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

On behalf of the member for Aston, the Prime Minister and everyone on this side of the House, I say to the early childhood educators who are with us here today that we're proud to be delivering the pay rise that you need and deserve to do your really important work.

Our economic plan, our budgets and our government are all about helping Australians earn more and to keep more of what they earn to help with the cost of living. That's why we're focused on fighting inflation, on tax cuts for every taxpayer and on decent pay for Australian workers. In that light, today's new wages numbers are very encouraging. They show that wages grew by 0.8 per cent in the June quarter and 4.1 per cent in annual terms. This is the first time in 15 years that wages growth has gone four for four: four consecutive quarters of annual nominal wage growth of at least four per cent. Nominal wages didn't grow above four per cent for a single quarter for almost a decade under those opposite—not once. Since our election, average annualised wage growth is almost double the rate we saw under our predecessors.

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