Inflationary pressures in Australia

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33113, 2 January 1973, Page 8

Inflationary pressures in Australia

A recent judgment of the Australian Commonwealth Arbitration Commission underlines the principle that women in industry should be paid as much as men for comparable w-ork — a principle to which the new Labour Government is firmly committed. This is an advance on a 1969 ruling by the commission which had the effect of giving equal pay to women only in areas of industry- which did not employ predominantly female labour — and thus excluded about 80 per cent of female workers. The new ruling is of special interest in New Zealand because it will allow- Australia and New Zealand to keep more or less in step in their progress towards equality. The ruling on equal pay has been welcomed in Australia by the unions: but they have angrily rejected the commission's accompanying decision to defer until next March the hearing of applications for higher national and minimum wage rates, a decision obviously meant to check the present inflationary pressure on the economy. There was no national wage hearing in 1971. and in 1972 the official average weekly wage rose by about 82. Yet, according to a recent analysis, unofficial wage rates are still increasing at the rate of 10 per cent a year. When it rejected a union claim for an increase of a little more than Sl2 a week in Federal awards, the commission said that only exceptional or unexpected circumstances could justify a national wage rise now It found that no such circumstances had been demonstrated. In Australia, as in NewZealand. the introduction of equal pay will put a heavy additional burden on industries seriouslyconcerned about rising costs. But already there are signs of a vigorous renewal of economic growth, and some observers are predicting at least a minor boom Clearly Mr Whitlam's Government will find it no easy task to keep the brakes on wage and cost inflation in the months ahead.