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Speaker 1: Minimum wages going up to twenty three dollars ninety five

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Speaker 1: an hour. This is from April. That's a two percent increase.

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Speaker 1: Annual inflation in the year to September was three percent.

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Speaker 1: Labour Party says, this is Piddley. It is a in

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Speaker 1: real terms pay cut. Brook van Valden is the Minister

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Speaker 1: for Workplace Relations and Safety with me tonight, Brook, good evening,

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Speaker 1: Good evening, Ryan. Why two percent? You went with one

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Speaker 1: and a half last year? Why two this year?

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Speaker 2: Well, we've gone with two percent because I think it

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Speaker 2: is a real balancing act between the cost of living

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Speaker 2: pressure that some people are rightly facing and also the

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Speaker 2: additional cost of businesses. When we know businesses have been

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Speaker 2: struggling for the last few years and unfortunately the economic

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Speaker 2: recovery that we hope would happen really quickly has taken

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Speaker 2: a little bit longer to get moving. And so, you know,

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Speaker 2: one of the things I was really concerned about this

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Speaker 2: year was youth unemployment. And you know, if we want

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Speaker 2: more young people to be able to get those jobs,

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Speaker 2: and we know young people are disproportionately paid minimum wage,

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Speaker 2: if that's set too high, then they're also more exposed

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Speaker 2: to employers responding to that by reducing hours or not

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Speaker 2: hiring any new people. So when we've got youth unemploymented

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Speaker 2: around fifteen percent, I want more young people in those

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Speaker 2: really early on career jobs. And if we get this

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Speaker 2: balancing act right, I think next year will be a

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Speaker 2: really good year. But I think the other thing that's

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Speaker 2: kind of missing here is I'm setting it for April

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Speaker 2: next year. Treasury and the Reserve Bank are expecting inflation

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Speaker 2: around two percent next year, so this is in line.

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Speaker 1: I agree that the whole labor line about inflation. The

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Speaker 1: dates don't match up. That's fine, let's put that to

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Speaker 1: one side. Did you get any advice on two percent?

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Speaker 1: How many jobs would not be created as a result

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Speaker 1: of you increasing that?

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Speaker 2: So the advice that I had from MB was to

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Speaker 2: go with a two percent increase, which is, you know,

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Speaker 2: for me following their advice. They didn't necessary really have

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Speaker 2: too much concern with two percent on the use unemployment

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Speaker 2: rate or unemployment rates with normally, But the overall advice

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Speaker 2: was if it's set too high. The effect is that

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Speaker 2: there are labor market tip and.

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Speaker 1: In my experienced minister having covered these for many years now,

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Speaker 1: they do give you a specific number. At this level,

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Speaker 1: you risk so many jobs X y Z not being created.

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Speaker 1: Did they not provide you that level of detail this

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Speaker 1: time around.

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Speaker 2: Look, I'm sure those specific numbers are somewhere, but they

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Speaker 2: weren't anywhere that was leading to any great concern for me.

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Speaker 2: So I've parked that to one side. So the main

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Speaker 2: concern for me here is that we know that businesses

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Speaker 2: have been struggling. You know, GDP has not taken off

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Speaker 2: as quickly as we wanted it to be. I do

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Speaker 2: have hope for next year, but if we have businesses

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Speaker 2: who are seeing increased costs themselves.

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Speaker 1: They may not creatematic approach, yeah, but they may not

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Speaker 1: create jobs.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: That's the risk when you put and the minimum wage

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Speaker 1: up is that jobs aren't created, but you're not across

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Speaker 1: how many might not be. Let's part that for a

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Speaker 1: second and go to the other side of the coin.

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Speaker 1: Jan Tinetti says, this is piddly and pathetic.

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's just not true. I mean, for people who

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Speaker 2: are the most affected here, it's mostly young people who

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Speaker 2: are on the minimum wage that'll be seeing an increase

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Speaker 2: in line with what the Reserve Bank and Treasury expect

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Speaker 2: as forecast inflation but we also have to be very

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Speaker 2: aware that we are in difficult economic times. You know,

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Speaker 2: a lot of people across the board are not seeing

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Speaker 2: increases or large increases to their pay. What we're wanting

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Speaker 2: to ensure is that we have a growing business confidence,

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Speaker 2: so that businesses know that they can go on and

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Speaker 2: create more jobs into the future. That's where my expectation

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Speaker 2: lies that next year will be a good year with

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Speaker 2: more job opportunities.

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Speaker 1: Minister, appreciate your time. Thank you, Brook van Valven, Minister

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Speaker 1: of Workplace and Safety. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,

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Speaker 1: listen live to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,

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