Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

of people ensuring that they come to mutually bona fide agreements which are in the interests of both employers and employees. One of the things that this country has needed for years is the opportunity to have a more flexible labour market. Under a more flexible labour market Australia will have more jobs and they will be higher paid. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. We need only look at the outcomes. Since this government was elected in 1996 there have been 1.7 million new jobs created in Australia. Since this government was elected in 1996 real wages have increased 16.7 per cent. Under 13 years of Labor government real wages increased 0.3 per cent. One of the proudest boasts of the Labor Party was how they depressed real wages. I can remember Mr Keating standing at this box boasting over and over again that Labor had suppressed real wages.

See this speech in context