Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The government's own budget papers forecast a cut to real wages over the next four years. For a worker in education and training, that amounts to a cut in real wages of around $8,200. How do you rack up a trillion dollars of debt yet still cut workers' wages?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are more people in work today than there were before the pandemic hit. This country has gone through the worst economic crisis we have seen since the Great Depression, but, unlike so many other countries around the world, Australia stands alone among so many advanced economies in being able to demonstrate the resurgence of our economy and of our labour market in particular as more and more Australians get back into work. It's not by accident, because we know that as more and more people get back into work then that creates tightness in the labour market, which ultimately ensures that wages can grow again.

It's not the only reason why wages will grow. When you encourage businesses to invest in productivity, when you encourage them through the instant asset write-off and when you encourage them with the multitude of tax incentives to invest in research and development, to invest in their manufacturing capabilities, as we are through the Modern Manufacturing Initiative, what that has shown in work that has been done by Ascentia, is that the tax rate on new investment in Australia today is not 30 per cent and it's not 25 per cent—it's 21 per cent. What that means is Australian businesses are investing in the plant and equipment which lifts the productivity of their workers, and it means that they can earn more.

It goes beyond that, because they won't just benefit from a growing economy and their own employees investing in their businesses so that they can earn more; they can keep more of what they earn under a Liberal-National government, because we've seen the cat belled down in Victoria—what's the first thing the Labor government wanted to do in Victoria? Increase taxes at the first opportunity. That's the Labor way. The coalition's way is to lower taxes, to keep taxes low so Australian businesses can invest, so Australians can keep more of what they earn, so they can save for their first home. We've got first-home ownership at the highest level in 11 years because we're allowing Australians to get ahead. We believe that if they have a go they'll get a go, and under our policies they are getting a go. The businesses who employ them are getting that go. What they'll get from those opposite, as we know, as is their form, is higher taxes, higher taxes and higher taxes.

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction. Will the minister outline to the House how the Morrison-McCormack government's plan for Australian families and businesses to have access to affordable, reliable energy that they rely on is working in our regions like the Hunter Valley, where David Layzell of the Nationals had a really good victory on the weekend? Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches?

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lyne for his important question and for his steadfast commitment to affordable, reliable energy for the households in his electorate. He knows, as we all do on this side of this place, that our plan is working. There has been an 11 per cent reduction in retail electricity prices across the last 12 months. They are the lowest prices we've seen since the removal of the carbon tax, which was put in place by those opposite alongside their mates in the Greens. The member for Lyne also knows how important it is to put downward pressure on prices for those 900,000 Australian workers working in the manufacturing sector, including at places like the Tomago Aluminium smelter just outside his electorate. That's why, when the Liddell power station in the Hunter Valley closes in 2023, we'll be replacing it with a 660 megawatt gas-fired generator at Kurri Kurri. We won't risk prices or reliability when Liddell leaves, because we know what happens without adequate replacement. That's good news for households and businesses right across the east coast. The Hunter power project will keep the lights on and drive prices down, and that's good news for jobs. It will create 600 direct construction jobs, 1,200 indirect jobs and, most important of all, the ongoing jobs of customers like the thousand people working at the Tomago smelter and the many thousands of others who are dependent on that operation.

There is plenty of support for this plan. The chief executive of Tomago says it's absolutely essential. The Australian Workers Union, no less: 'This announcement means the creation of hundreds of quality jobs.' The member for Hunter, who has been very busy over the last few days talking the project up, says, 'It's unequivocally a good idea'—good on him!—'the only way that we can fill the gap by Liddell.' The member for Paterson says, 'I'm not backing down on this one.'

I was asked about alternative approaches. The truth is Labor has no plan. It has no plan for energy and no plan for the replacement of the Liddell power station, and we saw what the people of the Hunter Valley over the weekend. The New South Wales Labor leader, Jodi McKay, asked a very important question. She said, 'Workers aren't voting for us. Why aren't workers voting for us?' The answer is just over there. The Leader of the Opposition, the member for Hindmarsh and now the member for McMahon—same old Labor.

Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The government's own budget papers forecast a cut to real wages over the next four years. For a worker in health care and social assistance, that amounts to a cut in real wages of around $6,900. How do you rack up a trillion dollar debt, yet still cut workers' wages?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This budget is about driving more people into work, creating more jobs, getting more competition for labour and therefore delivering higher real wages. The reality is that real wages under our government are higher than they were under Labor. Indeed, in Labor's last year in office, real wages fell. Today the unemployment rate, at 5.5 per cent, is lower than when we came to government. That is after a recession. I explained earlier, with respect to real wages in 2021, that that was a function of particular policies that helped drive better outcomes for Australian families—with free child care, lower rents, cheaper petrol. That saw the consumer price index have its steepest fall since 1931, which then meant that the inflation rate was higher in 2021. That has meant that the inflation rate has been above wages growth for that year. But, as I said, real wages continue to increase. While there are forecasts of 1¼ per cent through the year to the June quarter 2021, they are upgraded to 1½ per cent through the year to the June quarter 2022 and they reach 2¾ per cent over the forecast horizon, in 2024-25.

But the way to enable more Australians to keep more of their hard-earned money is to support the tax relief that we have legislated through this parliament. If the honourable member wants to support Australians keeping more of their hard-earned money, then they should support our stage 3 of the legislated tax plan, which will see somebody on $80,000 being $900 better off, somebody on $90,000 being $1,120 better off and someone on $100,000 being $1,370 better off. That will be the amount that Australians will be worse off if the Labor Party ever get their way and walk away from stage 3 of our tax plan.