Thursday, 13 November 2025

 Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (19:05): (2101) My adjournment matter is to the Treasurer, and the action I seek is that she abolishes the public sector wage cap and allows for additional costed items to be added to the electorate officers enterprise bargaining agreement without offsets. I am raising this issue on behalf of the electorate officers and the Community and Public Sector Union delegates who are currently in active negotiations for the new EBA.

Rent and groceries do not abide by a wage cap. Bills do not care about the state of the government’s budget. Since the last electorate officer EBA, rent has increased by over 35 per cent on average and groceries are on average $3,000 a year more expensive – everything is more expensive – and electorate officers are simply asking to be compensated fairly for the work that they do. But they have been told no, because the public sector wage cap blocks staff from even being able to negotiate for fair payment. I wish staff could go to their landlords and say, ‘Sorry, you can’t jack up my rent that much because my wages are capped.’ Electorate officers are people who work so hard for each and every one of us and our communities, and in an increasingly volatile political environment right now they do a broad and ever-expanding cacophony of jobs. If it were up to me, I would see my staff paid so much more. But it is not up to me, it is up to the department, and they need the funding approved.

That brings me to you. I am disappointed to hear that negotiations have hit a wall due to the employer claiming they cannot add any costed items without offsetting something else from their agreement. The public sector wage cap restricts pay increases, it destroys good-faith bargaining and it prohibits staff from fighting for a fair wage. As MPs we have a tribunal that determines our wage, and there is no cap. Even when the tribunal was asked by some that MP wages be frozen, or at least kept within the cap that is forced on our staff, we still received an increase above that rate. So I am asking this government to go back to the drawing board with how it handles wages in the public sector. There are important asks. Staff need to be compensated properly for their work, and the EBA needs to be adequately funded.