Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks to my great friend and electoral neighbour the member for Moreton. He is an absolute champion of working people in the southern suburbs of Brisbane.

We said we would get wages moving again in responsible ways, and we are pleased to see that wages are beginning to move again in our economy, because we recognise that a wasted decade of wage stagnation has harmed our economic prospects and hurt our people and because the best way to deal with the cost-of-living pressures people are facing is to make sure that they can earn enough to provide for their loved ones and get ahead. That's why one of our first acts as a government was to support a wage increase for minimum- and award-wage workers. We said we would do that and we did it. We said we'd fix the broken bargaining system, which was acting as a barrier to productive workplaces and sustainable wages growth, and we are doing that too. We said we'd support a wage increase for aged-care workers, and our next budget, in May, will fund that important change. We said we would train people for higher-wage opportunities, to make it easier for new parents, especially mums, to work more and earn more if they choose to, and we are doing that too. It's still early days, but we are really pleased to see the beginnings of wages growth in the economy again. Recent data shows that wages are growing at their fastest rate through the year since the beginning of 2013, before the previous government was elected.

As we all know, we have an inflation challenge in our economy, but we do not have that inflation challenge because wages are too high. On the contrary, wages have been too low for too long in our economy. We seek wages growth which is strong and sustainable in an economy which is more productive and more competitive and which creates more high-wage, high-skill opportunities for more of our people. That's the government's goal and that's what our economic plan is all about. We know that strong and sustainable wages growth is good for the economy and not bad for the economy. That's why this Labor government and this Labor Prime Minister will always work to get wages moving in our economy.

This was a key issue at the election, and those opposite have learned absolutely nothing from the outcome of that election. Nothing would make them happier than to return to the past, where wages were stagnant as a deliberate consequence of their policy. If they want to stand up for working people, they shouldn't stand in the way of minimum wage increases. If they want to stand up for working people, they should support fixing a broken system. And if they want to support working people, they shouldn't stand in the way of our efforts to get wages moving again in our economy, because if you're standing in the way of decent wages growth in our economy, you're standing in the way of working people and you're standing in the way of the type of economy which Australian working people need and deserve, one which rewards their effort.

See this speech in context