Minimum wage provides a basic level of sustenance for your
citizens, instead of having them exploited by profit motivated
multinational companies. Due to the disparity of structure, the
multinational is a bigger organisation than an individual worker,
therefore it has more market power. The labour unions let these
individual workers form groups and protect their interest and
balances out the market power that these large profit motivated
multinational companies have. Strikes are an un-avoidable
consequence, it neither benefits the company or the worker.
There is nothing wrong with progressive taxation, where the rich
are tax more to redistribute income to the poor.
You should make a comparison between the poor of both countries. Is
the average low income earner better off in either countries?
Singapore:
An hourly wage earner making S$4.50 an hour, works 10 hour day on a
5 day work week for a year makes:
(5 / 7) X 365 days X 10 hour X S$ 4.50 = S$11,732 a year
After tax = S$11,732 - S$0 = S$11,732
Australia:
An hourly wage earner making A$13.48 an hour, works 10 hour day on
a 5 day work week for a year makes:
(5 / 7) X 365 days X 10 hour X A$13.48 = A$35,144
After tax = A$35,144 - A$5,893 = A$29,251
How long would it take for an average Australian making A$29,251 a
year to pay off his A$50,000 to A$100,000 home, as compared to a
Singaporean making S$11,732 a year to pay off his $180,000 2
bedroom HDB flat?
Maybe my data is not representative of the population, but friends
whom I know, students who finally managed to find jobs there after
graduation, flight attendants who have travelled around the world,
most chose Australia over Singapore anytime of the day. Unless you
are those foolish few, that chooses to sink with the Titanic
instead of seeking safety in another passing ship.
You "might" not be a PAP supporter, but you are definitely the
product of their propaganda machinery. 
There are lots of people killing other people around the world,
but by stating that lots of people are doing it, does it make the
situation or statement more morally justified? So if everybody is
looting and killing, it's alright to kill and loot. Anyway, no
country in the world with a 1st world economy and 3rd world civil
liberties has $3 million to $4 million salaries for it's ministers.
Unless you are living in Manor Farm, where the pigs indulge and
splurge on the successes of the worker farm animals.
In a democratic country, the people and citizens who are the true
rulers of the country will have a mouthpiece to voice their
displeasure and concerns. Unlike an Authoritarian Regime, where the
rights to voice their displeasure has been serverely
curtailed.
