Hon KATE WILKINSON (Minister of Labour) Link to this
I seek leave for the Committee on the Remuneration Authority Amendment Bill to take the bill as one question.
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) Link to this
Is there any objection to that course of action being taken? There is no objection.
Hon DARREN HUGHES (Labour) Link to this
Part 1 sets out the countervailing economic conditions that the Remuneration Authority will be asked to take into account while making its determination, as it is required to do on an annual basis. I think it is important for the record of the House to point out that although, in the current economic conditions, this year members of Parliament recommended that there be no salary increase, this bill is written in a way so as to not ensure that that is an annually recurring thing—that the wages of members of Parliament would be frozen. To give that effect would have had unintended consequences right across the public sector and, indeed, into the private sector. Rather, by structuring the bill in this way, the Government has ensured, with the support of the Opposition parties, that the economic conditions of the day are one of the many factors that the authority has to consider. So Part 1 is certainly supported by us, and that provision is the bulk of that part.
Part 2 sets out a number of other amendments to the principal Act, including a change in the date of the annual report of the authority. I am not clear from the bill or the select committee report whether that alters the date that the determination is required to be made, or whether the authority will continue to be required to make a 1 July determination. Often the authority misses the date for its determination, and it reports maybe in October or November but for the period that we are already in. The Minister of Labour is indicating to me that that does not alter the requirement for the determination—simply the annual report. The Minister, of course, in her second reading speech, outlined some of the other positions that are required to be adjudicated on by the authority that it is important are brought up to speed.
It is a very small bill; there are only three debatable questions here at the Committee stage, with two parts to the bill. I have referred to Part 1, the bulk of the bill, and Part 2 has consequential amendments. So that is the only contribution that the Labour Opposition on behalf of all Opposition parties wishes to make at this time.