Higher wages without productivity? That’s what Labor reckons
Murray Watt’s claim that living standards are rising is a bold call amid an election being fought over one of the developed world’s biggest cost-of-living squeezes.
It was just after 8am, so it required a check of the transcript to make sure I’d heard it right. The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Murray Watt, had just told me on stage that Labor could deliver higher wages without breaking Australia’s alarming productivity drought.
In prepared remarks to The Australian Financial Review Workforce Summit on Tuesday, Watt claimed to be delivering “rising living standards for Australians”. That’s a bold call amid an election being fought over one of the developed world’s biggest cost-of-living squeezes.
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Michael Stutchbury is editor-at-large. He is in his fourth decade of writing for and editing national newspapers. After nearly six years as editor of The Australian, he returned to the Financial Review as editor-in-chief (2011-2024). Email Michael at mstutchbury@afr.com
