ANGUS TAYLOR: Australia’s economy is in dire straits, yet Labor is more worried about spinning and spending

Buckling under the weight of 12 interest rate hikes since Labor came to government, 30-year-old Meg from Canberra had a mere $20 left over from her weekly paycheck after she’d paid her mortgage and household bills.

She had little in the way of savings, had to borrow cash from her parents to service her car and was putting off trips to the doctor because she simply couldn’t afford it.

In a difficult but necessary move, Meg, like almost a million other struggling Australians, has had to take on a second job. She now spends two nights a week and the weekend pulling beers at the local pub to keep a roof over her head.

Others haven’t been so lucky. In my hometown Goulburn, 38-year-old single mum Beck, had no other choice but to put her cherished home up for sale.

She has a well-paying job in Sydney but still, the bills are piling up and she has no idea how to pay them until her house is sold.

“It’s a nightmare” she told me. “I can barely afford to put food on the table for my son.”

It’s heartbreaking but sadly, stories like these are becoming more common by the day under the Albanese Labor Government.

People like Meg and Beck are working harder than ever but are going backwards under Anthony Albanese’s leadership — or lack thereof.

According to the Treasurer, this is all part of the plan.

Every time Jim Chalmers talks about a “soft landing”, he acknowledges he let inflation run higher for longer. The reality is there is nothing soft about this landing for Australian families.

Under Labor, Australia is experiencing the longest household recession on record. GDP per capita has gone backwards for the past seven consecutive quarters. This is completely unprecedented.

So is the hit to our living standards which have fallen 8.7 per cent since Labor was elected. This is the largest fall in real disposable incomes per person in the developed world.

The data doesn’t lie. The recent National Accounts showed our economy is in dire straits. No matter how hard the Treasurer tries to spin it, Australians are not buying it.

The harsh reality is, prices are still rising and while other countries are seeing rates cut, Australia remains at the back of the pack in the inflation fight. Interest rates have fallen in the US, UK, Canada, Eurozone and New Zealand but not here.

At a recent campaign rally the Prime Minister was caught getting ahead of himself, naively declaring the war against inflation over boasting that there were “new reasons for optimism and new proof the worst is behind us.”

The Treasurer has echoed this view — “the worst of the inflation challenge is now behind us.”

This couldn’t be further from the truth. The latest inflation data saw core inflation, which is what the Reserve Bank is focused on, rising from 3.2 per cent to 3.5 per cent. It’s continuing to go up and is way outside the RBA’s target rate of 2-3 per cent.

The reality is, Australians will continue to feel the pain of 12 rate rises under Labor for many years to come.

For a family with a typical mortgage of $780,000, they have already paid over $50,000 in additional interest payments since Labor came to government. More than $50,000!

The Albanese Labor Government’s addiction to spending is keeping inflation and therefore interest rates high.

Since coming to power it has added $347 billion in spending. In the last financial year alone it has spent more than what was spent at the peak of the pandemic.

This spending and spike in taxpayer funded jobs is now coming at the expense of growth in the private sector. An astounding 91 per cent of new jobs in the September quarter were in government-aligned sectors. Labor’s bloated bureaucracy is out of control

An economy where the jobs market and GDP is entirely propped up by the public sector is not a healthy economy.

The Albanese Labor Government’s short-term sugar fix and reckless spending is sending Australians and Australia broke.

Our nation needs solutions to its collapsing economy not more subsidies and more big government.

The Coalition’s plan to get back on track and back to basics will put fighting inflation and driving productivity growth at its core.

We will rebuild our economy by boosting investment, increasing competition, cutting government waste and red tape, rebuilding business, lowering taxes and delivering secure, low emissions energy. This is the only way to bring down inflation sustainably and restore Australians’ living standards.

Voters are already sceptical of a government which has broken its promise on cheaper mortgages, cheaper electricity, superannuation, taxes and cost of living relief.

How can Australians possibly trust what the Prime Minister and Treasurer have to say on the fight against inflation?

The Treasurer needs to put less energy into his daily talking points and more into solving the inflation crisis, which any economist will tell you is far from over