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

He should be careful, or Josh Frydenberg might be in his seat when he gets back! Our economic plan is all about helping people earn more and keep more of what they earn. We see decent wages as part of the solution to the cost-of-living challenge, not part of the problem. It's why we're getting wages moving again. It's why we're fighting inflation. It's why we're delivering a tax cut for every Australian taxpayer. Real wages were falling when we came to office, and now they are growing again. Nominal wages have been growing almost twice as fast under us as they were growing under those opposite. They've grown faster than four per cent annual for three consecutive quarters now, and that didn't happen once under those opposite, when they were pursuing a policy of deliberate wage suppression, which gave us a decade of wage stagnation, a defining feature of their economic mismanagement.

We know people are still under pressure and the economy is soft. Treasury's forecasts anticipate weak growth in our economy, and we expect to see that in the national accounts on Wednesday. That's why our budget is about helping people with the cost of living and getting the budget in better nick without smashing the economy. A slash-and-burn budget would have been dead wrong in these circumstances, when growth is soft and people are already hurting. That's why our balanced approach and our responsible economic management is bang on. It fights inflation. It takes weak growth into account. It gets wages growing again, and it puts people front and centre. That's why today's decision to ensure our lowest paid workers don't go backwards is so welcome.

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