Reform is in the air....

Lateline reports: "Cabinet discusses minimum wage decisions reform", and have a guess what 'reform' means. I'll give you a clue, it's probably not good.

The decisions about minimum wages would go from being decided by the Industrial Relations Commission, who've done it since Federation to being handled by a panel of experts. The idea is that instead of being a mediation between employers and employees these rates would be set by experts with a view to what's good for the economy (presumably with no concern for what's good for the poorest workers in the country).

It's curious to see a hardline "let the market decide everything" government deciding that the decision should be taken out of the hands of the market on this one and handed over to The Experts. Exactly what economists have ever done to deserve any kind of credibility, let alone being entrusted with the wellbeing of both the whole national economy and our country's poorest workers is a little hard to tell. They are best known for what they can't predict.

Anyway, chalk this up on the list of attacks on - sorry - reforms to industrial and welfare legislation that the government intends to make come July 1 when the Senate changes over and Howard gets Full Control. If recent whisperings are true even the states will be running scared since Howard can cut their funding, legislate how it can be spent or even just annex large chunks of their responsibilities like Hawke did in the 80's...

Anyway, as your friendly McWageSlave is required on pain of sacking to say, "Have a nice day".

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