MS TETLOW: Well, the aspect there, I suppose it depends on what is considered - if you’ve got a minimum wage - there was one aspect in your draft report that I generally had the sense that our community doesn’t want to see a special minimum wage for our region. We don’t want to go minimum, minimum wage. MR HARRIS: No. MS TETLOW: If that would mean, therefore, that EITC was able to support some of these areas in regional centres, then that would be a good thing. MR HARRIS: In words, in a regional area the statutorily set minimum wage might cease increasing, but a tax credit might continue to see the income earned by people on the minimum wage continue to increase. MS TETLOW: Yes. MR HARRIS: So you get a demand benefit, if you like, of people being able to spend that full amount of additional wage, but the employer doesn’t incur the cost. MS TETLOW: That’s right. MR HARRIS: I see the proposition. If that should assist. Sometimes these things can have an MS TETLOW: unintended consequence, but should that assist with encouraging greater employment. MR HARRIS: Yes. Everything to do with the tax area has unintended consequences. MS TETLOW: Yes, absolutely. I appreciate that. MR HARRIS: one of us just automatically should say that whenever we mention a tax issue. MS TETLOW: Yes, that’s right. Exactly. MR HARRIS: Enterprise bargaining. MS TETLOW: Yes. You have a case study and we are, as I mentioned earlier to MR HARRIS: our previous witness, very interested in aspects of enterprise bargaining. It is often suggested in a sort of highly generic sense that there are problems with enterprise bargaining, but getting people to be specific about what they would
MS TETLOW: Well, the aspect there, I suppose it depends on what is considered - if you’ve got a minimum wage - there was one aspect in your draft report that I generally had the sense that our community doesn’t want to see a special minimum wage for our region. We don’t want to go minimum, minimum wage. MR HARRIS: No. MS TETLOW: If that would mean, therefore, that EITC was able to support some of these areas in regional centres, then that would be a good thing. MR HARRIS: In words, in a regional area the statutorily set minimum wage might cease increasing, but a tax credit might continue to see the income earned by people on the minimum wage continue to increase. MS TETLOW: Yes. MR HARRIS: So you get a demand benefit, if you like, of people being able to spend that full amount of additional wage, but the employer doesn’t incur the cost. MS TETLOW: That’s right. MR HARRIS: I see the proposition. MS TETLOW: If that should assist. Sometimes these things can have an unintended consequence, but should that assist with encouraging greater employment. MR HARRIS: Yes. Everything to do with the tax area has unintended consequences. MS TETLOW: Yes, absolutely. I appreciate that. MR HARRIS: one of us just automatically should say that whenever we mention a tax issue. MS TETLOW: Yes, that’s right. Exactly. MR HARRIS: Enterprise bargaining. MS TETLOW: Yes. MR HARRIS: You have a case study and we are, as I mentioned earlier to our previous witness, very interested in aspects of enterprise bargaining. It is often suggested in a sort of highly generic sense that there are problems with enterprise bargaining, but getting people to be specific about what they would
20150907-hobart-transcript.docx