Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

Not only was it their view that that was proper management of the economy; they also had a passionate view that wages should not keep up with that number. When our Prime Minister said, 'Absolutely,' to people's pay being able to keep up with what was happening with inflation, they were opposed to that. They never saw a pay cut they didn't want to grab. They never found a way of increasing wages that they weren't willing to oppose.

Real wages were going backwards by 3.4 per cent. There were five consecutive quarters where real wages were falling. When we came to office, we changed the laws for workers. We changed the approach the government took to the Fair Work Commission. What did that mean? We were told by them when we started to do that, 'Oh, no, that will cause inflation to go up.' The then shadow Treasurer actually opposed our workplace relations reforms on the basis that they would increase wages. That is what he said. When he was challenged, he said, 'I'm only saying that, if you increase wages, you are going to increase prices as well.' Well, what happened? As real wages went up, inflation fell. As a result of that, where they had five quarters leading up to the 2022 election where wages went backwards, Australia has now seen real wages grow for the last six consecutive quarters.

They talk about the number of jobs. Over 1.1 million jobs have been created. The average unemployment rate under this government has been the lowest of any government in half a century. They then want to go to business investment. Annual business investment under them fell by an average of 1.3 per cent per year for their nine years in office. What's happened in our time in office? It hasn't been falling by an average of 1.3 per cent a year. It's been growing by an average of 4.4 per cent per year, hitting a record high last financial year.

They oversaw the worst decade in productivity growth in 60 years, whereas we are working to restore growth. That's why you deliver free TAFE—because, if you have a skilled workforce, you have a more productive workforce. That's why you get away from the incentives that made people baulk at study through student debt. If you know that you have the government backing you on education, you invest in your own skills as well, just like the government is investing in a future made in Australia.

But, of all things, something that the shadow Treasurer really shouldn't try to talk about is debt and deficit. The way to deal with debt and deficit is to have surplus budgets. That's the way to deal with it. We are getting very close to the point where we will have people voting in Australian elections who have never seen the coalition deliver a surplus budget in their lifetimes. Have they been able to claim they were going to do it? Yes. They did the merchandise. They had the 'back in black'. Their only support for Australian live music ever was, much to the annoyance of AC/DC, to try to co-opt the song. Yet how many budgets did they deliver? How many surplus budgets? How many times, when the final figures came in, was the budget in surplus? How many times? How many times from them? And yet we have had the first back-to-back surplus in almost two decades. Debt is $177 billion lower than what had been forecast at the election. When you do that, you save the nation around $60 billion in interest costs over the decade. We've had from them, over this last fortnight, a whole series of images where they want to look backward. In terms of looking backward, in fairness, the member for Fairfax doesn't win; I suspect the member for Longman has won that prize with the speech he gave in the Federation Chamber earlier this week.

But this government is proud of the fact that we will back workers, back Australian industry and back Australian jobs. One of our proudest boasts, I have to say, is the fact that our laws have done exactly what we said they would do, and the gender pay gap is at the lowest it's been since they started collecting the record. Again, that is a contribution to productivity. That is a huge contribution to productivity. But every measure we've brought in to be able to do that has been opposed by those opposite—right through! The excuses are always the same. They say that it will drive up inflation; well, inflation is lower than it was under them, markedly lower. Or they'll say that it will boost inflation—wrong. They say it will cause a collapse in jobs—wrong. Their other classic one is to say that it would lead to more industrial disputes. Fewer days have been lost to industrial disputes now, under this government, than in the final quarter under them. Under every metric, people are earning more and keeping more of what they earn. They have more secure employment and a more productive economy because those on the other side have not been in charge of any of the decisions.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Before I give the call to the member for Flinders, I'd just like to say that the sledging from frontbenchers was really unhelpful throughout that debate, so let's try and be courteous so that the member for Flinders can be heard, and I'd like the same for the next speaker as well.

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