Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

The good news is that wages continue to grow faster than inflation. When Senator Gallagher, in a rather misleading way, seeks to focus on the nominal growth, she ignores the fact that inflation is also comparatively low. What I can confirm is that the wage price index rose by 2.2 per cent through the year to the September quarter; private sector wages grew by 2.2 per cent through the year; the private sector WPI, including bonus payments, grew by 2.8 per cent; and public sector wages grew by 2.5 per cent. What I can also confirm is that real wages grew by 0.6 per cent, higher than the 0.4 per cent through the year when Labor lost government, and 0.6 per cent is higher than when Labor lost government and is indeed in line with the 20-year average.