Hon. Dr Jim Chalmers MP - Press Conference
19 August 2026
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Press Conferences Australian Parliament
04:55 - 06:36
Speaker 13
Hello, how are you? Okay. All ready? Excellent. Well, our government has been firmly focused on getting wages moving.
And the new data released by the ABS today shows that real wages did grow in the June quarter. And annual nominal wages have now grown above 3% for four years under this Labor government. Now, while real wages did grow in the June quarter, they did decrease over the year to the June quarter. This is not because wages have been too low, but inflation is still too high. Our government is focused on delivering wage increases for workers because we know it does help with the cost of living.
Now, I want to compare this to the previous Liberal government, where annual wages did not grow more than by more than 3% for the whole nine years that they were in government. Now, this news comes off the data released last week that shows average weekly earnings for full-time adults are up more than $300 under this Labor government since we're elected. And last week's data also showed a new record low of the gender pay gap at 11.3%. Our government is firmly focused on getting wages moving, and we will continue to do this work, and this compares very in stark contrast to the Liberal and National Party when they were last in government.
06:36 - 07:23
Speaker 7
Thanks, Amanda. I've got a few issues to run through today, just to begin where Amanda left off. We have seen real wages grow in the quarter, but not through the year, as Amanda said, because this inflation challenge in our economy persists. It's worth remembering that both Treasury and the Reserve Bank are forecasting annual real wage growth to return this financial year. But to have nominal wages growth above 3% for the duration of our government, compared to not in any quarter under our predecessors, I think gives you a sense of the progress that we are making, making sure that wages growth in our economy is strong and sustained as we see inflation moderate over time.
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