On Thursday, I lambasted Treasurer Jim Chalmers for boasting that Labor has delivered the “longest period of consecutive real wage growth in almost a decade” following eight consecutive quarters of annual real wage growth:
Chalmers’ boast came despite real wages falling by 0.5% in Q3 2025, tracking at mid-2011 levels. Australian real wages have only recovered by 1.1% since bottoming in the March quarter of 2023.
To add insult to injury, the strongest recent wage growth has come from the public sector, while private sector wage growth has collapsed.
Wages are also growing significantly faster in the non-market (government-funded) sectors of public administration and safety, healthcare and social assistance, and education than in market sector industries:
Finally, Labor has artificially lowered headline CPI inflation via the $5.3 billion of energy bill subsidies, which have reduced electricity prices:
Without Labor’s energy subsidies, retail electricity prices would have averaged 16% higher since mid-2023, meaning headline CPI would also have been higher and real wages lower.
The RBA’s latest Statement of Monetary Policy also forecasts little rebound by the end of 2027, with real wages expected to be tracking at late 2011 levels:
Thus, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has nothing to boast about on the wages front. Labor’s performance on this measure has been abysmal.
Just when you think Jim Chalmers’ economic misinformation couldn’t get any lower, he stated the following via media release:
At the same time, we’ve overseen the creation of 1.2 million jobs and stronger employment growth than any major advanced economy.
Around four out of every five of those jobs have been created in the private sector.
The private sector recovery we have been planning and preparing for is taking place, and it’s clear that private demand has been the key driver of growth for three consecutive quarters.
Yet again, Jim Chalmers is being loose with the truth since he has included government-funded jobs in the non-market sector (i.e., private sector jobs in healthcare, public administration, social assistance, and education) as private sector jobs.
The following chart from Alex Joiner from IFM Investors illustrates the trickery:
As you can see, there were 457,911 private sector jobs in these government-aligned sectors created between Q1 2023 and Q2 2025, 55% of total jobs created.
Adding public servants into the mix, 650,526 non-market sector jobs were created between Q1 2023 and Q2 2025, 78% of the total.
In a similar vein, the following chart plots job growth by industry between May 2022 (when Labor was elected) and August 2025 (latest available data).
Of the total 1,155,000 jobs created over this period, 617,100 (53%) were in the non-market industries of healthcare, social assistance, education, and public administration and safety.
However you cut the data, Jim Chalmers’ claim that Labor the private sector are powering the economy and labour market is categorically false. It is all about government spending through the non-market sector.
Such government spending is also killing Australia’s productivity growth.
Stop lying, Jim.
