Editorial: We all might be getting a lump of coal for Xmas

The good economic news the Prime Minister and Treasurer hoped would arrive like a Christmas present seems to have been lost in the mail, writes the editor.

Federal Treasurer and Queensland MP Jim Chalmers. Picture: Martin Ollman/NCA NewsWire

This is the time of year many Australians are hit by the same realisation: Christmas is just around the corner and time for achieving what we had planned for 2024 is rapidly running out.

It would not have escaped federal treasurer Jim Chalmers that the year the economy – and in particular interest rates – was meant to start turning around is rapidly coming to its conclusion.

And the good economic news the Treasurer and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hoped would arrive like a Christmas present seems to have been lost in the mail.

Given that context, the survey from the Queensland Council of Social Service we report on today would make for uncomfortable reading in Canberra.

Two-thirds of Queenslanders are still struggling to pay their bills, put food on the table or send their children to school due to relentless cost of living pressures, driven mainly by inflation (which is coming down) and interest rates (which aren’t).

An average family – a couple with two children – is currently $116 over budget each week, and a single parent is $156 in the red.

While these figures may be an improvement on last year – when the family was going backwards to the tune of $198 a week and the single parent $255 – it is cold comfort to the millions of Queenslanders who feel like they are walking an economic tightrope.

It is also unsustainable. Eventually, something’s got to give, and for many people that means selling the house.

Equally troubling, QCOSS chief executive Aimee McVeigh said parents were reporting not sending their children to school because they can’t put fuel in the car.

And as we report today, weaker commodity prices may have created another headache for the treasurer – a $4.5 billion budget black hole.

National accounts data released last Wednesday showed growth in the economy had crawled to a weak 0.2 per cent for the June quarter, or 1 per cent seasonally adjusted for the year.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the drop in the price of commodities was a key contributor to the anaemic result.

Mr Chalmers has of course in recent days tried to change the national economic conversation, putting the blame on the Reserve Bank and its Governor Michele Bullock for “smashing the economy”.

On Sunday he attempted to walk back the comments, saying he was merely stating an economic fact.

But shadow treasurer Angus Taylor didn’t miss when he declared: “If Labor had fought inflation first from when they came into government then we would have seen inflation come down faster and earlier, and the economy would be in a much stronger position to grow now, without inflation.”

It is a message you can expect to hear repeated again and again as Labor heads into an election year with its credentials as a good economic manager under the microscope – a position it was desperate to have avoided.

In the end, whether the Albanese government gets a second term will come down to the people in the QCOSS report struggling to make ends meet.

Even if rates begin to come down early next year, will they be in a forgiving mood when they enter the ballot box?

META DELAYS UNACCEPTABLE

No one should be surprised that social media giant Meta – owner of Facebook and Instagram – wants to pass the buck on age verification on social media.

Conveniently, they want the app stores to come up with solutions – making the issue Apple and Google’s problem.

Having lost their social licence under the sheer volume of growing evidence linking social media use to higher rates of mental health issues among children and teens, the big tech companies have turned to finger-pointing to hobble any attempt at regulation.

It’s not good enough. At best it is prevarication, at worst obfuscation.

And with the Albanese government dragging its heels on trials of age-verification technology, what should be a quite simple issue is being delayed again and again.

Heads Up Alliance co-founder Dany Elachi has had enough.

“Not only are they trying to shift responsibility, I think they’re also hoping that many parents don’t pay attention, or bypass those once-only app store checks and then it’s back to business as usual,” he said.

“If the technology isn’t quite there yet, that shouldn’t stop us getting laws on the books ... we can step up enforcement over time.”

He’s right.

Delays are no longer acceptable. The federal government must pass age-verification legislation and put the onus back on big tech to catch up with them.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here