Labor minister Bill Shorten has blasted Philip Lowe's warnings of a wage spiral as 'rubbish' in a blistering attack on the Reserve Bank governor.
"So a lot of these debates are theoretical. If wages move too far too fast, that's not desirable. But wages not moving at all is a disaster."
Dr Lowe was asked whether his repeated warnings of a “wage price spiral” was overstated given pay grew to 3.1 per cent over the year to September, while inflation sits at 7.3 per cent. “Let's say we all accepted the idea – and which there's a natural appeal to this – inflation’s 7 per cent, I should be compensated for that in my wages.
Dr Lowe did admit the situation was"difficult" but argued wages should remain in the current range as the alternative would be far worse.
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