Press conference, Melbourne
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS: Well, today I'm very pleased to announce that under the Albanese Labor Government, more than 1 million new jobs have been created. This is the most jobs ever created in a single parliamentary term by any Australian government ever. It's the first time in Australian history that any government has created more than one million new jobs in a single parliamentary term.
Today's figures also show that unemployment has remained steady at 4.1 percent and of course, this is all happening at the same time as we're bringing down inflation and delivering important cost of living relief for Australians. This is a remarkable achievement in the context of a slowing economy and a labour market that's expected to soften, and it's a strong endorsement of the Albanese Government's responsible economic policy. So in essence, what we're managing to achieve at the moment, despite a slowing economy and despite worldwide tensions, is jobs up, inflation down, all while delivering cost of living relief and turning Liberal deficits into Labor surpluses.
I think all of us understand that having a job is a crucial cost of living measure. It is so much harder to afford the bills if you don't have a job, and that's why the Albanese Government has worked so hard with business, with unions and workers, to make sure that we do continue creating more jobs. And what these figures show today is that under Labor, more people are working, they're earning more, and they're keeping more of what they earn. Today's figures are, of course, a real tribute to Australia's workers and employers, and I congratulate all of them on this fantastic achievement.
Just to give you a little bit more detail on today's figures - and these are September figures, so the most recent received.As I say, since coming to office, 1,039,300 new jobs have been created under the Albanese Labor Government, and over 60 percent of those new jobs have been full time. In September alone, we saw 64,100 new jobs created - 51,000 of them were full time. For the first time ever in Australia's history, we've seen 10 million Australians working in full time jobs, providing them with that job security, permanent employment, so that they can deal with cost of living pressures that we know are very real for people. The most recent figures show we continue to see an increase in the participation rate - so there are more people looking for work in Australia. And in fact, we've seen a record high participation rate for Australian women. And we've also seen, very pleasingly, strong jobs growth right across the country, in every state and territory except for the Northern Territory.
Now these figures under the Albanese Labor Government are, of course, a very stark contrast from what we see from Peter Dutton and the Coalition, who only this week, revealed that they are open to making it easier for Australian employers to sack their workers. It's hard to imagine a worse time when people are dealing with cost of living pressures to make it easier for people to lose their job, rather than thinking about trying to create new jobs, but that's what we're seeing from Peter Dutton and the Coalition. And last night, you may have seen a hollow speech from Peter Dutton's Shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor, full of vague statements and empty promises. Still no economic plan from the alternative government as we approach the final stages of this term before the next election. So we don't have an economic plan from the Opposition, but we do know three things; firstly, that they promised to cut $315 billion in federal government spending. Imagine the job losses that would cause right across Australian communities. Secondly, when it comes to workplace relations policies, they're on the record now agreeing that they will undertake at least three or four different cuts to wages and conditions. Things like the Right to Disconnect, casuals' rights, labour hire workers' pay and as I say, this week, opening the door to making it easier to sack people. And thirdly, we know that they want to build expensive, risky nuclear reactors across the country, and they still won't tell us how much that will cost to do. What have Peter Dutton and the Coalition got to hide about their economic policy, that only months away from an election they still have no economic plan, they won't tell people how much their nuclear reactors will cost. They won't say what they will cut to achieve their $315 billion in savings, and they still won't reveal their total package of workplace reforms to cut pay, cut conditions and make it easier to sack people. It's time that Peter Dutton and the Coalition put forward their plan, and in the meantime, the Albanese Labor Government will keep delivering on our plan, which is creating more jobs, bringing down inflation, providing important cost of living relief and turning Liberal deficits into Labor surpluses. Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Do today's figures rule out any prospect of a rate cut in the near term?
MURRAY WATT: Well, of course, it'll be a matter for the independent Reserve Bank to make its decisions about interest rates going forward, but I would point out again that we are able to continue creating new jobs while bringing inflation down. The most recent inflation figures that we saw, 2.7 percent, that is more than halving the inflation rate that was in place when we first came to office. So Labor's responsible economic policies are bringing down inflation much closer to the Reserve Bank's target range, while at the same time continuing to create jobs.
JOURNALIST: What do you think is driving the uptick in the participation rate?
MURRAY WATT: Yeah, it's a really interesting feature of these figures that we do continue to see the participation rate growing, especially for Australian women. I have no doubt that some of the policies that we've put into place to make it easier, particularly for women, to find work, are contributing to women now getting out and actually looking for work more actively than they have in the past. Some of the things like cheaper childcare. We've always said that, of course, while providing early childhood education and care is important for kids in terms of their educational development, it's important for families, but it's also really important for the economy as well, because it does give parents, in particular, women, the opportunity to return to the workforce in greater numbers than we've seen in the past. So I'm sure that that is contributing to this rise in the participation rate.
JOURNALIST: Does not perhaps show how the cost of living crisis is gripping people, that people either not retiring or they're coming back to the workforce?
MURRAY WATT: Look, I'm sure that the cost of living pressures that Australians are experiencing are also contributing to their desire to find work. Of course, people are looking for work and finding work so that they can pay their bills. And the really pleasing thing about these figures is that new jobs are being created for people to take up. Usually and traditionally, what you often see when the participation rate rises - more people looking for work - you often see the unemployment rate rise as well. That's not happening in Australia at the moment. Despite those really difficult economic conditions that we're experiencing here, along with the rest of the world, we continue creating more jobs. So I want to make it clear, I don't want to pretend that things are completely perfect for Australians, we know people are doing it tough. And we'll continue delivering that cost of living relief, but as I say, ensuring that people can find work and keep their work is a really important part of delivering meeting those cost of living pressures.
JOURNALIST: You touched on it before, but the RBA says it wants to see higher unemployment to show that the heat is out of the economy before it lowers rates. Can we have unemployment stay this low and still get inflation down further so they'll cut rates?
MURRAY WATT: Well, look at what's been happening in the Australian economy and the data that keeps coming out. What this is demonstrating is that it is possible to keep unemployment at historic lows, to keep creating more jobs while bringing inflation down. Many of the policies that we put in place, whether it be the energy bill, relief, cheaper medicines, cheaper childcare, they haven't been designed just to take pressure off people. They've also been designed to take pressure off the inflation rate, and that is now working. It's a phenomenal achievement to have more than halved the inflation rate since we came to office, while at the same time creating more jobs. I'm sure the Reserve Bank will take all of that into account at its next decisions.
JOURNALIST: The wage price index is at 4.1 percent annually - how much higher would you like to see that? Or would you like to see it higher?
MURRAY WATT: Well, we've said since, I mean, we were elected on a platform of getting wages moving again, because what we saw under the Coalition was 10 years of wage stagnation, people going backwards. You might recall, when the Coalition were in office, they literally said that keeping wages low was a deliberate design feature of their economic policy. Well, Labor has the opposite approach - we want to see people's wages rise. We want to see more jobs created, and that's what we're actually seeing. So it's very pleasing that the most recent wage figures demonstrate that we are seeing consecutive quarters now of annual real wage growth. So wages in Australia, on the whole, are rising above inflation. Again, that's a massive contrast to what we saw when we took office, where they were going backwards under the Coalition by 3.4 percent. Again, you know, it's not perfect out there for people, and things are still very tough. But imagine how much harder things would be if people's wages were going backwards, like they were under the Coalition, and if we saw Peter Dutton bring in his policies to cut wages, cut conditions and make it easier to sack people.
JOURNALIST: Just on another matter, will additional protections be granted to the CFMEU administrator who police were made aware of received an imminent death threat?
MURRAY WATT: Yeah, I was very disturbed to see the reports of the credible death threat that has been made against the administrator of the CFMEU Construction Division, Mr. Irving. I spoke to Mr. Irving about this yesterday and expressed my full support and the Government's support for the work that he is doing. It is really important and really difficult work. No-one in any workplace, obviously, should be threatened with their life for simply doing their work. And this, I think, underlines why we've had to take action to clean up the CFMEU and to clean up the wider construction industry. We, of course, want to ensure that Mr. Irving and his family are safe and secure. I don't think it's appropriate to go into details about what arrangements will be made, but we obviously think it's important that he and his family are safe and secure.
JOURNALIST: Will you intervene if there are further mass walkouts from unions who are protesting the CFMEU administration?
MURRAY WATT: Will I intervene in that?
JOURNALIST: Yeah, essentially wildcat behaviour.
MURRAY WATT: You're talking about industrial action, that kind of thing? Well, look, obviously Australian workplace law contains a range of provisions that deal with protected action and unprotected action. And I would anticipate that employers and regulators would exercise their rights to deal with that. We obviously saw yesterday here in Melbourne, a small meeting of a small group of unions who don't support the position of the ACTU and the Government when it comes to the administration of the CFMEU. I was also yesterday addressing the ACTU national executive, which included representatives from almost every single union around the country, who were not only supportive of the work that the Government has been doing to clean up the CFMEU, but are also very supportive of the policies that we're putting forward to help working people. So you know, if other groups want to go and have other small meetings with a small number of people in them, that's their right. But my focus, and the ACTU's focus, is making sure that Peter Dutton and the Coalition never have a chance to cut wages conditions and make it easier to sack people.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned that sort of breakaway group, if they split from the ACTU, does that damage the labour movement more broadly, make it harder to achieve some of the gains that you guys have been fighting for?
MURRAY WATT: I don't think so. I mean, from my point of view, we're getting on with it. We're getting on with the CFMEU administration, which is supported by the vast majority of the union movement and the Australian community, and we're getting on with delivering better pay, more secure work, more gender equality and ensuring that people can keep their jobs, not risk being sacked under a Dutton government.
All good? Thanks.