Election Issue: Turnbull's PaTH for lower wages exposed

Australians dangerously uninformed on reality of PaTH scheme
16 May 2016

ACTU Secretary Dave Oliver

Polling conducted by ReachTEL shows that 62.6% of voters in key marginal seats are less supportive of the government’s PaTH plan when they learn crucial details about the extremely low pay and lack of conditions that would be faced by workers in the scheme.

Support for the policy in Swan, Banks and Leichardt plummeted once respondents were told that workers would be paid as little as $4 per hour and would not be guaranteed a job at the end of their 12 week placement.

Unions are concerned PaTH poses a serious risk to young people and inexperienced workers, and could also undermine Australia’s entire wage system with interns earning only $4 an hour – potentially dragging down pay and conditions for all workers.

Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary Dave Oliver:

• The Turnbull Government is relying on obfuscation and misdirection, and hoping that the Australian people don’t realise the damage this government really wants to inflict on workers until it’s too late.
• PaTH would be a disaster, not only for the young people it would exploit directly, but for anyone in a low-paid job who would experience crushing downward pressure on their wages as the bottom is torn out of the employment market.
• People are understandably receptive to any plan to get young people into jobs, but once the draconian details of this attack on all workers become clear, any support the coalition has for this scheme evaporates.