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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Isn't the true story behind today's data that people are working harder for longer because they can't afford to pay their bills under this government's disastrous economic policy?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the shadow Treasurer for his question. We have an extraordinary circumstance where we have the premise of that question completely counter to what the data today is actually showing. The data today shows a drop in unemployment from 4.1 per cent down to 3.7 per cent. The data today finds more than 100,000 jobs have been created in one month.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They get angry when you talk about jobs being created. It makes them so angry that unemployment has gone down and that wages growth is double what it was, with real wages increasing. What we have is real wages increasing, inflation moderating, unemployment heading down, productivity going up, a $78 billion deficit being replaced by a $22 billion surplus, a government that is responding and fiscal policy working with monetary policy, not against it. It stands in stark contrast to the circumstances that we inherited, with real wages going backwards, with inflation peaking at 2.1 per cent in the March 2022 quarter and with jobs not being created like the numbers that we have seen in today's data. We have reform that assists people as well, working people, including half the population who, by the way, are women, which they forgot. The gender pay gap is at its lowest level in history, of 12 per cent, and paid parental leave is being extended. It passed through the Senate on Monday. Super guarantee will be paid on paid parental leave. We'll wait and see whether they support or oppose that. They sort of opposed it for an hour. It was a bit like tax—and tax cuts are going to every single taxpayer on 1 July so people can keep more of what they are earning.