Inflation, energy prices and wages growth on Labor’s agenda as pressure builds to provide relief to low income earners before October budget
“We’ve been in government now for just a little bit over two weeks. These pressures have built up over nine years and … the former government had a policy of deliberately keeping wages low at a time when the cost of living and the price of everything was going up,” the prime minister said in Darwin after returning to Australia from a trip to Indonesia.
“We will, of course, always consider what can be done, but there is a fiscal context here [and] we will be economically responsible as a government.”also mulls how to intervene in the energy market Interest rate rises would have a “disproportionate impact” on people on the lowest incomes and there was a need to tackle wage growth in a collaborative manner with unions and business groups to try and get wages moving again, Chalmers told a Sky News economic forum.
Amid the debate over rising cost of living pressures, the Albanese government has made a submission to the Fair Work Commission arguing that wages for the country’s lowest paid should keep pace with inflation toUnions are hoping the FWC ruling will give one in four workers a pay boost of 5.5% from 1 July.