Newly-appointed cabinet minister Linda Reynolds has tied herself in knots over whether flexible and relatively modest wages are a "deliberate design feature" of the national economy.
Senator Reynolds, who was sworn in as defence industry minister last week, said she did "absolutely not" agree wage flexibility was a key feature of the economy.
She scolded Opposition Leader Bill Shorten for supposedly raising the idea.
But when it was pointed out Finance Minister Mathias Cormann made the suggestion, Senator Reynolds told Sky News her colleague was "absolutely right".
Labor's finance spokesman Jim Chalmers said the comments revealed the coalition government's thinking behind stagnant wage growth.
"Stagnant wages growth under the Liberals is not some accident - it's a deliberate policy objective," he told the ABC's Insiders program on Sunday.
