Topics: Wages, Cost of living    

E&OE  

PETER STEFANOVIC:  

US inflation has fallen to 3.2% in October, it's the first decline in four months. The figure measured by the Consumer Price Index is slightly below and expected 3.3% and follows a 3.7% rise in the 12 months to September. It's prompted treasury yields to fall sharply, and Wall Street stocks to climb. It's the lowest annual rate since March 2021. That's according to the Bureau of labour statistics data released on Tuesday, local time. Let's get to some local numbers now and send it over to Canberra - joining us is the Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor. Angus, good to see you this morning. So we've got our wages, the wage price index released later on today. If as expected, the number comes in at 1.3% for the quarter - and these can change, it's just a prediction. But what would that say to you - that figure?

ANGUS TAYLOR:  

Well, I'm not gonna give you a forecast, Pete. I'll leave that to the Treasurer who loves to forecast. But what I will say is that regardless of how this comes in, what we're continuing to see for Australians is a reduction in their real wages, a reduction in their standard of living. Indeed, we've learned just in the last week that Australians’ standard of living has collapsed 5.1% in the last year in disposable income, and that's the worst of any major advanced country in the world. This is a disastrous situation for Australian households. And meanwhile, whilst this is the talk around Australian kitchen tables, this is not the talk around the Cabinet table.

We’re seeing a government that's been asleep at the wheel, that's been distracted and focused on other things and it's really starting to show, Pete. Real wages going backwards, collapses in disposable income, the collapse in labour productivity - these are disastrous outcomes. We're at the back of the pack internationally. This is coming from Canberra - this is Australia specific. It's worse here than almost any other advanced country in the world. And we need a government that gets onto the job.

PETER STEFANOVIC:

But still got that triple A credit rating.

ANGUS TAYLOR:  

Wonderful. But you know what? Australians don't have a triple A credit rating in their household situation. They're really struggling. And this is the point you've got, you know, if you want to beat inflation, you've got to make it your first second and third priority. We know that from past episodes of inflation around the world and over the years, and this has not been the government's first priority. It hasn't been the Treasurer or the Prime Minister's first priority. We've got a prime minister who's interested in everything else. He doesn't like talking about it.

PETER STEFANOVIC:

Okay, well on the Prime Minister - because he suggested yesterday that Australians shouldn't expect any more cost of living relief, despite your claim there, that  in real terms, wages are going backwards - that sounds accurate - other than limited targeted measures, though. That's according to the Prime Minister, some of which have already been implemented. So is that the right approach, though? While debt and debt repayments are so high at the moment?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, the right approach is to put downward pressure on inflation and interest rates. That's the right approach. And here's the point.

PETER STEFANOVIC:

So no more handouts?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

You can give a handout too. But the point is that if you want to beat this, you've got to get inflation down. And this is a government that simply doesn't understand that this is from their actions.

PETER STEFANOVIC:

So how should they do that?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, we've said time and time again, you've got to pull every lever available. Industrial relations policy - we've got a government that is actually getting in there and taking out institutions like the ABCCC, and Registered Organisations Commission, which was focused on ensuring that we had a competitive construction sector with downward pressure on prices in the construction sector. We've got a government that is seeking to get rid of flexible arrangements between employers and employees. I mean, that's exactly the wrong industrial relations policies at a time like this. We've got a government that thinks competition policy is simply looking after your mates. It's crony capitalism.

Well, that's not how you beat inflation. We've got fiscal policy, where frankly, the government has added $188 billion in spending since it came into power. This is not the way you beat…

PETER STEFANOVIC:

What about migration? You think it's too high, migration is too high? You're with Peter Costello who yesterday weighed into the debate?

ANGUS TAYLOR:  

Yeah, the point I've made all the way along on this, is if you're going to have an additional 1.5 million migrants over the coming years, which is what Labor has laid out itself in its budget papers, and we're actually running at higher rates than that right now, you've got to make sure that you've got sufficient housing and infrastructure, and so on, to support that.

And we've got a government that said, well look what we're going to do now is we're going to cut back on infrastructure spending. Now, that's the one piece of spending that in those sorts of circumstances, you want to make sure is productive, and is maintained. So this is a government that simply is not on top of the task. And you can't have this kind of rate of population growth, whilst you also have, at the same time, policies that are inflationary. We’ve got infrastructure being cut back and housing is clearly not keeping up. And Australians understand this. I mean, they don't need to see the data on this - they know this is a real problem.

PETER STEFANOVIC:

We’re out of time. We had a question about AEMO, but I'll have to let that pass Angus. Appreciate your time.

ENDS.