House of Assembly Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1) 55 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Wage Price Index Wage Price Index Mrs PEARCE House of Assembly King Wage Price Index Mrs PEARCE (King) (14:43): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier update the house on any recent economic data relevant to South Australian families? The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS House of Assembly Croydon Premier Wage Price Index The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:43): I thank the member for King for her question. I was really happy to see come through from the commercial and economics branch of the Department of Treasury and Finance recent wage price index data, which is a suite of numbers that I try to keep abreast of on a regular basis because they speak to what is actually happening in South Australian households in respect of income. The wage price index—which is data that I would actively encourage all people concerned with the cost-of-living crisis, and the capacity of South Australian families to deal with it, to keep abreast of—is actually rather positive for the state of South Australia. I am very pleased to inform that in the most recent statistics in South Australia the wage price index went up by 1.8 per cent versus the national average of 1.4 per cent. Mr Tarzia House of Assembly Hartley Mr Tarzia: Inflation? The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS House of Assembly Croydon Premier The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Naturally—the member for Hartley interjects, talking about inflation, and he's right to raise it because inflation is the working family's curse. Inflation erodes the standard of living of people. When I say working people, I'm not talking about it in the traditional context of a wage and salary earner. I am also talking about hardworking small business owners, in many instances, who don't necessarily take a wage; they seek to reinvest back in their businesses at any opportunity they can. The wage price index reflects a family's capacity to withstand the onslaught of ever-increasing cost of living, best represented in the form of CPI or inflation. To see the 3.3 per cent annualised increase that we are experiencing here or, in a South Australian context, to be ahead in a very substantial way—1.8 per cent versus 1.4 per cent for the rest of the country—is a generally speaking wholly positive thing, particularly if it's happening in the context of a labour market that remains tight, which is the case here in South Australia. I don't think it's a stretch to say that if you wake up in South Australia today and you are absolutely determined to get a job, you are in a very good position to be able to get it, and that is a good thing. That is a good thing for all those that place a high value on all the dignity that work can provide. In respect of South Australia outperforming the rest of the nation when it comes to the wage price index, there has been an economic orthodoxy in years gone by that that wouldn't necessarily be a good thing. There are some people who try to subscribe to the view that if wages are going up then that is a bad thing. We don't share that view on this side of the house. If wages are going up in such a way that it is sustainable and able to be accommodated by employers regardless of their size, then that speaks to an aspirational component of our economy that we are striving to ensure, that working people regardless of their income are entitled to a better standard of living best represented by real wage growth. Real wage growth—we've got some way to go because of the current situation with inflation, but the fact that we are outperforming the rest of the country I think speaks to a relatively stronger performance in the South Australian economy but, more than that, not just a stronger performance for performance sake but a stronger performance in a way that is actually material to the lives of working families in this state who clearly have challenges in front of them with the cost-of-living crisis.