Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The jobs numbers speak for themselves. When we came to government, unemployment was 5.7 per cent, and today it's 5.3 per cent. And we have helped create more than 1.4 million new jobs—more jobs for young people, more jobs for seniors and more jobs for women. When it comes to wages—and the honourable member may not have been listening—we have seen real wages growth at 0.6 per cent. When we came to government, it was 0.5 per cent. When Labor was last in office, the real minimum wage fell in three out of six years. Since we've been in office, the real minimum wage has been up every single year. Compensation of employees, which is the wages bill for the economy, is about five per cent. Again, when we came to government, under Labor it was 3½ per cent. And the employment growth is today at two per cent, more than double the OECD average and around three times what it was when Labor was last in office.

So, we are continuing to cut taxes, invest in infrastructure, cut regulation—all designed to boost the Australian economy and to create more jobs. Labor's solution is only higher taxes and reckless spending, the result of which is fewer jobs and lower wages.

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