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

My question is to the Treasurer. How have outcomes improved for employment and wages after the first 12 months of the Albanese Labor government?

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

I thank the member for Calwell for her question. While I'm at it, on behalf of the member for Forde and I, I acknowledge Carol and Geoff Greenfield in the gallery today.

Australians can be proud of what we've achieved together over the course of the last 12 months. Over the first year of the Albanese Labor government, we have seen the fastest jobs growth of any new government on record—faster than any of the major advanced economies—and the strongest wages growth in more than a decade. These have been defining features of a government dedicated to secure jobs and better pay for our people. These are deliberate design features of our economic policy, because when Australians are under cost-of-living pressures, decent wages are part of the solution, not part of the problem. More jobs and the beginnings of decent wages growth are among Australia's biggest advantages at a time of global uncertainty.

The combination of weakness in the global economy combined with higher interest rates here and around the world will slow our economy in the months ahead. We saw some of that in last week's unemployment numbers, but it's a remarkable collective achievement that unemployment has a three in front of it with everything that is coming at us from around the world. Also 330,000 jobs have been created in our first year, more than four times the number of jobs created in the first year of the Abbott government or the Howard government. Jobs growth here has been faster than in the US, Canada, Germany and the UK. Average full-time earnings are now around $1,000 a year higher than they would have been under the sluggish wages growth that we saw under those opposite.

In order to get real wages growth we need to see inflation moderate further, and we need strong and sustainable wages growth. That's why the budget was carefully calibrated to take some of the edge off cost-of-living pressures and the CPI next year without adding to inflation. This is why we supported minimum wage increases, funded and supported pay rises for aged-care workers, changed the law to support secure jobs and better pay, made it easier for parents to work more and earn more if they want to, funded TAFE and uni places, invested in industries that will create secure and well-paid jobs.

Those opposite continue to say no to decent wages. Nothing would make them happier than another decade of wage stagnation. But on this side of the House we take a different view. When it comes to jobs growth and wages growth, we are delivering so that more hardworking Australians who go to work can provide for their loved ones.