With yesterdays interest rate cut, the first with more to come, the promised economic soft landing seems to be delivered. Inflation low, interest rates down, unemployment low. Yes, there has been some economic pain, with higher than expected inflation, which was fueled by the drunken sailor spending of the Coalition when in government, leaving the incoming Labor government with almost a trillion dollars of debt and 6.1% inflation. With relief packages, and prudent targeted spending, Labor has been able to deliver two surpluses in a row, the Coalition couldn't deliver one in almost 10 years in office. Albanese and the Labor government should be rightly proud of the economic soft landing they have been able to deliver the Australian people. What if the Coalition had continued in government, there would have been more division, more economic pain, with high inflation, high interest rates and high unemployment. Now the people can reward Labor with a second term in office.

Dear Paul,

I like the fact that we have a Prime Minister who shows up,
takes responsibility and works with people to fix problems.

Here's the latest Media Releases, Speeches, and other news:

http://alp.org.au/news/all-news/

the economic soft landing
Paul1405,
So, Labor inherited a big debt from the Coalition ? The Coalition didn't inherit a mess from Labor Lol !
A Labor crony Reserve bank reducing the interest rate just before an election is coincidental ? Yeah right !
The Coalition have always pulled the Country up after Labor Governments not the other way round. I recall the perpetual cries of Labor blaming the GFC for their last loss but no acknowledging COVID for the last Coalition's battle whilst every Leftie hanger-on still got paid !
I wonder how many more will be given jobs in the PS before the election in exchange of votes !

Paul1405

I’m not sure about “more to come”. Bullock said "The market is expecting quite a few more interest rate cuts in the middle of next year, about three more on top of this. Whether or not that eventuates is going to depend very much on the data. Our feeling at the moment is that that is far too confident."

The “soft landing” has delivered the sharpest fall in real wages since the great depression and the worst drop in real disposable income in the OECD. We also have record high average personal tax rates.

http://www.afr.com/policy/economy/how-australia-became-the-world-s-biggest-cost-of-living-loser-20241118-p5krgk#:~:text=On%20this%20measure%2C%20Australians%20have,cent%20higher%20across%20the%20OECD.

Hi Rhian,

I think that should read "THIS YEAR"; "the market is expecting quite a few more interest rate cuts in the middle of next year, about three more on top of this" As we know inflation was 6.1% when the Noalition left office. Real wages stagnated under the Noalition as part of their "economic policy". Scott Morrison presided over the largest debt in Australian history. His government not only doubled the (Turnballs) debt, ScumO and Friedbrain sent it to unprecedented levels!

Just for Indy; when Labor left office in 2013 the National Debt was a modest $161.3 billion, the Noaltion managed to stoke that up to a mega $812.1 billion. Mostly with handouts to the likes of Gerry Harvey! Labor can now claim inflation low, employment high, interest rates falling. Isn't Jim Charmers a wonderful Treasure, delivering surpluses, keeping Australians in jobs, and tackling Noalition inflation and debt at the same time, wonderful work, just wonderful!

Now what is the Noalition's economic policy, taxpayer funded long lunches for bosses! That's what. Disgusting! Not only was Gerry Harvey given million of taxpayer dollars by Morrison, Dutton now wants to give him Lobster Thermidor for lunch, all compliments of the poor suffering taxpayer, as he sits down to his self funded Vegemite Sandwich. Disgusting!

Paul1405,
So, what you're literally saying is that, had Labor been in power during COVID all would have been honkey dory ! Labor would have managed it all better than the Coalition & the rest of the World ?
Hypocritic stupid doesn't come anywhere near an appropriate term to describe your mentality !
Just do us a favour & save this country some money by taking a sickie & join some idiotic Green protest march.

Indy,

You can see the great results on Covid from the majority of Labor states. Then there was the vaccine stuff up by Morrison, and all that dosh given out to their undeserving 'fat cats' mates. AND, just for YOU, great work from the Palaszczuk Labor government here in Queensland that kept a little old fella like you safe and well from the bugs. Even today Albo has you on free health care, low cost prescriptions, give Mr Potato Head, half a chance, and he'll scrap Medicare, hike your prescriptions and cut your crappy pension, just for starters!

Hi Paul
That’s what she meant I think, but all the media sources I’ve seen report her saying “next year”, e.g.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-19/federal-politics-live-blog-feburary-19/104951990

Yes, inflation was high under the previous government, as it was in every developed country in the aftermath of the Ukraine invasion. But even though our inflation peaked lower than the OECD average, it has come down more slowly, and the effect on real living standards has been severe. Growth in real wages and disposable incomes slowed dramatically under the previous government (and the one before that). But at least they didn’t go backwards.

FireResist.co.uk offers certified fire-rated doors, fire-resistant glass, and intumescent seals to enhance building safety and comply with UK fire regulations. Their tailored solutions provide effective protection against fire hazards. Explore their comprehensive product range or contact their team for expert guidance. https://fireresist.co.uk/

Hi Rhian,

There are basically two ways government can tackle economic downturns, the hard way, favoured by conservatives of "battening down the hatches", through tight fiscal policy, mainly involving the cutting of government spending and waiting for the free market to right itself. This was the policy adopted by most developed countries at the start of the Great Depression of the 1930's, and it was favoured by leading economists and business at that time. The problem with that approach is rising unemployment, slowing of general economic activity, lowering of living standards and a uncontrolled downward economic spiral, which brings an economic disaster to millions.

The second approach involves government intervention, generally with increased government spending, and more interventionist policies to keep the economy moving, well at least not going backwards. Economic intervention is the general policy most developed countries, including Australia, adopt today. This gives economic protection to millions, mainly through low unemployment and monitory stimulus. Referring to the Great Depression, this intervention was basically the Roosevelt New Deal policy, which helped to kick start the American economy which then flowed trough to the world economy. WWII then provided another form of economic stimulus, but with devastating consequences.

oops... It seems that when Paul decided to regurgitate ALP talking points he went off a day early. Missed it by that much! http://tiny.cc/1una001

Because the very next day we get the news that wages growth is declining to levels last seen in 2022!!

The fact is that this government has not really done anything to cause inflation to fall except sit tight, chuck some money around every now and then to keep a lid on things, and wait for the fall in the world's inflation rate to fed into the Australian economy. In terms of inflation, Australia has been a follower, not a leader.

While headline inflation has been falling, this is partially due to the government splashing money around on things like electricity rebates. BTW, does anyone recall the promises made by Albanese before the last election that electricity prices would fall by $300pa under his policies. Even with the government hand-outs it didn't happen but don't expect the stenographers in the media to remind the plebs of that.

So called trimmed inflation is still way to high and the government hasn't got a clue as to what to do about it.

_________________________________________________________________

As to the RBA governors comments about the potential to cut rates next year, I think she probably meant next financial year - ie after July 2025. These people don't live on the same planet as the rest of us and not even in the same time scale!

_____________________________________________________________________

Speaking of the stenographers in the legacy media, remember when Tony Abbott said Whyalla would collapse due to the ALP's green policies? Well that won't be mentioned except by those with a long memory like me.

The worst outcome for the ALP would be the collapse of Whyalla during an election campaign. Consequently they are throwing $2.4 Billion at protecting their phoney-baloney jobs by claiming they are protecting the jobs of the Whyalla workers. As we all know $2.4billion will quickly become $3...$4...$5B. This apparently is prudent economic management!!

" Referring to the Great Depression, this intervention was basically the Roosevelt New Deal policy, which helped to kick start the American economy which then flowed trough to the world economy."

Well if you look at the numbers, Roosevelt's polices didn't help the US economy at all. By 1940 the US economy was in hardly any better shape than 1929. Indeed there was recession in 1938. It was the advent of war production in and after 1940 that caused the economy to explode. Nowt to do with Roosevelt's policies. The notion of using government spending in a counter-cyclical manner really didn't gain traction until the very late 1930's following Keynes's book 'The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money' which came out in late 1936.

Dear Paul,

Did you see the PM and the SA Premier on the news
recently announcing the package in Whyalla to save
the steel works, and jobs? The looks on the faces
of the workers said it all.

A proud moment for all.

http://pm.gov.au/media/albanese-malinauskas-labor-governments-saving-whyalla-steelworks-local-jobs-2-4billion-package

Hi Mhaze and Paul

I think perhaps you both exaggerate the differences between the two parties. When crises hit, governments of both flavours tend to follow the advice of Treasury and leave the RBA to do its job. When the GFC happened, Treasury Secretary Ken Henry advised the government to “go hard, go early and go households”. They followed his advice. The execution wasn’t perfect – they probably stepped on the accelerator for a bit too long, and some programs were poorly designed (pink batts and schools). But it was the right advice, and helped Australia to be one of the few developed economies that avoided recession. Similarly, when Covid hit, we saw an unprecedented lift in government spending on programs such as Job Keeper. Again, execution wasn’t perfect, and some programs could have been better targeted; but again Australia fared far better economically than most developed economies.

So it’s worth reflecting why, on some measures at least, Australia’s economic performance during the recent crisis was one of the worst of developed countries. I think it mainly reflects our poor productivity record in recent years (under both Labor and Liberal Governments), which is also the reason real wages and living standards were stagnating.

Paul, I’d agree that one of the success stories of the past three years is bringing down inflation without a significant rise in unemployment. There are many reasons why this might be so, but it’s a promising sign. I hope and expect the boffins in Treasury and the RBA are recalibrating their models to allow that unemployment can be lower than they previously thought without sparking an inflationary spiral. Some respected economists – e.g. Ross Garnaut - were making this argument before the recent crisis:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-25/ross-garnaut-economists-unemployment-rba-government-critique/13186724

For electors, though, the pain of unemployment that we avoided is probably less important than the pain of falling living standards that we didn’t. I suspect the Opposition’s question, “are you better off now than three years ago?”, is going to cut through at this election.

Rhian wrote: "I think perhaps you both exaggerate the differences between the two parties."

I made no comment about the policies of the Libs in regards to the economic situation. I was merely talking down the gilding of the lily by ALP supporters like Paul.

FYI, I have often in the past pointed out that the Libs offer nothing new or better than the ALP in regards to economic matters. Indeed, while philosophically a right of centre voter I haven't voted for them for some time in the hope that a period in the wildness will see them return to true liberal values. These days their main approach seems to be that they'd do whatever the others do only slower or faster depending on what seems more politically acceptable.

Radical changes need to be made but neither party is up to breaking the news to the electorate. So instead its a policy of slow decline while trying to blame the government while in opposition or trying to deny the decline while in government.

Catastrophic errors were made during the covid lockdown policies and the nation will be paying for that for decades. I said so at the time. This was primarily the fault of the governments (both state and federal) of the day. But the various oppositions bear some responsibility having fully supported the economic profligacy of the day.

We go into an election which could have been an inflexion point but will be more of the same with a government prepared to throw taxpayer funds at whatever looks to be an electoral problem and an opposition trying very hard to pretend that they'd do something different while not ennuciating anything the slightest bit different.

Hi Rhian,

I agree the Big Two are basically centre moderate political parties, when it comes to policy direction its more a matter of emphases than any great political differences. Labor is somewhat more socially progressive than many Liberals, but small "l" Liberals can be very progressive as well.

One worrying aspect of Dutton, is his attempt to play the Mini-Me Trumpster. On seeing Trumps success in US, he's trying to act somewhat like Trump, except he's only a Mini-Me version.

Hi Trumpster,

Will you be be joining Fat Clive's TRUMPET PARTY? or is that the CRUMPET PARTY. Whatever.

"Will you be be joining Fat Clive's TRUMPET PARTY?"

Well I don't know. I'd have to see what their policies are. I know you support the ALP irrespective of policy but that's not me. But so far they've announced they "would rally for policies like a reduction in immigration, banning trans athletes, and rescinding Kevin Rudd’s posting as Australia’s ambassador to the US."

All that seems pretty good to me. But I'll need to see their other economic policies if they issue one. I could see myself voting for those things so far announced - at lest as a first preference in the Senate.

But as to joining... I'd doubt it. I've only ever joined one party (the ALP) and was singularly unimpressed with the way it all worked. They say you should never see how a sausage is made...that doubly so for how political parties work.

Meanwhile in Victoria... 2 jobs become 9
http://x.com/nogulagsagain/status/1894207488222007445