Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

We reject the deliberate wage stagnation and wage depression which defined a decade of economic mismanagement from those opposite. That's because on this side of the House we see decent wages growth as part of the solution to cost-of-living pressures, not part of the problem, which is what those opposite think.

The sort of rubbish that we hear about wage from those opposite, particularly the shadow Treasurer, might get him a polite little golfer's clap over a sherry at that cookers' convention he went to in London—

Opposition members interjecting—

or the HR Nicholls Society. He was at the HR Nicholls Society on Friday. But we take a completely different approach to those opposite. Getting wages moving again is a key part of our economic plan. We are pleased to see today for the second consecutive quarter that real wages are growing again.

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