Commentary
Inflation is rising everywhere, which does not mean it’s not a problem for politicians in Australia, just that they are a subset of politicians everywhere. So we are seeing a global hunt for alibis and scapegoats.
In Australia,  the federal government and the union movement have chosen business—in particular mining and food—as their fall guy.
There are a bunch of reasons why inflation is up.
One is that demand is stronger than normal, but the supply of goods hasn’t kept up due to logistical problems left-over from COVID and normal resource scarcity.
The reason demand has exploded is that money that couldn’t be spent for two years is being spent quickly and immediately. This is being funded by savings that accrued while most of us had our “gap year” for COVID and couldn’t travel or go out….