JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
 
 
UNEVEN RECOVERY DEFINED BY MORE WEAK WAGES GROWTH

 
In its latest Statement on Monetary Policy, the Reserve Bank has highlighted Australia’s recovery remains uneven, with wages growth still expected to stagnate for the next two years.
 
After eight years of the weakest period of wages growth in Australia’s history under the Liberals, the RBA expects more of the same wage stagnation in recovery.
 
Even by mid-2023, the RBA only expects wages growth to return to 2¼ per cent, which is well below average and lower than any wages growth outcome achieved before the Liberal-National Government came to office.
 
The recovery is welcome but it is uneven and patchy, and the RBA highlights how major improvements to the economy and budget bottom-line are a result of factors beyond the Government’s control, including the substantial and selfless sacrifices of Australians to supress the virus, the re-opening of state economies and remarkably high global commodity prices.
 
According to today’s Statement:

• “The economy remains short of full employment”
• "Subdued wages growth is likely to persist for some time”
• “Even at the end of the forecast period in mid-2023, wages growth is likely to remain below the rates that would be consistent with inflation being sustainably within the target range.”

Australia’s recovery would be stronger, broader and more effective without the Morrison Government’s bungling of the vaccine rollout, quarantine failures, and a stubborn refusal to put in place meaningful policies that will actually create jobs and get low wages moving.

Instead of a comprehensive plan to create secure, well-paid jobs, the Morrison Government’s vaccine debacle, cuts to support, ideological attacks on job security and superannuation, and a Budget riddled with rorts and waste, will only make things worse.
 
After eight long years of job insecurity, weak wages growth and rising underemployment, this Budget can’t be yet another missed opportunity to invest in people, their jobs and their future.
 
Only Labor is fighting to build an economy that is stronger and fairer after the pandemic than it was before.
 
FRIDAY, 7 MAY 2021