ANDREW CARSWELL: Don’t believe Labor Government’s false narrative on cost of living crisis. They are to blame

They might seem like the obvious target.

Those heartless multinational chains with their ever-increasing prices. Those vapid big businesses with their eyes glazed to balance sheets. The greedy supermarkets, the profit-obsessed banks, the airlines with sky-high fares. Every suited business leader is a crook. Every executive looks after themselves.

Choose your populist narrative and give us your best tut-tut.

This is what the Federal Government wants you to believe. This is the narrative they want you to freely embrace and to fuel your righteous anger: that this crushing cost-of-living crisis has been caused by none other than big business and not Anthony Albanese.

Big business is to blame, apparently. The Federal Government is merely the innocent bystander, shaking its fist at the robber barons in Martin Place and Collins Street.

It is either fanciful or believable, depending on your level of gullibility.

If the Federal Government succeeds in this false narrative, they take a gigantic leap towards winning the next election because someone or something must wear the blame for this prolonged cost-of-living crisis that is pushing Australian households — even middle-income families — well and truly over the edge of an abyss.

And if the Government isn’t at fault, the Government shall not be punished at the polling booth. So its logic goes.

To their credit, Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers are winning this battle to shift the blame. Since inflation jumped the fence, they’ve pointed fingers everywhere but themselves: supermarket enforcement, endless price-gouging reviews, haranguing banks about fees, and scolding the Reserve Bank. They’ve vilified the very businesses employing millions of Australians.

This deflection is on a constant loop — and it’s working.

Sit in enough focus groups, and you’ll know Australians aren’t quite ready to blame the Government for the cost-of-living crisis. They’re angry, disappointed, and know the Government hasn’t done enough to tackle inflation.

But blame them? Nup, not yet. Certainly not soft voters.

While Albanese’s disapproval rating is a staggering 54 per cent (Newspoll), only a third of people are blaming him for the cost-of-living crisis (Resolve).

This is the formidable challenge facing the Federal Coalition. As well as presenting its own vision to the people, it must extract the blame that has been thrust on big business and plonked it on the shoulders of the Government.

Unfortunately, the Coalition, especially its junior partner the Nationals, often plays right into the Government’s hands by embracing naked populism and joining in on bashing big business.

By doing so, they shield the Government from blame. Voters are left believing big business — not Government — is responsible for the crisis. They are letting them off the hook.

Part of the Coalition’s rush to attack business stems from its genuine effort to show families it has policies to ease the cost of living, and prove it can stand up to its perceived allies. That it can hold businesses to account and be the champion of the people.

But it’s also driven by revenge — punishing businesses for daring to support the Voice campaign, a grievance Coalition frontbenchers still bring up in meetings with business leaders.

It is time to move on.

While the Nationals may mean well — advocating for farmers and growers who aren’t benefiting from higher grocery prices — their denigration of supermarkets undermines the Coalition’s chances of victory. Even if business shares some responsibility, the Coalition must ruthlessly focus its cost-of-living attacks on one target: the Federal Government.

The reason you can’t afford your groceries is because of the Government. The reason why your mortgage payments are strangling your finances is because of the Government. The reason why inflation hit record highs is because of the Government.

It is not an exercise in truth-stretching.

Global inflation may have been sparked by COVID and the decimation of supply chains, but Albanese’s Labor poured fuel on the fire, turning a manageable issue into a raging inferno.

Its rampant spending kept inflation well above the Reserve Bank’s optimal band of 2-3 per cent that would warrant an easing in interest rates.

Its too-hard, too-fast renewable energy transition introduced fragility and intermittency to the energy grid and put upward pressure on electricity prices, with two consecutive years of 20 per cent increases.

Denigrating gas and failing to unlock new gas supply created shortages, pushing up both household and industrial gas costs, which increased business expenses and the prices of materials and goods.

Its reckless industrial relations agenda artificially inflated wages without an associated increase in productivity, giving businesses no alternatives to increase prices. It increased regulation, red tape, and inflexibility in the workplace. It made Australia one of the most expensive countries to run a business. It rubber-stamped excessive increases in insurance.

Every business cost is rising — long before those inputs even reach the business. Left with no alternatives, prices are hiked to stay profitable.

Make that case, and the Opposition takes a gigantic leap towards winning the next election.

Andrew Carswell is a former adviser to the Morrison government