I don't accept the union's argument for a so-called "catch up." This implies that their wages have not kept pace with inflation, but this is not true. Based on National Accounts data, real wages grew by over 20% during Howard's term. More recently, the Labour Price Index increased by 4.2% in 2007 while CPI increased by only 3%.

But all that may change next week. The most recent CPI shows annualised inflation at 4.2% (to March q 2008) but the March q LPI will not be released until next Wednesday and average weekly earnings data on Thursday. I expect there will be a lot of attention on how they compare to the current inflation rate. With the Budget release on Tuesday, it could be a very entertaining week.

It is true across many industries outside the resource sector.

Living in a resource town and knowing both resource and non-resource sector workers, I can assure you that wages outside the boom have not kept pace with inflation. Statistics surrounding wages are often skewed because it is not possible to interveiw everyone - the high wages of resource sector workers and skilled tradies (and CEO's who are considered highly paid workers) are all rolled into the stats and serve to bump up the average.

Will argue later - Vicar of Dibley is on.