Anthony Albanese has spent the past two and a half years with his head in the culture wars rather than focusing on Australians' economic wellbeing

Rocco Loiacono I SkyNews Political Commentator I 01 December 2024 I 4 min read

As the parliamentary year draws to a close, with speculation that an election will be called as early as March next year, a burning question comes to mind.

Just what has been the point of the Albanese government?

In two and a half years, interest rates have increased 12 times, meaning that mortgage repayments are 62 per cent higher than when the Albanese government came into office.

For the past six quarters in a row, GDP per capita growth has been negative, the worst result in 50 years.

It’s impossible for young people to get into the housing market, with record immigration levels meaning that housing supply is nowhere near keeping up with demand.

Underlying inflation figures – the number once government subsidies are taken out of the equation – released this week show that groceries, rent, gas, insurance, among other things, are more expensive, meaning an interest rate cut won’t be coming any time soon.

Power bills, rather than coming down by the much-vaunted $275, have increased close to four times that, thanks in no small part to Chris Bowen’s insane ideological crusade on weather-dependent wind and solar power.

The cat was belled on this last week when Frontier Economics released a report that revealed the cost of building a renewable-only power grid is more than $500 billion higher than what the Albanese government has claimed.

As we head into summer, this supposedly first world country is being told that the electricity system we have can no longer cope with heatwaves and risks blackouts if we turn on air-conditioners during 40C days.

In Australia, 40C days mean a normal summer and I should be able to turn the air-conditioner on if I need to.

AEMO invoked emergency energy powers to avoid blackouts.

If a first world country cannot supply enough electricity for times when there is peak demand, well, as Chris Uhlmann put it, we are on a pathway to poverty while Bowen and his cronies conduct an experiment with the most essential of services, and destroying arable land and forests in doing so.

And while the rest of the world at COP29 decides to press ahead with the reliable, safe, affordable and emissions free nuclear option, Bowen gives the proverbial middle finger to our AUKUS partners in developing the same nuclear energy that will power submarines to be used on land.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, after last year’s $15.8 billion surplus – thanks to soaring tax collections from mining companies who the government demonises – will manage to turn that into deficit of $33.5 billion this financial year, according to Deloitte Access Economics.

In fact, Deloitte predicts the deficit will grow in 2025-26 to $46.8 billion, $6 billon worse than Treasury projections and this is driven in no small part by government spending, which as Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock pointed out, is adding fuel to the inflation fire.

Not content with saddling this and future generations of taxpayers with increasing interest repayments – money that could have been used to fund schools, hospitals and roads – Chalmers now thinks he can direct the Future Fund (which pays military and public service pensions) no longer to choose investments based on the best possible return to taxpayers, but on what’s in the Albanese government’s best electoral interest.

Chalmers claims this move will not jeopardise returns, but, as anyone with a modicum of economic common sense knows, if investment options are limited, the capacity for a return is also limited.

It is nothing short of irresponsible.

Add to all this the workplace legislation changes that, as this column recently highlighted, impose a substantial economic cost on small to medium business – many of them family business.

And just this week the government passed legislation to forgive student HECS debt by 20 per cent.

Those who stand to benefit most from this pathetic attempt to buy votes are law and medicine students, meaning that hardworking Australians who have never been to university will be subsidising those who will be earning a motzer once they get into the workforce.

Former US President Bill Clinton’s advisers had a simple strategy based on the dictum: “It’s the economy, stupid.”

It seems Albanese and Co can only recall the “stupid” part, for the economic well-being of Australians has been sacrificed on the altar of pet activist projects such as the Voice, which sucked up 18 months and nearly half a billion dollars.

And when the result was not what Albanese wanted, he blames it on “misinformation” and tries to introduce legislation to silence people that spread “false, misleading or deceptive information about … referendum proposals, elections, public health, the economy”, among other things.

Albanese’s equivocation following the October 7 atrocities, while at the same time decrying “Islamophobia”, having his Foreign Minister support a UN motion for a permanent Palestinian state and Albanese remaining silent on the ICC issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, show a lack of moral conviction, if not moral relativism.

His government’s removal of temporary protection visas means illegal boat arrivals have started again, and its incompetence in dealing with detainees following the High Court’s NZYQ decision led to the bashing of Perth grandmother Ninette Simons.

I could go on.

Our high school history teacher told us that: “It doesn’t matter where you come from, as long as you know where you are going.”

The Albanese government’s priorities are askew.

His “I grew up in social housing raised by a single mother” routine is no substitute for leadership.

On any measure, Australia is going backwards at a rate of knots.

After just two and a half years, is it any wonder that this government is being considered worse than Whitlam.

Dr Rocco Loiacono is a legal academic, writer and translator. Earlier in his career, he spent a decade practicing as a lawyer with Clayton Utz, one of Australia’s top law firms. As well as SkyNews.com.au, he regularly contributes opinion pieces, specialising in politics, freedom and the rule of law, to The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun and The Australian