Amusing stuff from the dreaded teleprompter fail files at The Guardian:
The new minister for defence industry, Linda Reynolds, has disavowed and then embraced arguments from her cabinet colleague Mathias Cormann that wages adjusting in line with economic conditions is a “deliberate design feature” of the Australian economy.
During an untidy television appearance on Sunday morning, the newly minted cabinet appointee was asked whether she agreed with the sentiment that flexibility in wages, and keeping wages at a relatively modest level, is a deliberate feature of Australia’s economic architecture to help drive employment growth – a point the finance minister made last week.
Believing the observation was an argument being put by Bill Shorten in his economic messaging, Reynolds initially flatly rejected it, and blasted the Labor leader for making it.
“No I don’t believe that – absolutely not – and for Bill Shorten to even suggest that, I think, shows a fundamental lack of understanding about economics,” Reynolds said.
When it was pointed out to her that the argument was actually Cormann’s, not Shorten’s, she promptly declared her colleague was “absolutely right”.
Cormann last week made a technocratic argument about the link between wage levels and unemployment levels during an interview with Sky News.
The finance minister noted it was “a deliberate feature of our economic architecture” that “wages can adjust in the context of economic conditions … to avoid massive spikes in unemployment, which are incredibly disruptive” – meaning wages could decrease or increase in line with prevailing conditions in the economy.
Good to see Mr Cormann being honest about the real role of mass immigration.
Not sure our national defense is in good hands though…
