QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator HUME (Victoria—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:04): Under Labor, real wages have fallen back to around 2011 levels, yet yesterday your own leader here in the Senate continued to boast about nominal wage increases inflated by inflation, and your Treasurer continues to trumpet headline GDP growth inflated by rapid population growth. Why does the government continue to gaslight Australians with headline numbers when in real terms and in real life their wages and their living standards have gone backwards?