Reserve Bank of Australia governor Phillip Lowe has invoked memories of the 1970s, warning wage growth must be restrained to contain Australia’s surging inflation. In the 1970s, Lowe said last week, “we got into trouble because wages growth responded mechanically to the higher inflation rate”. Now, with inflation above 5%, and tipped to reach 7% by the

The poor Labor government. It got the keys to a brand new federal government, opened the doors ready for a fresh start, but inside the place was a mess. Barely had Prime Minister Albanese turned the lights on and the gas-fired recovery had turned into a gas-fired catastrophe and an electricity market failure. Some dings

Last year Reserve Bank governor Phillip Lowe said he wouldn’t increase interest rates until he saw signs of strong real wages growth. Now he is telling workers that if they don’t accept real wage cuts, then their greed will be responsible for inflation. No wonder Treasurer Jim Chalmers is not only keen to hold a review of

The decision by the Fair Work Commission to increase the minimum wage by 5.2 per cent is a rare bright spot for workers in what has been a terrible decade for wage increases. This increase represents an extra $1.05 per hour or about $40 per week for someone working full time. About 2.3 million workers

The Fair Work Commission has announced an important increase in the national minimum wage, which will rise by $1.05 per hour (or 5.2%) effective 1 July 2022. This represents a significant shift in the debate over wages in Australia, whichi have been languishing for years — and are now falling in real terms.

Amid soaring energy costs, the new Labor government is working to deliver a A$20 billion pledge to rebuild and modernise Australia’s electricity grid. It will help deliver a plan for 122 gigawatts of new renewable energy in the National Electricity Market by 2050, eventually replacing coal generation. The transition will bring significant social, economic and environmental change. Electricity generation

The decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia this week to increase official interest rates by half a percentage point surprised many. The bank is a notoriously conservative organisation. It usually likes to take things slowly. As it spent the last year suggesting it was unlikely to do anything drastic on interest rates until wages

The thing that strikes you when reading about how The Lodge used to be, is just how humble an abode it once was. How, when Robert Menzies lived there for example, the home seemed embedded in the local community and neighborhood. Menzies’ daughter Heather Henderson writes about how when she lived at The Lodge the

There is an energy crisis. Actually, there are two separate but related crises, an electricity price crisis and gas price crisis. While separate they both have the same problem, our reliance on fossil fuels. The first is a sharp rise in electricity prices, caused almost entirely by our dependence on coal and gas for electricity

The latest labour account survey released by the Bureau of Statistics revealed that while job growth remains solid and the job vacancy rate is at record levels, workers real incomes remains at best flat.

A massive expansion in Australia’s gas production did nothing to make gas cheap for Australian homes and businesses. A decade of propping up ageing coal-fired power stations did nothing to ensure the reliability of our electricity supply. And the Coalition’s so-called “gas trigger” and “big stick” electricity reforms have done nothing to control Australian energy

The March quarter GDP figures show that while the economy is growing strongly, workers are missing out of their fair share.

Local gas suppliers aren’t in crisis – soaring prices are going according to plan The Australian gas industry isn’t in crisis; it’s in heaven. Its profits and share prices are rising even faster than its greenhouse gas emissions, and everything is going according to the plan it has been working on for more than a

For all the tabloids’ orchestrated pompom waving throughout the election campaign, to their credit Anthony Albanese’s marriage breakup was one place they refused to go. Albanese’s standing as a divorced man in a relatively new relationship is a first for an Australian prime minister, but could also serve as a metaphor for his incoming government

The election of a new government presents Australia with a much-needed opportunity to reappraise its place in the world. In less than 20 years, we have segued from serious engagement in Asia and a leadership role in the Pacific to marginal significance in the affairs of Asia (except as a massive mine and a source

Proposed laws that impose harsh fines and jail time for a broad range of peaceful protests are unnecessary and an assault on citizens’ fundamental democratic rights, writes Rachel Hay

The democracy sausage has become the symbol of Australians’ trust and enthusiasm for our free and fair elections, but we have much more to celebrate than sausage sizzles (which, I will point out, are needed to help P&Cs fundraise for our underfunded public school system). Think about the thousands of people across the country who

Three days before the federal election, new ABS data confirmed that Australian wage growth is still stuck at historically weak rate (up just 2.4% year over year to March 2022). One day later, another ABS release showed another small decline in the unemployment rate, which is now below 4%. Most of the decline was due to people leaving the labour market (rather than new jobs being created). But the data is being cited by the current government as a sign that better wage growth is just around the corner.

The release of the March Wage Price Index confirms what a horror year it has been for workers. While inflation in the past 12 months rose 5.1%, wages grew just 2.4%. Even worse, in the past year the price of non-discretionary items rose 6.6%, meaning for those on low wages, who spend more of their incomes on essential items, real wages would have fallen even more than the 2.6% average fall.

On the final manic drive to the ballot box, we approach the national crossroads with justified trepidation: are we heading towards the light or is that another runaway train coming to plough us down? We pollsters and pundits (and we progressives in general) are all experiencing our own form of PTSD after the car crash

Every three months the Bureau of Statistics releases the lesser-known cousin of the consumer price index. It’s called the Wage Price Index (WPI) and it records changes in the overall level of wages, in the same way the price index records changes in the overall level of consumer prices.

The current election campaign has seen the two major parties put forward housing policies, both of which to varying degrees are aimed at the demand side of the equation.

“Intolerance of corruption is essential to the survival of our representative democracy and way of life,” said the late David Ipp QC, former commissioner of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption. Australian voters certainly appear to agree. New Australia Institute research shows that three-quarters of Australians (76 per cent) say integrity issues are more or

This week the election campaign has turned to discussion about the increase to the minimum wage, with suggestions that an increase either in line with the curent rate of inflation of 5.1% or marginally above it (such as the ACTU’s proposal of a 5.5% increase) would bring about a return to 1970s style wage sprials.

While it makes economic and political sense to suggest, as Anthony Albanese has, that the minimum wage, and indeed most wages, rise inline with the rate of inflation Scott Morrison has suggested such a move would be ‘reckless and dangerous’. What’s far more dangerous and reckless is letting real wages and consumer spending fall just

Today the opposition leader, Anthony Albanese was asked about wages in the following exchange: Journalist: “You said that you don’t want people to go backwards. Does that mean that you would support a wage hike of 5.1% just to keep up with inflation? Anthony Albanese: “Absolutely”. Any other response would be to suggest that real

Here is one truth about this election: the Liberal Party is risking its future on a prime minister who likely doesn’t have one. After years of neglect, it should come as no surprise that many Liberal voters would be looking for an alternative. What is a surprise is that the Liberal Party machine, as distinct

For most of the past decade the talk about housing affordability has focussed on house prices. As fiscal policy director, Greg Jericho notes in his Guardian Australia column, falling interest rates since November 2010 have made paying off a mortgage less onerous than it otherwise would have given the soaring house prices.

Before a vote has been cast, one election verdict has already been delivered. The campaign has been too light on policy and too heavy on misleading scare tactics. Our democracy is suffering for it. In just the first weeks of the election campaign, we have seen heated accusations of misleading claims from all sides. Waleed

The March CPI figures showing that inflation rose 5.1% over the past 12 months is not just the highest level since the introduction of the GST it also signals the biggest fall in real wages since then as well.