Jim Chalmers needs to stop passing the buck when it comes to Australia’s flailing economy

Treasurer Jim Chalmers needs to take a close look in the mirror to see the real reason Aussies are doing it tough.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers should look in the mirror if he wants to see the real reason Aussies are doing it tough. Picture: NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock should take very careful note of five words - and one, in particular - in a speech by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Wednesday.

He said the biggest part of our current economic story was very weak consumption spending - “hammered by higher interest rates”.

As I suggested to her a week ago, she and the RBA had to be very careful, lest they set themselves up to be the ‘fall guy’ when it all turns to custard - I should have written, by the bye, really turns to custard; it’s already not that great.

As it will, as it absolutely certainly will.

As a consequence of the government’s mad, bad and dangerous policy mix of soaring immigration-driven population growth, over 1 million in just two years, and the deliberate destruction of our electricity system, the absolute foundation of the economy.

It was the particular choice by Chalmers of that word “hammered”. Somebody has to be wielding the, well, hammer. I wonder whom Chalmers has in mind?

He really should of course look in the mirror; other than to preen and admire.

It was a bizarre speech of almost bottomless lack of self-awareness, fed of course by a Treasury which has long since abandoned any claim to analytical or policy competence.

There he was - utterly falsely, by the way - lauding all the wonderful things he’d done to repair the budget; while at the same time almost proudly noting how consumers, otherwise known as Australians, were doing it so tough.

Knock, knock, if we had a Treasurer with any understanding, if we had a Treasury of any competence, if they’d really done what was claimed, it would have been them causing all the economic pain.

In fact, they’ve kept spending like there’s no tomorrow - spending is up by over $100bn a year, every year, forever, in just two years of the Albanese-Chalmers government.

And the only reason, the only reason, the budget bottom line improved - briefly; it’s now going backwards, thanks to that sustained spending - is the huge surge in tax revenues from the coal and iron ore exports, with further help from bracket creep-driven personal taxes.

It’s already looking likely those revenues are going to slide, as China slows; but the spending is baked in - and will accelerate - forever.

The Treasurer tried to implicitly claim we were doing pretty well compared with other countries.

“Our economy still growing” - by 1.1 per cent over the year to the March quarter. While “almost three-quarters of the OECD have recorded a negative quarter over the past year”.

Nice to know he’s inherited his hero, Paul Keating’s ‘gift’ for “terminological inexactitudes”.

The official OECD numbers surfaced the same day.

They showed only three of the G20 countries recording negative growth over the year. Some nine countries recorded stronger growth than us.

And in the March quarter itself, when our economy stood still, 15 of the G20 recorded faster growth.

And all that’s overall numbers. In per capita terms, we went seriously backwards, unlike any other country except Canada.

So, Michele, keep your eye on the ‘custard’.

Originally published as Jim Chalmers needs to stop passing the buck when it comes to Australia’s flailing economy