STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr FRENCH (Moore) (13:40): I rise to welcome the Fair Work Commission's decision to raise the national minimum wage and award wages. Awards are not an abstract part of our industrial system. They are the legal baseline.

They set the minimum standards below which workers cannot fall. But in many industries workers are paid above the award through enterprise agreements. That is a good thing.

It reflects the real value of their work. The problem arises when those higher rates apply during employment, but redundancy entitlements are calculated by reference to a lower baseline rate in the enterprise agreement. A worker may be paid one rate every week on the job, but, when redundancy comes, that calculation can be based on a much lower rate, sometimes close to half of what they were actually earning.

That is why the award increase matters. When awards rise, they lift the legal floor. They help narrow the gap between minimum rates, agreement rates and the commercial rates that are actually paid in industry.

As a former electrician and industrial lawyer, I've seen what that gap means in practice. It is not theoretical. It affects what workers take home when the job ends.

This is in stark contrast to the Liberals' record. Work Choices was designed to weaken awards and reduce protections working people relied upon. And that is why those opposite do not support wage increases and award increases.

Labor believes awards matter, minimum wages matter and redundancy entitlements matter. This decision strengthens the floor under working Australians, and I welcome it.