{"id":37532,"date":"2026-02-19T15:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T04:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=37532"},"modified":"2026-02-19T15:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T04:34:11","slug":"wages-lag-behind-soaring-costs-of-housing-and-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2026\/02\/19\/wages-lag-behind-soaring-costs-of-housing-and-healthcare\/","title":{"rendered":"Wages lag behind soaring costs of housing and healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New quarterly ABS data <\/u><\/a>released today show wages are not keeping up with inflation, as yet another bank, NAB, announces a quarterly profit of $2.1 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While wages rose 0.8% in the December quarter and 3.4% over the year, inflation climbed even faster at 3.8% – meaning workers\u2019 pay packets are going backwards in real terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government decisions are driving this real reduction in wages – with the housing crisis spurred on by handouts to wealthy property investors, a 5% deposit scheme debacle that is fuelling house price rises, and government approval of a 4.4% rise to healthcare premiums, the biggest in eight years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the big banks\u2019 rake in the profits of a housing crisis spurred on by Labor\u2019s policies, working Australians struggle to afford soaring rents and rising mortgages, let alone get into the housing market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Greens say Labor needs to start making policies for renters, first home buyers and mortgage holders instead of working for the banks and property hoarders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greens spokesperson for finance, workplace relations, employment and housing Senator Barbara Pocock:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWorking people are seeing their real wages go backwards, while interest rates rise and Labor lets the cost of housing and healthcare surge out of control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWorking Australians have had enough. They\u2019re fed up with seeing the banks and wealthy property investors profit from a housing crisis out of control, while wages aren\u2019t keeping up and workers are going backwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe cost of living and housing crisis are being felt across the country. When national rents have risen 2.5 times faster than wages<\/u><\/a> over the past five years, working households fall further behind through no fault of their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe big banks are profiting off rising house prices and increased mortgages, while homeowners and renters pay the price of rising inflation. How is that fair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmid rising cost-of-living pressures, renters are having to fork out more than one-third of their income just to keep a roof over their heads. That\u2019s the definition of housing stress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLabor\u2019s policies – such as the 5% deposit scheme and the $181b tax breaks for property hoarders – are adding fuel to the fire, driving up house prices while the banks take all the profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLabor must reform the tax concessions that are fuelling house prices and turbocharging inequality.  Scrapping the CGT discount is an opportunity for this government to change course and help fix, rather than fuel, the housing crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithout tackling the root causes of the housing crisis – which are the tax breaks for wealthy property hoarders and the lack of social and affordable housing – house prices will continue to spike, banks will continue to rake in the profits and workers will be thrown into more and more stress.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New quarterly ABS data released today show wages are not keeping up with inflation, as yet another bank, NAB, announces a quarterly profit of $2.1 billion. While wages rose 0.8% in the December quarter and 3.4% over the year, inflation climbed even faster at 3.8% – meaning workers\u2019 pay packets are going backwards in real terms. … Continue reading “Wages lag behind soaring costs of housing and healthcare”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37533,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37532\/revisions\/37533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}