PM slammed as ‘desperate, unhinged’ for opposing $1 wage hike

Scott Morrison has been blasted as “desperate and unhinged” for opposing a $1-an-hour wage rise while seeing his own salary rise by hundreds of thousands.

Scott Morrison has been slammed as “desperate and unhinged” for opposing a $1-an-hour wage rise for the nation’s lowest paid workers, given that he earns more than $10,000 a week.

The Prime Minister, who earns a taxpayer-funded salary of more than $550,000 a year, has unloaded on Labor leader Anthony Albanese as “a loose unit” for supporting a move to deliver a pay rise for workers on the minimum wage.

It would increase the hourly rate for these workers by $1 an hour – a move the Prime Minister insists would also have a “domino effect” that would see interest rates rise.

“What we saw from Anthony Albanese yesterday was reckless, incredibly reckless,’’ the Prime Minister said on the wage rise push.

“Anthony Albanese is a loose unit on the economy. He thinks that Australians don’t know what the impact of that would be on their interest rates, on unemployment or on inflation in the cost of living.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been slammed for opposing an $1-an-hour wage hike yet benefiting form a huge wake increase himself. Picture: Jason Edwards

PM’s wages have soared

But it’s emerged that politicians have secured a 30 per cent wage rise over the last decade – taking their base pay from $140,000 a year to $211,250.

Mr Morrison’s annual salary has jumped from $140,000, when he was a backbencher, to $550,000, as Prime Minister, in the last decade alone - with the salary for the top job up about $70,000 over the same period.

During that period, Liberal frontbencher Ken Wyatt also called for politicians to get an even bigger pay rise suggesting backbenchers are not paid enough.

Labor’s treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers has said the PM is desperate and under pressure. Picture: John Feder/The Australian.

PM ‘unhinged’ on wage increase call

Labor’s treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers said it was a bit rich of Scott Morrison to promise to address the cost of living crisis and then argue against pay rises for the lowest paid workers in the country.

“This Prime Minister is desperate, unhinged and doing all this name calling as a desperate attempt to distract from the cost of living crisis and from the policy of real wage cuts,’’ he said.

“And you know that Scott Morrison is desperate and under pressure, when he does all of this name calling and all of these desperate distractions from this cost of living crisis of which falling real wages is a big part of the story.

“Scott Morrison in one press conference says that the government shouldn’t indicate a view at the same time as he’s saying 5.1 per cent is too high. He can’t have it both ways.”

However, Mr Chalmers also left a caveat – conceding the Labor leader had not indicated an Albanese Government would put in a formal submission to the Fair Work Commission arguing for the 5.1 per cent pay rise.

“We haven’t determined a final position on how we make our views known,’’ Mr Chalmers said.

“We have already made the case that Australia’s low paid workers shouldn’t be going backwards. Whether that’s in a formal submission or not, our view is already incredibly clear.”

Originally published as PM slammed as ‘desperate, unhinged’ for opposing $1 wage hike