There was good news on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Another solid month of jobs growth left the unemployment rate steady at 4.1% in January.<\/p>\n
The impressive resilience of Australia\u2019s jobs market has been the positive story of the post-pandemic economy.<\/p>\n
We have come out the other side of the global health crisis and a once-in-a-generation inflationary event with a jobless rate that has tracked consistently one percentage point below where it was through the dog days of the late 2010s.<\/p>\n
There has never been a higher share of us in the workforce.<\/p>\n
For so many households, this has been the difference between experiencing cost-of-living pressures and suffering a full-blown crisis.<\/p>\n
But is the jobs market too good?<\/p>\n
This was essentially the argument, in the crudest terms, being made by Tim Wilson<\/a> within 48 hours of being appointed as the new shadow treasurer<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Liberal MP, who scraped through in the last election by the skin of his teeth<\/a>, is out talking to the press and making waves.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n What caught many people\u2019s attention were his remarks, reported in the Nine newspapers, that the Coalition was prepared to \u201creview\u201d the Reserve Bank of Australia\u2019s 80-year-old \u201cdual mandate\u201d of pursuing both low and stable inflation and full employment.<\/p>\n Wilson reckons the RBA has been too soft on inflation.<\/p>\n His suggestion is that the central bank should have kept rates higher for longer to make sure inflation stayed under control in 2025, even if that meant a weaker economy.<\/p>\n Jim Chalmers was quick out of the gates on Thursday morning with a media release headlined \u201cTim Wilson\u2019s plan for higher unemployment\u201d.<\/p>\n After welcoming the latest jobs data, the ACTU secretary, Sally McManus, also went on the attack.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s disgraceful that Tim Wilson\u2019s first economic policy is to say that more Australian workers should be unemployed,\u201d McManus said.<\/p>\n Wilson is not the first conservative politician to say their country\u2019s central bank should be solely focused on getting inflation under control.<\/p>\n For example, Donald Trump\u2019s vice-president in his first term, Mike Pence, was campaigning on ditching the employment part<\/a> of the US Federal Reserve\u2019s dual mandate as recently as 2023.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s an odd line to be pursuing as the Liberals try to win back votes from the populist right wing.<\/p>\n Mervyn King, the former head of the Bank of England, in 1997 branded as \u201cinflation nutters\u201d those who said monetary policy should be set regardless of the economic fallout.<\/p>\n