PM Transcripts

, AUSTRAL1A
FOR PRESS 14 DECEMBER 1978
NATIONAL WAGE CASE INQUIRY
The Prime Minister is writing to Premiers to seek their urgent
cooperation in the exmination of ways and means of achieving
consistency between the wage fixation processes and economic
objectives. He said that he believed that the State Governments would
see this objective was essential in order to enable the economic
problems confronting the Australian community to be resolved
effectively. Resolution of these problems was critical for
those who are seeking work now and those who will be seeking
work in the future.
Wage fixation processes involve both State and Commonwealth
Governments. The Prime Minister said that he was firmly of
the view that all Governments share the responsibility
to achieving the maximum possible consistency in wage policy.
The alternative was to open the way again to " leap-frogging"
in wages and related benefits, which could in turn lead only to
spiralling labour costs and reduced job opportunities.
The social and economic costs of such an outcome would be totally
unacceptable to the Commonwealth Government.
The Prime Minister said that the Commonwealth Government was
particularly mindful that the Conciliation and Arbitration
Commission, in its national wage decision on Tuesday, said that
there is mounting pressure for wage increases outside the wage
indexation guidelines. The Commonwealth Government shares the
Commission's concern at these developments and will continue
to take such actions as are within its power to ensure that
those pressures are not successful. The Prime Minister said
he believed that the State Governments also recognised the
dangers of these pressures and he would be urging them to act
accordingly within the framework of their own powers.
The timetable the Commonwealth Government was setting for the
examination of ways and means of achieving consistency between
wage fixation processes and economic objectives was a tight one,
in keeping with the importance of the matter, and he expected
it to be completed by the end of January 1979. The examination
would involve issues which would need to be taken up with the
States, and he was asking each of the Premiers to nominate an
officer whom his officers could contact.
The Prime Minister said that he believed the Premiers would appreciate
the importance of this matter for the well-being of the Australian
community, and he hoped that they would, accordingly, cooperate
with the Commonwealth.