June 27, 2022
  • Homepage
  • Workplace Issues
  • Ask Shaye
  • Workplace News
  • Unions
  • Home
    • Latest News
    • Featured News
    • Editorial
    • Lamp Archive
    • Lamp 2022
  • Professional Issues
    • Research
    • Education
    • Career
    • Registration
    • Students
    • Public Health
  • Specialities
    • Mental Health
    • Aged Care
    • Midwifery
    • Emergency
    • Drug and Alcohol
    • General
  • Workplace Issues
    • Ask Shaye
    • Workplace News
    • Unions
  • Social Justice & Action
    • Climate Change and Environment
    • Community Campaigns
    • Member Stories
    • Share Your Story
  • Life
    • Work
    • Offers
    • Travel
  • Conferences, Scholarships & Research
    • Jobs

Top Advertisment

Unions

Workplace Issues / Unions

Inequality is a drag on our economy

Lamp Editorial Team
|
April 1, 2019

International economic institutions and Australian experts say reducing inequality is essential to a stronger economy, yet Australian politics is hooked on the discredited philosophy of trickle-down economics.

“Low pay won’t fix itself.”

That was the message from 124 of Australia’s leading economic, legal and policy experts who have called for “proactive measures” to accelerate wage growth, raise minimum wages, strengthen collective bargaining, remove wage caps on public sector workers and improve Newstart.

In an open letter published in the Australian Financial Review, the experts say: “In our judgement, the deceleration of wage growth is due in significant part to the impact of deep structural and institutional change, and cannot be explained as a normal outcome of market forces.”

The signatories to the letter point out their views are shared by Australia’s economic guardians: “Policy statements from bodies such as the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Treasury and others also indicate the positive value of faster wage growth.

“We need to see a policy response from governments at all levels – and an acceptance that lifting wages can help the economy, not harm it,” said Professor Andrew Stewart from Adelaide Law School, one of the signatories.

The intervention by Australian experts advocating for improved wages is consistent with analyses by international economic organisations who have recognised how stagnant wages and growing inequality have become a brake on economic performance.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have all produced hard evidence demonstrating that high inequality depresses economic growth.

“Reducing excessive inequality is not just morally and politically correct, but it is good economics,” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde has said.

And OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria added: “Inequality can no longer be treated as an afterthought. We need to focus the debate on how the benefits of growth are distributed.”

Even some of the world’s most prominent and wealthiest business leaders concur.

“People are disconnected and not benefiting enough from economic growth. Inequality has grown. Wages are not rising enough. Business, government and community leaders have a responsibility to help those left behind,” wrote Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, in the Financial Times.

These contemporary economic analyses have failed to trickle down to the key economic players in the current Liberal–National Coalition government who remain wedded to an outdated neo-liberal model.

Mathias Cormann, the federal government’s finance minister, recently conceded that low wage growth was “a deliberate design feature of our economic architecture”.

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has argued we should ignore the issue of distribution of wealth and concentrate on “growing the economic pie”.

And Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s claim that “if you have a go, you’ll get a go” flies in the face of the growing body of evidence.

Union plan to reduce inequality and strengthen the economy

The ACTU’s Change the Rules campaign aims to:

  • Ensure real wages rise through the introduction of a new Living Wage, tackling insecure work, restoring penalty rates for low paid workers, raising public sector wages and reforming the collective bargaining system
  • Make sure everyone pays their fair share of tax, including corporations and the wealthy
  • Lift the poorest Australians out of poverty through an increase in Newstart and the aged pension
  • Increase expenditure on health and education
  • Establish a comprehensive jobs plan to reduce underemployment and unemployment
  • See measures introduced to tackle excessive corporate power.

Related Posts

Nurses and midwives condemn violence against union officials during COVID-19  

4 days ago

Changing the rules includes hospital staffing

4 years ago

Government breaks another promise to aged care workers

2 years ago

Middle Advertisment

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

Advertisement Area Single Article

COVID-19 Information

  • Public health employees
  • Private health employees
  • Aged Care information
  • Student information
  • Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Trending

  • Nurses and midwives to stop work over NSW budget-FAIL under Unions
  • ‘Smoke and mirrors’ for hardworking nurses and midwives under Unions
  • ‘Fixing the aged care crisis’ won’t be easy, with just 5% of nursing homes above next year’s mandatory staffing targets under Aged Care
  • Burnt out nurses and midwives deflated by no staffing ratios under Public Health
  • Staffing woes prompt fears of further nurse attacks under Workplace News

Footer Content 01





Footer Content 02

The Lamp is the magazine of the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association. It is published bi-monthly and mailed to every member of the Association.

Footer Menu 01

About

NSWNMA
Careers
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy

Footer Menu 02

Contact

Contact Us

Footer Menu 03

Advertising

Advertising

Copyright © 2022 NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association. Authorised by B.Holmes, General Secretary, NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association, 50 O’Dea Avenue Waterloo NSW 2017 Australia.
Design and Development by Slant Agency