Belly,
In case you're one of those who haven't yet noticed that I have been advocating high salary cuts, particularly in the Public Service. Raising low wages is the exact wrong strategy. The only way to remove unaffordability for low wage earners is to bring the high wages down, not up !
How can we ever achieve competitiveness if employers can't sell their goods because of high wages ?
Cut the god damned insane salaries & the playing field will become self-levelling. Ask your mate Shorten to be bi-partisan to advocate that !
The unions are already asking for a $43/week raise, that's irresponsible. Get the unions to cut buraucrat salaries by $150/week & low age earners won't need a raise ! Just watch the costs come down.

Bill Shorten told Nine News that “$18.93 an hour for an Australian adult working full time is not enough."

Batty Bill obviously hasn't kept up with reports that it is ‘ enough’ to keep unemployed people unemployed. He also gushed “We want to make sure that women in Australia are paid as much as men”, totally ignorant of the fact that women doing the same jobs as men are paid the same as men. There is nothing stopping women doing the dangerous, dirty jobs some men do: the men who are also paid more than OTHER MEN as compensation for hazardous work.

The male/female wage disparity is a complete myth.

There is no shortage of examples of the effect of high minimum wages on employment. At the extreme end, Venezuela lost 40% of its retail stores when the socialist government forced up the minimum wage. Moodys has calculated that up to 160,000 jobs will be lost in California’s manufacturing sector alone if an increase to $15 is imposed there. A 'Washington Post’ survey showed that the same increase in the minimum wage would cost 47,000 jobs in just one wealthy county.

There are better suggestions than upping the minimum wage to help low-income workers:

Increase the tax-free threshold on personal income.
Reduce fuel excise.
Remove payroll tax and reduce business tax.

But, Comrade Bill has said that he will increase taxes, not reduce them, so he will have to actually jack taxes up further to pay to keep more people on the dole. Politics doesn't get more stupid than the Labor sort.

indy stop, no use trying to tell me high profits must come before fair wages
The incoming Labor government understands the economy can not prosper if wage stagnation stops consumers consuming
Wages makeup a big part of the economy and spending is stagnating along with our economy
No lesser people than the reserve bank and others hardly ALP stooges are reminding us of the impacts of low wages
Once saw a poster, in this or another long gone forum with the name *reality check* we could all do with that here and now.

indy stop, no use trying to tell me high profits must come before fair wages
Belly,
show me where I advocated that !

individual, WTF do you think the effect of cutting wages would be on profits?

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ttbn,
What's enough to keep unemployed people unemployed isn't enough to get them working again.

If demand were fixed, higher wages would indeed equal fewer jobs. But there's no reason the government can't act to increase demand.

As for the "better suggestions" I notice you're ignoring the best one of the lot: reducing (or narrowing the base of) the GST. The sooner this insidious tax is phased out, the better!

and as we all know, its very easy for business to cover the increased costs of a rise in the minimum wage. All they have to do is go out into their storeroom and pick a few extra bucks of the money tree out there. Everyone knows that every business has money tree out the back.
Right!

Of course I feel sorry for those businesses that don't have such a tree and even more sorry for their employees. Because they'll be looking to cut back on costs and employee costs are one of the biggest and easiest to cut. And if they can't do that then closure is always an option. Or perhaps the government can provide all businesses with a money tree.

Increase minimum wages = increase un/under employment.

But people like Shorten, who've never been anywhere near running a rooly-trooly business are utterly clueless on that point.