The first day of the election campaign didn’t seem like a good one for economic literacy. First there was Anthony Albanese not knowing the unemployment rate, then reports emerged that Prime Minister Scott Morrison would pledge to create “1.3 million new jobs over the next five years”.

The budget papers released just two weeks earlier contained a forecast of 6 per cent employment growth over the next five years, or roughly 830,000 new jobs, based on current government policy. It appeared that this was now old news, and the Coalition had plans to magic up half a million or so additional jobs, with little sign of policies to support it.