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Published economic data shows Australian citizens are now enjoying an era of unprecedented affluence, as Alan Austin reports.
THE CRISIS WHICH OPPRESSED many Australians at the end of the recent failed Coalition government period is well and truly over.
No, it doesn’t seem that way? This is because relentless Coalition wailing and false media reports continue to cause misery and, most importantly, resentment towards Prime Minister Albanese.
But things are better. No, really they are.
The remarkable third quarter of 2023
The turning point was late last year — when virtually all datasets reflecting worker wellbeing changed trajectories.
As IA reported at the time, compensation to employees increased by a thumping 8.5% annually, bringing the workers’ share of national income in the 2023 September quarter to 52.4%, up from a record low 49.0% in June 2022. Household wealth increased 6.9%.
Consumer spending on hotels, cafes and restaurants hit 7.7% of total expenditure for the first time since 2004. Retail turnover on cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services surged above 15.2% of total retail spending for the first time ever. (Through the preceding two years of the Coalition administration, this had fluctuated between 8.7% and 13.8%.) Gross profits in the retail sector increased 43% that quarter.
Inflation fell to 5.6%, down from 6.6% in the previous quarter and 7.3% the one before.
Productivity increased from 94.5 to 95.5 points, the first rise in six quarters.
Welfare clients seeking short term emergency accommodation declined for the second consecutive quarter, as did those requiring financial assistance. JobSeeker claimants fell to 5.16% of the labour force, the lowest on record. These have remained below 5.5% ever since.
Fourth quarter even better
The 2023 final quarter was stronger still. Wages rose by 4.20%, matching the quarterly inflation rate, and well above December’s 3.38%. This was the first quarter where wage rises exceeded inflation since 2021.
The jobless rate came in below 4.0% for the twentieth consecutive month for the first time since records have been kept. Job participation hit 67.0% for the first time in history. Productivity lifted again. Household wealth grew by an even more impressive 9.0% over the same quarter the year before. Private home building increased well above previous quarters.
For stock traders, the ASX100 surged from 5,923 at the start of the quarter to end at a record high 6,375.
Now look where we are
Things are even better now. Workers now get 52.6% of the national income pie. Retail sales are at an all-time high to GDP. Spending on luxuries – cosmetics, overseas travel, dining out – is at record highs relative to total spending. See chart below.
Monthly inflation is down to 2.65%. Wages are rising at 4.07%. Interest rates have remained below 4.8% for 16 years. (Millions of homebuyers remember the 32 years from 1970 to 2001 when home loan rates never fell below 6.0% and peaked at 17%.)
Calls to the National Debt Hotline for emergency assistance have declined for the second straight month, down to 11,450 in September. That’s waaaay below the 13,000-plus calls in September 2018 and 2019, pre-Covid.
The ASX100 has hit fresh records several times this year, closing at 6,899 last Friday, a poofteenth below the all-time peak. Household wealth is up 23.7% on three years ago.
In just two and a half years, Australia’s economy has gone from the loser group in the 38-member Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to at or near the top.
Of course, some families are still struggling, as treasurer Jim Chalmers readily admits. But the proportion of the population in that parlous situation is now lower than at any time in history.
Clearly, Australia is in a phenomenal consumer spending boom – the polar opposite of a cost of living crisis.
Media denials of reality
Australia’s newsrooms do not want voters to know this. Just as they didn’t want voters to know the last Coalition Government chalked up more than sixty all-time worst outcomes. So they feign economic reporting with self-serving commentary and little if any actual data.
A typical example is the opinion piece last Friday by the chief political correspondent at The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald titled, ‘The cost of living with pressure weighs on sorry Albanese’. In nearly 1200 words, not a single economic fact was included.
The article asserted:
‘The government’s big mission this week was to prove to voters that it was acting on their cost-of-living problems. Time and again, it tried to turn attention to domestic policies that would help households, only to be shouted down every time.’
Pure nonsense. It is not the government’s job to “prove to voters” anything. Their job is to govern in the citizens’ best interests and to communicate decisions and outcomes to the parliament and the press gallery. The newsrooms must then report those faithfully.
The Albanese Government has fulfilled its responsibilities.
For more than a year now Australia has been the only country in the world with top credit ratings, inflation below four per cent and with positive economic growth every quarter last year. The latest UBS global wealth figures show Australia is now also the only economy to have delivered consecutive surpluses, reduced net debt to GDP two years running and maintained average wealth per person above US$500,000 [AUD$740,000].
Jim Chalmers’ staff issue around 30 transcripts and media releases each month, keeping journalists well informed.
That oily Age opinion piece then asks:
‘What matters instead? The cost of living, of course. That is what will decide the election. And it is where Albanese and his colleagues are struggling to be heard.’
There should be no struggle. If the newsrooms did their job, voters would know exactly what is happening.
And, they would be mightily pleased right now. Instead they receive a constant stream of pro-Coalition false narratives.
Such is Australia’s doom.
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