Thursday, 15 October 2026

Topics: ABS labour force data; unemployment; inflation; interest rates; productivity; Victorian politics; IBAC report.

E&OE……………………..

Jane Hume: Well, good afternoon, everybody. Labor came to office promising that Australians would be better off. Nothing can be further from the truth, and today's labour force figures emphasise that. We've seen an increase in the unemployment rate from 4.6% to 4.7%. Now, let's put that into context. That is taking historic lows of unemployment and turning it into a five-year high. We've now seen 180,000 more people unemployed today than there were when the Coalition left office. This week, the IMF forecasted that unemployment will go up to 4.7% in 2027. Now, that would be the fastest increase in unemployment out of all advanced economies. Indeed, the Reserve Bank has forecasted that unemployment would reach 4.7% at the end of 2027. But unfortunately, that forecast has come through much earlier than expected. 4.7% has taken economists by surprise, but it's Australians that are going to pay the price. Let me tell you about some of the statistics underlying those unemployment figures that are concerning me most. Youth unemployment is now 11.1%. That's double the national average. That's a genuine concern for Australians, particularly young Australians, who were promised more opportunities under Labor. There are more than a million people now that have two jobs. That's a record, and certainly a record for women. Around 518,000 women now work two jobs. Australians are working harder, but they're not getting ahead. This is a consequence of Labor's economy. And for Tim and I, one of the biggest concerns is that our home state of Victoria is the one with the highest unemployment rate, at 5.1%, and this should be the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the country. When you can't manage your economy, when you can't manage your budget, when your economic model fails, it's Australians that pay the price.

Tim Wilson: Thanks, Jane. The consequences of the Albanese economic model are now laid bare for everybody to see: higher unemployment, higher taxes, higher spending, higher inflation, and higher interest rates. These are devastating numbers for the 100,000 Australians that have lost their jobs over the past year. The IMF has projected 800,000 Australians will be without work next year, in addition to the number of Australians increasingly relying on second jobs. That's 800,000 mouths to feed. 800,000 people sitting around the kitchen table looking at their families and saying they don't know how they're going to be able to afford their mortgage. 800,000 Australians sitting around the kitchen tables of the nation, trying to understand how they're going to pay their rent. 800,000 Australians going to the supermarket and having to make tough choices about whether they can feed themselves or their families. This government does not understand the consequences of their economic model. It is leading to higher unemployment, higher taxes, higher spending, higher inflation, and of course, higher interest rates. The Albanese government is kneecapping Australians who simply want to get on with their lives, and they are paying a very heavy price because of the Albanese government's active inflation agenda.

Journalist: Just to both of you, how concerned are you about the situation that we're giving that we do have rising, or likely to continue to be a highly inflationary environment, simultaneously higher unemployment, given that the Reserve Bank has said multiple times productivity needs to be lifted, it doesn't look like we're going to get there? Do you foresee this getting worse, or what do you put to this in the future?

Jane Hume: Well, certainly we know that productivity is what drives economic growth without creating more inflation. The Reserve Bank has been very clear about that. Unless we can get productivity moving again, well, then it's going to be Australians that end up paying more for this, because their real wages simply won't be able to keep up. Now, this government's talked a big game on productivity, but what have they actually done? Because we've seen taxes go up, we've seen energy prices go up, we've seen businesses racked up in regulation, and red tape, our industrial relations laws have become less flexible, not more flexible, capital is choosing to go elsewhere rather than come to Australia, and we're hesitating about taking up really important technologies here. This is Labor's economic model. It is actually stopping productivity rather than driving it, something needs to give. Now, this week you probably would have noticed that we introduced some legislation to do exactly that, and that was by abolishing scope three emissions reporting, something that has wrapped up Australian businesses in so much regulation and red tape that is holding them back, it's costing businesses more. If the Albanese government was serious about deregulation, if it was serious about driving productivity, it would scrap its ridiculous climate agenda that is making it so much harder for Australian businesses to just simply get on with the job.

Tim Wilson: The economy Labor built is one that pushes up inflation and pushes up unemployment. Until we fix the government, until we change the government, Australians will continue to go backwards, inflation will outstrip wages, and Australians will become poorer. Frankly, I'm terrified about where the Albanese economic model is taking us, because the government, while they sit in their ivory towers, are completely disconnected from the human impacts of what Australians are experiencing, where they're not sure whether they can afford to go to the supermarket, they're not sure if they can afford to pay the rent, and they're not sure whether they can afford the roof over their head.

Journalist: Just a second one. You're both Victorian. Do you have a comment on the IBAC report about public servants hiding information from the Victorian government?

Jane Hume: This was an extraordinary and yet unsurprising revelation today, because we know just how deeply corrupt the Victorian Labor government is. To be honest, this is just another story in a long list of stories that we’re hearing come out of IBAC, that is pointing the finger at a Labor government that has not just allowed corruption to occur on its watch, but has often enabled it. What frightens me is with legislation like the Building Cooperative Workplaces Bill that was introduced by the Albanese government, the Commonwealth government is beginning to replicate what we've seen go on in the states that has allowed that corruption to occur. We simply cannot allow that to happen. That's why we've introduced legislation to overturn the worst elements of that Building Cooperative Workplaces Bill, making sure that government procurement, there isn't favouritism to our union mates in the Labor Party, it’s actually government procurement is based on value for money and efficiency of delivery. That certainly hasn't been the case in Victoria, quite clearly. IBAC have made that very clear. They've made it clear in Queensland with the inquiry into corruption in the construction industry up there. We can't allow that to happen at a federal level, but to be honest, just by virtue of the fact that the Albanese government gave an additional $3.8 billion to the Suburban Rail Loop in Victoria, even after it knew that the corruption had occurred on that site, I think that speaks volumes.

[ENDS]