Consumer price inflation has recorded its biggest increase in 32 years, rising to 7.3% annually in the September quarter.

The headline figure in ABS released on 26 October remains well ahead of the average latest real-time bargained wage data showing annual rises of just 2.4%.

Annual inflation increased from 6.1% in the June quarter to 7.3% in September. Meanwhile, one of the ABS’s preferred measures of underlying inflation, the trimmed mean, grew annually by 6.1%, up from 4.9% in June – the highest it’s been since the statistic was first captured in 2003.

The September quarter’s annual CPI rise was the largest since 1990.

Federal Treasury in the Budget predicted inflation would rise to 7.75% by the end of the year.

Workers have to demand more, or keep going backwards – and the best way to do that is together.