Coalition MP Reckons You Should Just “Have A Job” To Fix The Cost Of Living Crisis

Coalition MP David Littleproud has wildly claimed that the best way to address the rising cost of living is “to have a job”, which is a totally useful thing to say.

The cost of living is, obviously, a major talking point ahead of Australians heading to the polls on Saturday, with inflation rising faster than wages can keep up — leaving Australians struggling to make ends meet. But despite the fact that the latest Wage Price Index shows that wages have effectively fallen by 2.5 percent in the last 12 months, the government continues to ignore the problem.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Littleproud quoted the low unemployment rate as a way to dodge accountability for the cost of living crisis.

“Well, the best way to be able to attack the cost of living as an individual is to have a job and we have been able to bring that unemployment rate down now for four percent and hopefully it will have a “three” in front of it soon,” said Littleproud. “That’s put tension in the marketplace where employers have had to pay more to keep their employers or get new ones.”

However, it’s worth noting that The Australia Institute has refuted claims that low unemployment is — or will — stimulate wage growth. “This underscores the fact that low unemployment is not stimulating wage growth, and government intervention is required,” senior economist at the Australia Institute Matt Grudnoff said in a statement provided to Junkee. “The anecdotal stories of big wage increases that have been told by business appear to be isolated incidents.

“The record low unemployment rate does not appear to have induced any major increase in wages. Wage growth has returned to the anaemic pre-pandemic levels.”

But instead of addressing the issue, Littleproud focussed on criticising Labor’s recent comments about increasing minimum wage.

“That’s what we have been able to do in the economy, not just shoot at the hip and put it at 5.1 percent. There’ll be unintended consequences for that,” said Littleproud. “You have to work with the Fair Work Commission, which the Labor party set up as the independent arbiter and they take into account much of those factors, those economic factors, around inflation, around interest rates, around unemployment rates.

“You need to make sure you’re methodical around this. If you shoot from the hip you can have an unintended consequence.”

Littleproud also, weirdly, claimed that “governments don’t employee people”, which is a nice way to ignore the many, many people — largely essential workers — employed in the public sector.

“Governments don’t employ people, businesses do and so what we tried to do is do that and we have done it, achieved it, over a million new jobs we have been able to create,” said Littleproud. “We’ve got more people in employment now than before the pandemic. Australians should be damn proud. And that just doesn’t happen overnight. There’s no silver bullet to this and we shouldn’t think there’s any silver bullet. It takes calm, methodical work to make sure you get the foundations right. That’s what we have done.”