Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

My statement was a statement of economic fundamentals—economics 101. If you attract more investment and generate stronger growth, and more jobs are being created, as they are under our government, then there is more competition for workers. As you start depleting the excess supply in the labour market, and if there is stronger demand for workers and less supply of workers, of course wages will go up. That is a very basic economic fundamental.

When we came into government, the economy was weakening, unemployment was rising—which is, of course, part of the reason why we went into a period of lower wages growth, because if wages had grown more strongly at the time of a weakening economy and rising unemployment then more people would have ended up unemployed. But what has been happening, as a result of our plan for a stronger economy and more jobs—as more than a million new jobs have been created in our period in government—is: of course, the excess supply in the labour market has continued to deplete. As more jobs are being created, there is more demand for workers and less supply of workers. That is basic market economics. Stronger demand and lesser supply drives prices up. If you've got lower demand and higher supply, prices go down. That is basic market economics.

I know that the Labor Party don't—