Andrew Bolt: Australia’s big spending party now over

Inflation has exploded and the economic credentials the government has been flashing in this election campaign are now looking tatty. It’s time for our leaders to grow up.

Gosh, who knew Australia’s biggest ever spend-a-thon would help create this frightening jump in our inflation?

The sorry answer is: not the Morrison government, whose tidal wave of pandemic stimulus payments sent the federal debt screaming towards $1 trillion.

Not the sleepy Reserve Bank, which kept interests rates too low for too long.

In its Budget just last month, the government said inflation this financial year would top out at 4.25 per cent.

Instead, the Treasurer on Wednesday looked shocked in admitting inflation had just exploded from 3.5 per cent to 5.1 over the year – the highest in two decades.

And now the government looks even more likely to get the boot at next month’s election.

That’s because the economic credentials it’s been flashing in this election campaign now look tatty. And because this is inflation every Australian will feel and see.

The Treasurer on Wednesday looked shocked in admitting inflation had just exploded from 3.5 per cent to 5.1 over the year. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Petrol, up 11 per cent in the last three months, thanks to the war in Ukraine. Food up more than 4 per cent. Health costs 3.5. Education 4.7. New homes 5.7.

And don’t rule out more pain.

Prices of imports for China look set to soar, as the communist giant locks down dozens of cities to control the Covid virus, knowing its home-made vaccine is weak.

Inflation overseas — 8.5 per cent in the US – is also likely to hurt us.

And who knows what more the war in Ukraine will do to us? This spike in gas and fuel prices might just be the start.

So the Reserve Bank will quickly do what it refused – hike interest rates, and not once and not by a little. People who bought houses with tiny deposits and “free” borrowed money could soon find themselves in trouble.

But the sorriest part of this story is that both the Liberals and Labor look like pouring petrol on to this bonfire, knowing Australians would rather live on borrowed money than feel the slightest pain from living on their own.

The sleepy Reserve Bank kept interest rates far too low for too long. Picture: Joel Carrett

The Morrison government timed a big cash splash for this very day – $250 to each of 6 million people on pensions and fixed income – to ease the cost of living.

That’s another $1.5bn of stimulus on the day when we see we’ve stimulated ourselves
into strife.

But what of Labor? It’s promising pay rises and tough global warming policies, threatening higher power prices and costs that businesses will pass on.

The party is over.

Time to become adults again and accept that money is best earned, not borrowed from
our kids.