuesday, with Australia's top union boss urging the body to boost annual full time pay by $2143. An expert panel will hand down the decision in Sydney at 10am on Tuesday. While the Albanese government has called for the independent arbitrator to provide an increase above inflation, currently at 2.4 per cent, the ACTU is lobbying for a much higher boost of 4.5 per cent. For about 2.6 million Aussies on the minimum wage that would hike their hourly wage to $25.18 per hour, lifting the packet for an annual full-time worker by $2143 to $49,770. The changes will come into effect from July 1. ACTU national secretary Sally McManus said low paid workers had 'gone backwards' after years of high inflation and high interest rates. She said any wage increase below 2.4 per cent would be 'manifestly wrong and unfair,' and the new rate should allow people to 'get ahead and catch up'. 'The Fair Work Commission couldn't award increases that kept up with inflation when inflation spiked, but they did say that people needed to catch up, and it was just a matter of working out when things are more stable and favourable,' she told NewsWire. 'We say they're more favourable now. 'All of those businesses got through that period of time by putting up their prices … but workers can't adjust their pay like they these low paid workers are dependent on this (once-a-year) decision.' Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth has previously called for 'an economically responsible real wage increase' while stating that the 'setting of the minimum wage is a matter for the Fair Work Commission'. 'We do need to consider the economic conditions, but we also believe that in those economic conditions, workers deserve a real wage increase,' she said in May. Currently, the minimum wage is $24.10 per hour, which equates to $915.90 or an annual full-time salary of $47,627.06.
AU Financial Review
2 days ago
- Business
- AU Financial Review
Make penalties on WFH part of productivity talks, business tells Labor
Employers will push the case for flexibility on hours and penalty rates for people who work from home as part of high-level talks with the Albanese government's new industrial relations minister to lift productivity. Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth on Tuesday will chair a meeting of the national workplace relations consultative council, including the ACTU and employer groups, where she wants to tackle the economy's flatlining productivity.
AU Financial Review
2 days ago
- Business
- AU Financial Review
Are Labor's industrial relations summits a union power grab?
What is it about Labor governments and summits? You'd have thought with a resounding victory like that of May 3 they would not need to ask anyone what to do. Exactly a month later, newly minted Industrial Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth – from memory, the first woman to hold the post – is now holding yet another gathering, specifically to 'kick-start productivity', in line with the Treasurer's Damascene realisation that productivity improvement might slow the country's slide into bankruptcy. I guess that is why he earns the big bucks.
