Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Those opposite have been at pains—it's been painful for me—to explain the difference between wages and real wages, or at least try to. I thank them for displaying the might of their collective economic intellectualism! We all understand that, when inflation exceeds wages growth, working people and their families are worse off. It should also be obvious then that the fastest way to reverse this difference and lift real wages is to bring inflation under control and get wages moving again. While those opposite seemingly refuse to believe that both can be done simultaneously, the proof is in the numbers. Inflation has been steadily moderating since the end of last year, while annual wages growth is at the highest levels since Labor was last in power, in 2012. In fact, analysis out of Treasury shows that the average full-time worker is $1,400 better off than if wages had continued to stagnate as they did under the Liberals. It's clear that the interventions of this Labor government are working and that the Liberals' real-wage freefall has been turned around, despite the enormous magnitude of their economic negligence.

When the Albanese Labor government came to office, real wages were stagnant. Productivity had slumped for a decade. Inflation growth was out of control. Despite these clear failures, the Liberals insisted on persisting with their broken economic plan to deliberately suppress the wages of Australian workers. After spending nearly a decade in government intentionally keeping wages low, those opposite have desperately tried to continue to block any effort to get wages moving again. After opposing a $1 an hour increase to the minimum wage—a one single dollar an hour increase to the minimum wage—in the dying days of their government, they have since opposed our secure jobs, better pay bill and opposed the protecting worker entitlements legislation, and just last week we heard that they'll also be opposing the closing loopholes legislation currently before the House.

Their obsession with keeping wages low is blinding them to the economic realities that we face. The divergence between returns on capital and returns on labour has created an environment of unsustainable profit performance at the expense of our long-term economic health. Despite what those opposite say about our agenda to get wages moving, it is in fact the erosion of the pay and conditions of workers to unsustainably pad corporate bottom lines that damaged productivity during their nine years in power. Our long-term economic prosperity relies on achieving and maintaining an equilibrium between the returns on productivity inputs. This isn't a complex economic proposal. It's simply about ensuring that the returns on investment of both labour and capital are sufficient to drive the investment of each. Sadly, however, it appears that even this basic economic principle is lost on the Liberals opposite.

To make matters worse, while they were deliberately suppressing wages for Australian workers, they were failing to adequately safeguard our economy from the supply-side pressures that saw inflation start to take hold under the former Liberal government. For years, they wilfully sabotaged our sovereign capability and domestic manufacturing, even daring manufacturers like General Motors to leave. And their lazy approach to market concentration further suppressed economic productivity. They failed to identify and protect supply chain vulnerabilities, exacerbating global supply pressures and putting more strain on household budgets, businesses and, indeed, our whole economy.

However, what's most astonishing is that, despite all these failings, they still managed to rack up $1 trillion of Liberal debt. They pump-primed the demand side of our economy, and they racked up a trillion bucks of debt—$1 trillion of Liberal debt, taxpayer money—in order to do it. I know the fragile egos on that side of the room have to face up to reality here. I know it's very difficult. The reality is that the modern Liberals are hopeless economic managers. They've proved it. They spent a decade proving it for Australians. This Labor government is relentlessly focused on attacking the cost of living for Australian families. Inflation growth is down, and wages are up, but it's plain that the Liberals' economic credentials are all over the place.

See this speech in context