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

My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer confirm that, under the Morrison government, annual wages growth in every single quarter has been lower than in any quarter under the last Labor government?

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

I can confirm that, today, real wages are growing at 0.6 per cent and that, under Labor, real wages were growing at just 0.4 per cent. The reality is that under Labor the real minimum wage went down in three out of the six years they were in government. Under us, real minimum wages have gone up every year. The way to boost wages is through cutting taxes, and there's only one side of this House that took to the Australian people $387 billion in higher taxes—and it was the genius member for Rankin, together with the member for McMahon, who came up with $387 billion of higher taxes which the member for Rankin said he was proud of and pleased by.