Jim Chalmers lathers lipstick on real wage pig

Thursday 20 November 2025

Treasurer Jim Chalmers doesn’t know when to shut up.

On Wednesday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) posted wage price data for the September quarter of 2025, which showed that real inflation-adjusted wages fell by 0.5% over the quarter:

The decline took Australian real wages back to mid-2011 levels, tracking 6.4% below the mid-2020 peak.

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.