IR reforms a success
Australian Unions have welcomed the findings of an independent review of the Federal Government’s landmark Secure Jobs Better Pay reforms finding the new laws have been a success in increasing wages.
5 February 2025
THE review found early evidence the hard-won reforms are achieving the Government’s intention to get wages moving again, improve job security and close the gender pay gap.
The review found the reforms, introduced in 2022, had revived collective bargaining, lifted the number of workers covered by them, resulting in overall wages starting to improve. Early trends also show positive progress in reducing the gender pay gap, with the reforms helping to lift wages in highly feminised sectors such as aged care, health care and childcare, among others.
The review said the abolition of the building industry watchdog - the Australian Building and Construction Commission in 2023 - went ahead, as intended. The review noted that the Fair Work Ombudsman had recovered four times more in stolen construction workers’ wages, than the ABCC ever did.
The reviewers dismissed the claims of the employer lobby that the reforms would have negative economic consequences, finding no evidence for them.
They concluded that the reforms were operating “appropriately and effectively and had ‘minimal unintended consequences.’
Peter Dutton and the Coalition sided with big business by voting against the reforms.
ACTU Secretary, Sally McManus, “The real wages growth that working people have finally experienced after over a decade of wage suppression is because of the reforms the Albanese Government made to workers’ rights.
“The independent review shows that these reforms greatly contributed to getting wages moving. Imagine life for working people if they had to go through a period of high inflation, high interest rates and no real wage growth.
“The Government and the crossbench stared down the campaign by big business to stop workers getting better rights and pay rises.
“Working people will remember that the Coalition voted against Secure Jobs Better Pay and if given a chance they would repeal them.”
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