The defining feature of today’s National Accounts is that company profits are growing more than five times faster than Australians' wages.
 
Labor welcomes the relatively strong headline GDP number, but for most Australians their experience of the economy involves stagnant wages, insecure work and struggling with cost of living pressures.
 
Today’s figures show:

• Company profits are growing more than five times faster than wages (8.8 per cent versus 1.6 per cent);
• Average compensation per employee has only grown 1.6 per cent for the year – meaning incomes aren’t keeping up with the cost of living;
• Household savings are at a decade low, falling to only one per cent of disposable incomes in the last quarter;
• Real net national disposable income per capita – a proxy for living standards – has barely grown under the Liberals and actually went backwards last quarter; and
• Business investment is disappointing, with private investment growth flat.

 
The Liberals’ new Treasurer is every bit as out-of-touch as his two predecessors if he wants a pat on the back for an economy that isn’t delivering for middle Australia.

On the back of favourable global conditions, the economy is growing in spite of this divided and chaotic Liberal Government, not because of it.

Our economy would be even stronger if we didn’t have a divided Government giving the biggest tax breaks to those who need them least, ripping money out of education and training, and destroying the NBN.
 
A Labor Government will make sure economic growth is inclusive and from the bottom up; by investing in people’s capacity and productivity, targeting tax cuts for those most likely to spend in the economy, and prioritising tax breaks for businesses that invest onshore.
 
Australians need and deserve a Government focused on growing the economy in an inclusive way, boosting wages and addressing cost of living pressures.
 
Instead, Australians are stuck with a divided, dysfunctional rabble led by an illegitimate Prime Minister that nobody voted for.