EDITORIAL: Albanese does little to assure Australians that the future is bright
EDITORIAL: In dark days we badly need a guiding light.
It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.
Rod Stewart’s then-wife, the pneumatic New Zealand model Rachel Hunter, cooed that catchphrase in the early 90s in a brilliant piece of marketing designed to convince consumers to keep buying the expensive shampoo that seemed to be making absolutely no improvements to their hair.
Anthony Albanese was spouting the same sentiment this week when he was asked to reassure Australians when their lives were going to get easier, not harder.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“One of the things I’ve said is that these challenges won’t be solved overnight,” he said.
“These are pressures that we have a role in, in Australia domestically. But some of these pressures are global which is why we’re seeing that global uplift in inflation. And we’re not immune from that impact.
“That is one of the reasons why we have continued to call for a de-escalation in conflict in the Middle East, because it is having an impact here. But we’ve been straight with people, this is a challenge.”
So keep on buying what I’m selling. Things will get better. Eventually. Maybe.
It’s a hard act to swallow when you’re giving the Fly Buys points a flogging to help cover the cost of a basket of essentials.
When — if you’re lucky enough to own one — the value of your home has plummeted thanks to four interest rate rises this year.
When, as will undoubtedly happen on Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of Australia drops its fifth.
When a full tank of fuel is considered a flex.
And when, according to HSBC’s chief economist for Australia and New Zealand Paul Bloxham, we are at even odds to go into a recession (the one we most certainly did not need to have).
“We say a 50:50 chance, because we’ve basically got no growth in the economy.
“We’re on that threshold, if it actually turns negative it would deliver what you’d call a technical recession.”
Both headline and underlying inflation have been above the RBA’s 2-3 per cent target for 14 straight months, despite the Bank raising interest rates 17 times since early 2022.
“The longer inflation is above target, the more likely it is that inflation expectations become unanchored,” Mr Bloxham said.
“Recent public commentary from senior RBA officials supports the idea that the RBA is more concerned about high inflation, is worried about its persistence, and seem to have a stronger proclivity to take policy action to deal with it.”
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister stubbornly refuses to flag any substantial cuts to spending that might actually help curb inflation and perhaps stop the RBA from pulling out the same blunt instrument. It wouldn’t be the Labor way.
And Treasurer Jim Chalmers won’t go there, either.
As new data showed inflation had surged to 4.3 per cent last month, he wheeled out the same old spin about the war in the Middle East.
Things are looking grim. And sometimes you just need someone to tell you everything is going to be all right. That there really will be a morning and that mock fish may not be on the Christmas menu.
Seriously though: give us something.
If the Prime Minister won’t say or do anything to reassure the people of Australia that he’s got this, then what hope is there?
