Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Treasurer, Senator Gallagher. Real wages are 2.1 per cent lower today than the day that Labor took office. According to the RBA's own forecasts, they will continue to fall throughout the year. Under this government, Australians are not treading water; they're going backwards, and many families and businesses are going under. Minister, after three years in office, will you finally admit that real wages are lower under your government?

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Congratulations, Senator Hume, on your new role as Deputy Leader of the Opposition. I am surprised that the first question you would ask us is around wages considering your record on wages, the fact that you wanted to sack 41,000 workers, the fact that you've criticised a lot of the investments we have made into aged care and early childhood education and care and into the wages of those individuals and the submissions that we make to the Annual Wage Review each year to get wages moving again—when your record was that annual real wages fell for five consecutive quarters before we came to office.

Real wages were going backwards 3½ per cent at the election in May 2022, and we have turned that around. We have had strong and consecutive quarters of real wage growth. This government supports people earning more and keeping more of what they earn, which is why we took tax cuts to the election too, which you opposed—because we wanted workers to keep more of their earnings and pay less tax on it. What was the position of the opposition on that? 'No, we are going to the election promising a tax increase for every working Australian—14 million Australians.' Not only were women 'bludgers' who had to go back into the office and were not allowed to work from home; that wasn't enough. Then, 'We would actually increase taxes on every worker at the same time that we are criticising the investments we have made into working peoples' lives.' (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hume, first supplementary?

Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Since Labor came to power, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Chile, Spain, the United States, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Austria, Finland, Germany and Sweden have all managed to grow living standards—so have the G7 and so has the OECD. Australia stands alone as the only developed economy in the world where living standards have gone backwards. Minister, what is Labor's explanation for that?

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The senator asked me about living standards. I'll remind Senator Hume that, in the last quarter they were in power, living standards fell by 1.5 per cent. That is what we inherited when we came to government, and every decision we have made since then has been to address that and to turn that around. Annual nominal wages have grown above three per cent for 14 quarters in a row, the longest streak in more than a decade and a half. This comes after eight consecutive quarters of annual real wage growth, the longest period of consecutive growth in more than a decade.

Living standards, including real incomes per capita, grew 2.1 per cent through the year to the September quarter, and they are growing faster than in every G7 economy. I accept that it is our responsibility to keep focused on all of the issues facing— (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hume, second supplementary?

Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australians are poorer under Labor, and they deserve a straight answer from you, Minister. By how much have living standards fallen under your government?

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Hume for the question. As I just said in my previous answer, which you might not have been listening to, living standards grew 2.1 per cent through the year to the September quarter. We can add in the December data on top of that as well. I would say that this government's focus has been on dealing with inflation, looking at how we drive productivity and, now, managing some of the global uncertainty we see across the world, particularly since the weekend, with the events in Iran and the Middle East. That will be the focus of the government's thinking: How do we help people with cost-of-living pressures? How do we manage the budget responsibly? How do we make the key investments we need to make, whether it be in defence or on the social services side of the budget, in a world where the global economy is more uncertain? They are the challenges facing the government, and we will deal with them responsibly.