RICHARD MARLES MP
DEPUTY LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY
SHADOW MINISTER FOR NATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION, EMPLOYMENT, SKILLS AND SMALL BUSINESS
SHADOW MINISTER FOR SCIENCE
MEMBER FOR CORIO

TONY BURKE MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
SHADOW MINISTER FOR THE ARTS
MANAGER OF OPPOSITION BUSINESS
MEMBER FOR WATSON
 
JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN


REAL WAGES GO BACKWARDS AS PETROL PRICES SKYROCKET

Today’s new ABS data has shown once again that real wages are going backwards, leaving Australian working families struggling to put petrol in the car and food on the table.

While the cost of living, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, rose by 3.0 per cent this year, wages have firmly lagged behind on 2.2 per cent.

Tragically, it’s the frontline workers who kept Australia afloat during the pandemic that are being left behind, with wages for healthcare workers and transport and postal workers falling below the national rate, at just 1.9 per cent and 1.7 per cent.

As other expenses rise, including food and petrol, families right across the country will be forced to make difficult decisions about what they must go without as the cost of living continues to outstrip wages.

Over the last 18 months workers and businesses have repeatedly paid the price for Scott Morrison’s failures on pandemic leadership, vaccines, quarantine and cutting JobKeeper.

This is a Government whose own Budget reveals real wages will, incredibly, go backwards over the next four years - and yet it still does nothing.

Australians are being forced to work harder for less, and Scott Morrison and this Liberal and National Government are to blame.

WEDNESDAY, 17 NOVEMBER 2021