According to Treasury, wage stagnation has nothing to do with the government — workers just need to go and find businesses that pay higher wages.
Crikey readers discuss the Reserve Bank's interest rate cuts and Australia's productivity stagnation.
Australia now has a real productivity crisis. So where's the wailing and gnashing of teeth that accompanied the fake crisis claimed to have happened under Labor?
The new line from the business lobby is that our economic growth is "just luck". In fact the refusal of politicians to obey their demands has been crucial to that "luck".
A new OECD report suggests Workchoices-style industrial relations deregulation doesn't help wages growth or employment.
While the economy continues to rack up moderate growth, there are some weak points.
We talk a lot about productivity but rarely with any seriousness. And we might not even be looking in the right place for growth.
Business claims that wages growth will only happen when there's productivity growth. Except ... productivity is still growing, and stronger than under WorkChoices.
Conservatives and business leaders assured us that WorkChoices would increase productivity and Labor's Fair Work Act reduce it. So what happened? The Productivity Commission has the answer.
The mining lobby wants a new round of punitive industrial relations reforms, at a time when real wages are falling in the sector and productivity booming. But that's the way neoliberalism operates.