WEDNESDAY’S productivity data confirmed that Australia is becoming Paul Keating’s “banana republic”, with the worst non-pandemic figures since the 1991 so-called “recession we had to have”.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ National Accounts figures showed Australia’s weak growth was particularly due to “subdued household demand”.
That’s Labor’s homegrown inflation: the cost-of-living crisis that Mallee people are feeling acutely.
Core inflation has not fallen here since January yet it has fallen in every advanced country in the world.
Compared to other major economies, Australian household disposable income has been in freefall since Labor came to office in May 2022.
Overseas household disposable incomes have lifted by 4 per cent but Australian household disposable incomes have fallen by 8 per cent.
Wednesday’s data showed we are in our sixth consecutive quarter of household recession.
As a result, Australia’s gross domestic product grew just 0.2 per cent in the last quarter and slowed to 1 per cent annual growth.
By comparison, global GDP growth is tracking at around 3 per cent, and in comparable OECD countries at more than 2 per cent.
Australia is at the back of the pack compared to other countries.
Keating’s banana republic prophecy of 1986 warned that Australia must become productive or risk becoming a third-rate economy.
Unlike his hero Keating, who embarked on reforms to modernise our economy, Treasurer Jim Chalmers is throwing banana peels out for our economy left, right and centre.
For example, labour productivity has collapsed 0.8 per cent, which cripples any possible return to a productive economy.
The treasurer has many levers to get our economy going again, such as responsible fiscal policy, energy policy, tighter immigration policy and housing approvals.
The RBA has just one lever – interest rates – which it hasn’t raised for more than 300 days, yet somehow last weekend Treasurer Chalmers falsely claimed the RBA was the one “smashing the economy”.
Mallee families want less blame-shifting and more action from their government, and the Coalition is ready to fix this mess at the next election.
