It wants to phase the change in over 10 years. The commission says the new lower minimum wage should then be used as a “minimum wage benchmark” and states and territories should be able to set their own minimum wages – using the benchmark as a guide – to compete against each other for labour and business. The proposal attacks the very idea of a national minimum wage. “Having a single national minimum wage disadvantages workers attempting to gain a job in states like Tasmania and South Australia where wages and the costs of living are generally lower than in other states,” the report says. “The commission recommends that a different minimum wage apply in each jurisdiction.”

Since there are big differences in economic conditions in each state, the wage rates in each state ought to be able to match conditions, the report argues. “There are wide differences in wage rates between states. While the minimum wage is around 45 per cent of the Australian Capital Territory average weekly earnings, it is around 65 per cent of average weekly earnings in Tasmania,” it says. It proposes that the minimum wage in each jurisdiction be equal to the minimum wage benchmark by 2023. After that, the wage in each state could then increase in line with growth in that jurisdiction’s average weekly earnings. But one question ought to be asked.

Why has the Commission of Audit touched the minimum wage at all, when it has little to do with government spending? Well, the commission has allowed itself to do so by nesting it with government payments and assistance for the unemployed, such as Newstart and the Youth Allowance. It argues that, if minimum wages are lowered, then more people will find work, particularly younger people, and that will mean the cost of government unemployment assistance will fall, therefore reducing government expenditure. But it has not produced a figure showing how much the government can expect to save from the changes. The commission has also recommended that, rather than have the Fair Work Commission set the minimum wage, the setting of the minimum wage ought to become an “administrative process”, possibly set by the Department of Employment.