EDITORIAL: Voters want cost-of-living solutions, not spin

What a gift to the Labor Government Philip Lowe was.

A ready-made villain for Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers to blame all their economic problems on.

And for a long time, it worked. Australians directed their anger towards the Reserve Bank governor for their dwindling bank accounts as the RBA hiked interest rates month after month in an attempt to get a handle on runaway inflation.

But unfortunately, the strategy worked a little too well. Eventually, the Government had to give Dr Lowe the chop.

Bad for Dr Lowe, and even worse for the Prime Minister and Treasurer, who were no longer able to use the RBA boss as a human shield against the fury of a fed-up public frustrated by the ever-increasing cost of living.

Dr Lowe’s replacement won’t be made a scapegoat so easily. Michele Bullock’s plain talking style has been able to cut through to voters, who have since wised up to the Government’s game.

But that hasn’t stopped Dr Chalmers from trying the same old blame-shifting tricks for a second time.

In a sizeable shift in rhetoric, the Treasurer at the weekend said the RBA’s rate rises were “smashing the economy”, as he pre-empted national accounts figures due to be released on Wednesday which are expected to show anaemic economic growth of just 0.2 per cent in the June quarter.

Don’t blame the Government, blame the Reserve Bank.

There’s no doubt that high interest rates are hurting household budgets.

But as Ms Bullock keeps telling us, that’s nothing compared to the crippling pain we would feel if the RBA allowed inflation to run uncontrolled. And, despite the suffering, Ms Bullock says that keeping rates high is having the desired effect of dampening demand.

Unfortunately, her job is made tougher by reckless spending by State and Federal governments which is serving to stoke inflation instead of tamp it down. The RBA predicts inflation won’t reach its target range of between 2 and 3 per cent until late 2025. Only then can we expect to see some interest rate relief.

The dire state of the economy — and the impact it is having on household budgets — is the No. 1 issue on voters’ minds, with an election just months away.

Labor knows this. But instead of actually working at finding some solutions that would ease the cost-of-living pressures, they’re preoccupied with finding someone else to blame, or providing sugar-hit “relief measures” which might make for a good headline but in the long run will only serve to prolong the pain felt by households.

Australians want and expect a plan. They want to see leadership from those who we have elected to lead. They want to know that there’s a way out of this cost-of-living crisis, which is beginning to look intractable.

What they don’t want is more blame-shifting and spin.

But at the moment, it appears that is all this Labor Government has to offer.