Fed: No secret agenda to cut wages: Fair Pay boss

AAP General News (Australia)
04-27-2006
Fed: No secret agenda to cut wages: Fair Pay boss

MELBOURNE, April 27 AAP - The Australian Fair Pay Commission (AFPC) did not have a
secret agenda to cut wages, according to chairman Ian Harper.

The AFPC was established by the federal government in December to take over the role
of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission on the fixing of minimum wages and award
classification rates.

The commission, which is independent of government, will begin hearing public submissions
on wages from May 1, 2006.

The AFPC said a decision on the minimum wage will be made sometime between September
and November.

Prof Harper, who took up his role as chair in February, said there was no secret agenda
to cut wages, nor has the AFPC been instructed to do so by Prime Minister John Howard.

"No, no such conversation has ever taken place between me or any member of the government
along those lines," Prof Harper told journalists in Melbourne.

"The Commission is an independent body ... we take instructions from nobody except
the Australian parliament and those instructions are written in the Act," he said.

"Let me be quite clear ... it is not possible for the Fair Pay Commission to put minimum
wages below the level set by the Industrial Relations Commission in 2005. That is just
off the agenda."

But Professor Harper said if there were tax cuts in next month's federal Budget that
could affect the way the AFPC determines the minimum wage.

"For me to rule anything out at this stage would make a mockery of entire process,"

Prof Harper said.

"It is factor that the commission would take into account."

Another area that the AFPC was keen to clean up was the variation in wages in similar
industries between the states and territories.

"As the legislation is drafted, differences across states and territories are to be
eliminated by the Fair Pay Commission over a three year horizon," Prof Harper said.

Prof Harper said from May 1, advertisements would begin appearing in newspapers calling
for written submissions from the community on how the minimum wage should be set.

He said the community would also be able to email their submissions to a website from
May 1 - www.fairpay.gov.au.

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KEYWORD: WAGES

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