The opinion piece on Thursday in these pages by Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek (Her wage is hers, leave the husband out of it) exemplifies the approach of modern-day Labor Party politics – duplicitous, hypocritical and deliberately designed to mislead.
Ms Plibersek is blatantly wrong when she asserts the government had told the Fair Work Commission that "the minimum wage should be frozen". This is demonstrably false. The government suggested that, in setting minimum wages, the commission should take into account "the uncertain economic outlook and the need to boost employment and job creation, particularly for young people and the low skilled".
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Employment Minister Michaelia Cash was lost for words when facing a frustrated Neil Mitchell on Thursday morning.
Ms Plibersek should be very familiar with this concept, given that previous Labor governments made the same point. In 2013, when Bill Shorten was the responsible minister, the Labor government's submission said: "… the [National Minimum Wage] should not be set so high as to place undue financial burdens on businesses, discouraging them from employing low skilled workers."
Ms Plibersek also takes issue with the evidence provided by the government that not all low income earners live in low income households. Her indignation is misplaced, given this is the same evidence that the former Labor government presented to the commission. For example, its 2013 submission stated: "The Panel should also consider the fact that all low paid workers do not necessarily live in low income households."
In her enthusiasm to mislead readers, Ms Plibersek has not only abandoned the truth, but has abandoned positions her own party previously held. It is a sad reality that under Bill Shorten, this has become a familiar pattern of behaviour from the Labor Party.
Despite many on Labor's frontbench having espoused the virtues of lowering the company tax rate, Labor now stridently opposes providing tax relief for Australian employers.
Despite spending years valuing the independence of the Fair Work Commission, Labor has now completely abandoned this position, insisting the Parliament – not the independent umpire that they established – is best placed to determine penalty rates and wages.
Despite dozens of Labor parliamentarians recently hosting more than 150 interns in their offices to provide young Australians valuable workplace experience, they now oppose the government's Youth Jobs PaTH program, which will deliver the exact same opportunity to 120,000 young Australians.
Labor MPs are so desperate to adopt shallow and opportunistic positions that they are willing to knowingly mislead Australians and to abandon what were once party policies and issues of principle for them. Australians deserve better.
Michaelia Cash is the Federal Minister for Employment.
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