Commentary
This is not a good time to be treasurer.
Productivity in Australia has recorded its largest recorded quarterly drop ever; total GDP growth was positive but anaemic while GDP per capita went backwards, and interest rates, wages, and housing are all simultaneously rising.
Not that Treasurer Jim Chalmers bears all the blame. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has to take some—the treasury doesn’t set immigration policy. But so too do their predecessors Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg, who profligately printed money all through the pandemic, aided and abetted by the Reserve Bank governor and the Labor team.
But it’s always the people who are on watch who get the blame, so first mate Chalmers needs to think about how to right the ship and present a new plan to Captain Anthony Albanese….