Greens employment spokesperson Adam Bandt MP today noted MYEFO joins 8 years of heroic wage growth forecasts that haven’t come true, making this mid-year update more fantasy than reality.
“If history is anything to go by, we’ll see pigs at 35,000 feet before these wage growth forecasts come true,” said Mr Bandt.
“We’re now in our 8th year of broken wage growth promises.
“Neoliberalism does not deliver decent wage rises.
“We need to legislate a floor under the minimum wage, restore cuts to penalty rates and recalibrate the economy so it serves working people.
“Working people are entitled to be sick and tired of this government, but there’s no guarantee that Labor will deliver either. If the market won’t deliver wages growth, the next government needs to implement policies to generate it.”
Below is a graph representing the gap between forecasted increases to wage growth and actual wage growth:
Sources: Budget Strategy and Outlook: Budget paper No. 1; Statement Two: Economic Outlook, Table 1; and MYEFO, December 2018