4 July 2021

Doorstop interview, Victoria

MINISTER SUKKAR:

The Morrison Government is securing Australia’s economic future. As Australians have seen throughout the pandemic, the Morrison Government has a plan to support jobs, has a plan to support small businesses, has a plan to support all businesses. That has led to the economic recovery in Australia being the envy of the world.

Since May last year, we’ve seen more than one million jobs created and we’ve seen in the most recent ABS statistics, the unemployment rate now at 5.1 per cent. There are more Australians in work today than there were prior to the pandemic.

What does that all mean? Of course, it means yes, there are great difficulties that Australians have faced throughout the pandemic but the opportunities for the future are there. It also means that in a tightening labour market, in a labour market where employers are fighting and working hard to attract employees, it puts upward pressure on wages growth. These things don’t happen by accident. This has happened because of the investments that the Morrison Government has made. In the most recent Budget, we put in place tax cuts for more than 10 million Australians, putting more money into Australians pockets. We continued a range of very important investment allowances for business. Whether it’s the instant expensing measures that were put in place for businesses with a turnover of up to $5 billion, those measures ensure more money in Australians pockets but also the incentives that are required to be there for Australian businesses to continue to have the confidence to invest, the confidence to employ Australians.

I note the Deputy Leader of the Labor Party, Richard Marles, is out today talking about wages growth. Well, the Labor Party has got every big decision throughout this pandemic wrong. The Labor Party said that the economy would fall off a cliff when JobKeeper ended. What we’ve seen since then is jobs growth continue to accelerate. As I said the unemployment rate is now at 5.1 per cent, a million more people in jobs since May, proving yet again that the Labor Party just cannot be trusted with matters of the economy. Richard Marles wants Australians to forget that the Labor Party went to the last election with policies seeking to tax – either with new taxes or higher taxes – Australians an additional $387 billion. Whether it was taxes on housing, whether it was taxes on retirees, whether it was taxes on employees, whether it was taxes on investors, the Labor Party’s solution to every problem is higher taxes and higher spending, and what does that mean? That means lower wages. Nobody is going to take seriously the Labor Party when they talk about wages because we know the consequence of their policies ‑ $387 billion of higher taxes – would strangle the economy, would lead to less Australians being employed and of course, would lead to lower wages.

The Morrison Government will continue to secure Australia’s economic future, continue to see more Australians getting into work and of course that is a wonderful thing for our economy and is the reason why Australia’s economic response to the pandemic continues and remains to be the envy of the world.

JOURNALIST:

As you’ve noted, the Labor Party is saying that their analysis – or their modelling – is based on the May Budget papers. It says that based on those papers, the average family can expect to see their wages fall by $21,000 over the next four years. Is that just plainly wrong?

MINISTER SUKKAR:

The Labor Party, again, have been hopelessly wrong on every prediction or every forecast or indeed every bit of modelling that they have done. As I said, the Labor Party, the hapless Shadow Treasurer came out and said that the economy would fall off a cliff when JobKeeper ended. Actually, what we’ve seen is jobs growth continue. What we have seen in the projections contained within the Budget is an economy that is quickly outstripping some of the conservative predictions that were made in that Budget. The Budget for example, said that unemployment would get to below 5 per cent by the end of next year. Now we see unemployment already dropping more quickly and now at 5.1 per cent. The Australian economy is accelerating even more quickly than we were expecting in the May Budget, but the reality is that the only way to get upward pressure on wages, the only way to ensure that we get that private demand for employment which then pushes up wages growth, is to continue with our economic plan which is, as I said, the envy of the world. We’ll continue to do that, whether it’s supporting businesses to make investments with the instant expensing measures, instant assets write‑offs. We now have a small business tax rate of 25 per cent and of course, the 10 million Australians who have got – in dual income families – up to $2,160 extra in their pocket each year. The plan is working, it’s delivering, we’ve seen real wages growth and we won’t be taking lessons from the Labor Party.

JOURNALIST:

Economists today say that that modelling done by Labor goes back to the depths of the coronavirus and so because of that, everything is out of kilter. They’re actually saying that there’s going to be an upswing in wages – modest but an upswing. What do you say from that?

MINISTER SUKKAR:

The Labor Party are hopelessly embarrassing at any time that they try to forecast or make predictions about the economy or even worse, when they have a prescription for the economy. As I said, they said the economy would fall off a cliff at the end of JobKeeper. They took to the last election, $387 billion of higher taxes, that was their prescription and now they’re using data from the Budget at a time when we’ve seen the economy accelerate even more quickly than our conservative budget projections had in place. So again, the Labor Party, you just can’t take seriously anything that they bring forward with respect to the economy. They are the only quarter of Australian society that seems disappointed that Australia is, economically, the envy of the world. We’ll continue to put in place the investments that we know, from experience, encourage employers to invest, encourage employers to take on that extra staff member which of course leads to lower unemployment and ultimately pushes up pressure on wages.

JOURNALIST:

The Treasurer has already put on the record after the Budget that inflation will out‑strip wage rises this year. Is that already turning around since he made those comments?

MINISTER SUKKAR:

The Budget did make clear that inflation would accelerate which, considering in the depth of the pandemic what we were facing is a global phenomenon, but we are seeing encouraging green‑shoots with respect to wages. That does seem to be a natural consequence of a tightening labour market. In fact, if you speak to employers – small and large – around the country, when it comes to attracting and retaining staff, it’s getting more difficult. All of those factors play into putting upward pressure on wages. So, we’ll see what the numbers say but the encouraging signs are there. To go back to the Budget papers, if the Labor Party want to keep referring to them – which we’re very happy for them to – Treasury estimated that unemployment would drop below 5 per cent by the end of next year. We’ve already seen unemployment hit 5.1 per cent. Again, a much greater acceleration on employment levels than was even expected in May. So, we’re outstripping those projections but we’re not taking the foot off the accelerator. As the Prime Minister and the Treasurer and myself said at Budget time, we are keeping our foot on the economic accelerator because it’s not a theory, it’s not something that you read in a book but we’re seeing it in practice work for Australia and in practice work for Australians, for employers and of course employees.