Malcolm Turnbull is so out of touch with everyday Australians that at a time when we are facing the slowest wages growth since the 1990s recession his Government has pushed for a cut to penalty rates – a decision that will be made tomorrow.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures released today show that annual wage growth has fallen again to its lowest rate since the ABS first published the Wage Price Index in 1998.
Pay packets over this year have grown at the record-low rate of just 1.9 per cent and too many Australian families are feeling squeezed as a result.
Instead of knuckling down to tackle what is an ongoing problem, Malcolm Turnbull and more than 60 of his party have argued they want to abolish or cut penalty rates.
That’s right, at this time of record low wages growth, they want a cut to people’s income.
Under Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberals, Australians are seeing their wages flat-lining and their job security is being eroded.
In the December quarter, private sector seasonally adjusted wages grew 0.4 per cent. In the public sector, wages did little better, growing 0.6 per cent for the quarter.
Annual wages growth has now been flat or falling since June 2014, and remains 2.4 percentage points lower than the peak growth under Labor.
Malcolm Turnbull has no plan for our economy and no plan to grow workers’ pay packets.
The unemployment rate is 5.7 per cent, more than 700,000 Australians are unemployed, more than 1 million people want more work but can’t find it and their wages are barely growing at all.
There are 56,000 fewer full time jobs since January 2016. There are fewer full time jobs now than when Malcolm Turnbull rolled Tony Abbott as Prime Minister.
Malcolm Turnbull needs to follow Labor’s lead by putting boosting wages and growing more good jobs for Australians at the top of his to-do list.