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Media Release

October 23 2009

Former Fair Pay Chair reflects on wage legacy

Minimum wage setting is a difficult issueThe former Chair of the Australian Fair Pay Commission (AFPC) will reflect on his time at the head of the body which determined Australia’s federal minimum wages at UniSA this coming Tuesday (October 27th).

Professor Ian Harper, one of Australia’s leading economists, will discuss the roles and actions of the AFPC during its 2005 to July 2009 term at a free public forum at UniSA’s City East Campus.

The AFPC was established in 2005 under the WorkChoices reforms to the Workplace Relations Act and ceased activity in July of this year following its final decision to maintain the minimum wage after years of increases.

Minimum wage-setting is now determined by a Minimum Wage Panel headed by the President of Fair Work Australia and six other Minimum Wage Panel members whose names are yet to be announced by the Government.

Prof Harper says that attendees can expect to gain an insight into the challenges the Commission faced in establishing a new institution to set minimum wages.

“The AFPC represented the first time a non-judicial method for setting minimum wages was used in Australia in 100 years,” he says.

“Our legacy is present in the new Fair Work Act, which incorporates the methodology for minimum wage setting that we established – consultations, submissions and research - into the new Minimum Wage Panel of Fair Work Australia.

Professor Ian Harper“But the hard part was doing this against the background of public disdain for the wider WorkChoices agenda.”

Prof Harper, now a Director at Access Economics, says that the AFPC developed the foundations for best practice in minimum wage setting in Australia.

“It was professionally very rewarding to set up an entirely new economic institution from scratch,” he says.

The Anne Hawke Memorial Lecture is given annually in memory of Dr Anne Hawke, former Director of UniSA’s Centre for Applied Economics, who died tragically in 2000.

Event details:
The Anne Hawke Memorial Lecture – Setting Australia’s minimum wage: Reflections on the role and actions of the Australian Fair Pay Commission.
12th Gift of Knowledge Lecture for 2009
Tuesday 27th October
Bradley Forum, Level 5, Hawke Building, UniSA City East Campus
To register, click here


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