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

I get this question from the Labor Party after real wages were falling in their last year in office and unemployment was rising! The reality is that we have seen the private sector's wages up 2.4 per cent, we have seen nominal wages up 2.2 per cent, and we have seen inflation higher than was first forecast during this year. But, at the same time, last year we saw real wages up by 2.1 per cent because we saw the largest fall in inflation since the 1960s.

The reality is that the best way to get higher wages for the Australian people is to drive a tighter labour market, create jobs and see more competition for labour. And that is what our policies are designed to do. Our policies are designed to create more jobs, as we have done since this pandemic. Our policies have been focused on getting more and more people into work. When we came to government, unemployment was 5.7 per cent. Today, it's 5.2 per cent. And the Reserve Bank of Australia is forecasting that the unemployment rate will have a '4' in it and be sustainably in the '4s' for the first time since the 1970s. At the same time as driving more jobs and creating more jobs, we're also cutting taxes. By cutting taxes, we're putting more money into people's pockets, boosting their disposable income and their ability to spend on the things that they need.

See this speech in context