Western Victoria Region
Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:17): (1732) My question is for the Minister for Industrial Relations and concerns the Victorian sick pay guarantee pilot. The Treasurer boasts that the $245 million cost will be borne by the government—a typical Labor lie. The pilot will be paid for by taxpayers, and any permanent program would see businesses socked a levy. It may well be the final straw for some businesses. But I want to raise another problem brought to my attention by Cr Donnie Grigau, who runs the excellent Shelter Shed restaurant in Queenscliff and is also the outstanding Liberal candidate for Bellarine. As he notes, the scheme is effectively a significant pay rise for casual workers, who now get 25 per cent loading plus sick pay. My question is Donnie’s: has the government considered the inevitable extra costs when full-time staff ask for an equivalent pay rise to maintain the existing wage ratio, and has there ever been a government which understood business less?