Bob Day calls for removal of minimum wage for young in maiden speech

Lisa Cox
September 3, 2014
The Age

Senator Bob Day delivers his maiden speech to Parliament. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
Crossbench senator Bob Day has used his maiden speech to demand sweeping changes to Australia’s workplace relations laws, including the abolition of minimum wage limits for young workers.
In comments that will encourage business groups and Coalition backbenchers agitating for industrial relations reform, the Family First MP has told the Senate that the minimum wage is an “absurd” barrier to employment.
It comes a day after Workplace Relations Minister Eric Abetz claimed the government had “neutralised” Labor and the unions’ political attacks over workplace relations laws because voters no longer believed the Coalition would reinstitute Work Choices.
Senator Day has been a vocal critic of Australia’s workplace laws, which he views as outdated and cumbersome for job seekers who want to negotiate their own terms.
He said it was time Australians were given the freedom to opt out of the Fair Work system and choose if they wanted to work for less than the minimum wage or give up their conditions.
Senator Day said it was “despicable” that Australians could volunteer for free but were breaking the law if they worked for less than the minimum wage and that removing these “barriers” was critical at a time when there was a youth unemployment “emergency”.
He added that such an approach, when Treasurer Joe Hockey is looking for savings to boost the budget bottom line, could be a “silver bullet” to get people off welfare and into work.
“Now there’s outrage when I say these things. I hear people say: “They might be exploited,” Senator Day said.
“Where’s the outrage when these same young people end up on drugs or get involved in crime or suffer poor health or become pregnant or become recruits for bikie gangs or even commit suicide?
“No, there’s only outrage when they want to take a job that suits them but doesn’t suit the government.”
Senator Day said he was not advocating a return to WorkChoices, to which he remains vehemently opposed.
He said he simply did not believe that all of the rules and regulations in the 3000 page Fair Work Act should be compulsory.
He said politicians treated workplace relations like a game, with employers on one team and workers on the other.
“I have no problem whatsoever if people want to work within the regulated system with its awards, minimum wages, unfair dismissals, joining unions and so on,” he said.
“Just don’t make it compulsory.”
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