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

What will hit the wages of the Australian people is the higher taxes from the Labor Party! That is what will hit the wages of the Australian people. As I said to the House yesterday, in the budget there is a forecast that inflation will reach 3½ per cent in the middle of this year. That is above the wage growth of 1¼ per cent that is forecast, but the higher inflation number for the year is off the back of, in the previous year, negative 0.3 per cent. It was the first time in 60 years that we'd seen such a negative number, but, as I said recently to the House, the reality is that, under this government, real wages growth is higher, unemployment is lower, the gender pay gap has been narrowing and there are more Australians in work than ever before.

In this budget, delivered on Tuesday night, we cut the taxes of low- and middle-income earners. More than 10 million low- and middle-income earners received a tax cut as a result of the measures supported by the Morrison government and announced in Tuesday night's budget. We also put in tax incentives for businesses right around the country. Our policies are to drive taxes lower, to enable Australians to keep more of their hard-earned money. The Labor Party stands for higher spending and higher taxes.

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