Labor candidate’s controversial proposal to ease climate change revealed

Labor’s Chisholm candidate Carina Garland claims a shorter working week is needed to tackle the challenges of climate change.

A shorter working week is needed to tackle the challenges of climate change, according to Labor’s Chisholm candidate, Carina Garland.

The controversial proposal, contained in a 2017 article penned by Ms Garland, would result in workers getting the same pay for fewer hours.

The Herald Sun can also reveal she has previously raised the merits of a Greens policy for a universal basic income.

In the article, Ms Garland and co-author Godfrey Moase, executive director of the United Workers Union, call for collective action to “retake control of our lives”.

“We are at a point in time where the challenges we face in reaching a secure and sustainable future – climate change, for instance – demand a shorter working week, one which reduces working hours without compromising incomes or income security,” they write.

Labor candidate Carina Garland.

The piece was written in the wake of a 2017 Fair Work Commission decision to cut loadings for workers across the hospitality and retail sectors on Sundays and public holidays.

They argue the move – determined by a mostly Labor-appointed full bench – would drive workers to “seek more hours of work for the same pay”, tilting power towards employers when “wage growth is at an all-time low”.

And they point out the decision was part of a regular four-year review of industry minimum rights and conditions instituted under the previous Labor government.

Ms Garland and Mr Moase say they are not making a “partisan point against Labor”, but instead against politics being positioned as “the solution”.

Cost-of-living pressures are dominating the major parties’ pitch for votes at the May 21 poll, with Labor promising its plan will stimulate stagnant wages growth.

Ms Garland is trying to win the eastern suburbs seat of Chisholm, held by a 0.5 per cent margin by Liberal MP Gladys Liu.

In a 2016 online article, Ms Garland and Mr Moase also raised the merits of a universal basic income – a Greens policy – which would give all residents of a particular state a stipend towards living expenses.

“As world leaders despair at growing inequality and societies struggle to keep pace with the impacts of globalisation, a universal basic income makes sense – if they are committed to equality and dignity,” the article says.

Asked if she still backed a shorter working week and a universal basic income, Ms Garland said: “I want to be a member of a Labor government that will fight for workers to get a pay rise, for all the hours they work, rather than a government that has low wages growth as a deliberate design feature of their economic policies.”

Originally published as Labor candidate’s controversial proposal to ease climate change revealed