We need to ensure our kids are not priced out of the labour market. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, many jobs have been lost, some...

The other day I met my old friends Marcia and Ann for lunch at Babka in Brunswick Street. It was good to catch up again. Babka is just a...

In the spirit of the famous Harvester case, ACTU secretary Sally McManus is proposing an overhaul of the national minimum wage to better...

Last week, when the Fair Work Commission handed down its decision to reduce Sunday penalty rates by up to 25%, the headline response from the ACTU (Ged Kearney) and the ALP (Mark Dreyfus) was that this would result in a loss of up to $6,000 per annum for affected workers. This claim should not go unchallenged. Intuitively one can tell immediately that it is an exaggeration. For a 25% reduction in Sunday pay to result in a $6,000 loss, the worker’s pay would need to have be

We are pleased when the Reserve Bank keeps interest rates on hold at their low, low levels. For we know that low interest rates encourage...

At the first suggestion that minimum wages and penalty rates might be subject to review by the Productivity Commission, the ACTU hit the airwaves and the streets to defend their hard won rights. Rights that had been won by physical, economic and political coercion were not to be trammeled by rational debate; the proposals were offensive. Economics journalist, Peter Martin wrote that there was no evidence to support the contention that minimum wages had a negative impact on e