Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer guarantee that industry-wide bargaining and industrial action will not raise the cost of living for Australians?

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

I just need to check: are we writing these questions for the member for Hume? He is asking a question about wages and the cost of living after a decade of deliberate wage suppression and wage stagnation under those opposite. The changes that we are working through, in consultation with employers and with unions and with the broader Australian community, are about seeking more and better agreements and not more conflict. If those opposite had their way, we would have another decade of wages stagnating and ordinary working Australians falling further and further behind. Our efforts at the jobs summit, whether in the area of the minister for industrial relations or in all of the other areas that we have paid such close attention to, are about getting wages moving again in this economy. The defining failure of those opposite—the dregs of the former government which sit before me—is that wages for a decade barely shifted. That meant that ordinary Australian people—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, members on my right! I will hear the Treasurer in silence. The member for Hume on a point of order?

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On relevance: it was a very specific question about the impact of industrial action on the cost of living, not wages.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hume. The Treasurer is in order. It was a fairly wide question containing a number of issues, particularly regarding bargaining. I call the Treasurer.

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

For too long in this economy, ordinary Australians and their living standards have been going backwards. That's because those opposite, over almost a decade in office, deliberately went after people's wages and job security and working conditions. They even admitted in a burst of candour that low wages were a deliberate design feature of their economic policy.

We take a different approach to wages. We think that stagnant wages are a defining feature of the failure of those opposite to manage the economy in the interests of working people. What we want to do—what the jobs summit was about, what our government is about, what our Prime Minister is about and what our cabinet is about—is to get wages moving again in this economy, because people find it too difficult to keep up with the skyrocketing costs of living. The changes that we are consulting on, the changes which were discussed at the Jobs and Skills Summit, are all about looking for more agreement, not more conflict. We want to get wages moving again. We think that's the best way for Australians to deal with the substantial cost-of-living pressures that they face.

I understand that, when the shadow Treasurer demanded an invite to the Jobs and Skills Summit, it was humiliating for him when mum and dad said he couldn't go to the formal. I know that it was humiliating for him, but that doesn't excuse the kinds of rubbish questions which attempt to whitewash and gloss over the fact that those opposite were responsible for a decade of stagnant wages.

We think something has to change when it comes to wages in this country, because we don't want to cop ordinary working people getting further and further and further behind. There's an appetite in this country to get wages moving again. We want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. If you lot had your way, we'd have another decade of wage stagnation and ordinary Australian working people copping it in the neck.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. How will the outcomes of the Jobs and Skills Summit, the budget and the government's broader economic plan help address cost-of-living pressures?

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

Thanks to the member for her question about the cost of living. I think we all appreciate and understand that Australians in every corner of our country are doing it especially tough right now—that the cost-of-living pressures are acute and the cost of some of the essentials that Australians just can't do without is going through the roof. Obviously, part of this is about global pressures, particularly on energy markets and food security. Clearly there are some domestic attributes there. Some of the supply chain issues, which were a feature of the discussion at the Jobs and Skills Summit last week, are part of the challenge as well. I think that there is an expectation right across the board that rising interest rates are set to be an even bigger part of the pain that people confront. Tomorrow the Reserve Bank board will meet again. We don't pre-empt or interfere in any way with their independent decisions, but the market expectations are for another increase, and that will be an additional cost on people who are paying off a mortgage.

The task for our government is to do what we responsibly can to help people through these shorter-term challenges but to also deal with the issues in supply chains, to deal with cost of living where we can and build an economy that grows wages and improves living standards over time. That's why it's so important that the payments that the Minister mentioned a moment ago will increase this month in line with inflation. It's why we successfully argued for an increase in the minimum wage in line with inflation, despite the howls of opposition from those opposite.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Barker will cease interjecting.

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

That's why our October budget will cut the price of medicines. That's why I've instructed the ACCC to step up and maximise their surveillance of fuel markets to make sure savings in petrol prices are passed on and motorists are getting a fair deal when the excise relief comes off. It's why we're delivering long-term reforms to deal with some of those supply chain issues, to deal with the skills crisis we were left with, to lift the speed limit on the economy. That means cheaper childcare, a game-changing investment to ease the cost of living but also deliver an economic dividend. It means investing in cleaner and cheaper energy, investing in fee-free TAFE and growing the care economy, advance manufacturing and other key sectors of the economy.

The Jobs and Skills Summit was a really crucial part of this work. It focused on improving productivity. We know that grows wages. It focused on skills. It focused on breaking down the barriers to employment that too many people still face. It focused on fixing a broken bargaining system that has only delivered wage stagnation.

Again, while the government works on these serious cost-of-living pressures that Australian families face, we invited those opposite to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. They rejected that because, if they had their way, there would be another decade of the same cost-of-living pressures and wage stagnation that they've subjected the Australian people to. (Time expired)