Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator O'Neill; I aim to please with my answers, and I'll try and please you with this new one as well! The Albanese government took office at a time of rising inflation and interest rates, falling real wages and a trillion dollars of debt which is now more expensive to service. It really does take some effort for a government to deliver at the same time falling wages and a skills shortage because orthodox economic theory would suggest that if you have a skill shortage wages would go up, but at a time of skills shortages in this country the ex-government sent them down.

We know a lot of Australians are doing it tough, so a key focus of the Jobs and Skills Summit will be how we improve lives and livelihoods, raising incomes, creating good jobs and getting Australians the skills they need for the jobs of tomorrow. Delivering the skills that our employers, our workers and our economy need is a key step towards growing our economic capacity and dampening inflationary pressures. That's why the Albanese government is hitting the ground running on this. (Time expired)