Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Gallagher for her question. The government have been proud to serve and deliver for Australians a strong economy in the lead-up into this global economic crisis, this pandemic induced crisis, that we face. The government have worked tirelessly to create more employment opportunities for more Australians and have achieved that in record levels. We acknowledge, indeed, during that time that inflationary factors, including wage factors, have been at relative lows. They have been at relative lows together, noting that the inflation factors have also been at lows. So nominal wages growth has been at lows alongside low inflation growth. But what our government managed to achieve in the run-up to the last election was growth of 1½ million extra jobs in Australia—1½ million additional jobs for Australians, giving them every opportunity—