The numbers prove it: We’re getting poorer under Chalmers and Albanese

The economy remains heavily dependent upon direct government spending, and growth of government-dependent sectors such as education, healthcare and the NDIS, writes Daniel Wild.

Turns out Treasurer Jim Chalmers was right when he said the economy has turned a corner. It’s just that the corner which the nation’s economy has turned led straight into a ditch.

The latest set of economic numbers released on Wednesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics confirm what Australians already feel. We are getting poorer, faster.

Once again, the slice of the economic pie that every Australians is receiving is getting smaller.

Gross Domestic Product on a personal basis has now gone backwards for nine of the past eleven quarters.

This is the most sustained period of economic contraction since digitised records began in the 1970s.

And the overall economy grew by just a paltry 0.2 per cent over the past quarter or, in technical economics terms, one-fifth of two-eighths of bugger all.

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers was correct when he said the economy had turned a corner. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

There are two reasons for our economic decline. The first is unplanned mass migration.

For all of the bleating about the importance of migration to our economy, the reality is that our population is growing but our capital stock is not.

This means more people competing for the same amount of resources, so there is less to go around.

High migration is making it harder for Australians to put a roof over their head. Picture: Jenny Evans / Getty Images

Just look at how hard it is to get in to see a GP, find local childcare places or commute to work – let alone try to buy a house.

In fact, since June 2022, Australia’s population has grown by a staggering six per cent, while GDP per capita has dropped by close to two per cent.

The simple fact is that mass migration is making Australia poorer.

Secondly, we are in the early days of a private sector capital strike, brought upon by intolerably expensive power costs and sky-high regulation.

The National Accounts figures confirmed that new private sector business as a share of the economy has remained stagnant for two years, at just 12 per cent, far from its peak of 16 per cent in 2012.

The economy remains heavily dependent upon direct government spending, and growth of government-dependent sectors such as education, healthcare, and social services such as the NDIS.

While many Australians expect this, the fact is all of it must be paid for with our tax dollars, either now or in the future.

And the numbers show that much of today’s spending is to be passed on as debt to the next generation of Australians.

Our national debt is now approaching one trillion dollars.

Jim Chalmers much-promised transition to a private sector-led economy may just be the biggest broken promise of them all.

Daniel Wild is Deputy Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs.

Originally published as The numbers prove it: We’re getting poorer under Chalmers and Albanese