After three years of incompetent and lazy mismanagement by prime minister Scott Morrison and treasurer Josh Frydenberg, Australia’s global score on economic freedom has collapsed to an all-time low. This adds yet another item to the list of “worst ever” outcomes notched up by this inept administration. That list is now well above fifty.
Australia no longer a global leader
Respected Washington-based think tank Heritage Foundation released its 2022 index of economic freedom last week, scoring 177 nations on 12 quantitative and qualitative factors. Heritage gave Australia the shameful score of 77.7 points out of a possible 100.
Australia had ranked first in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and third in the world from 2009 to 2013. Only the tiny dynamic Asian economies Hong Kong and Singapore fared better than Australia through that challenging period of the global financial crisis.
Australia retained third place globally in 2014, then slipped to fourth in 2015, then fifth from 2016 to 2019. Now Morrison and Frydenberg are in charge, Australia’s economic freedom has collapsed to twelfth. That’s the lowest in 28 years of Heritage publishing this index.
The economic freedom index
According to Heritage Foundation, economic freedom is “the fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labor and property. In an economically free society, individuals are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please ... The ideals of economic freedom are strongly associated with healthier societies, cleaner environments, greater per capita wealth, human development, democracy, and poverty elimination.”
Extending the tawdry tapestry of trouncings
This harsh Heritage judgment confirms last month’s findings by Transparency International that Australia now has the lowest-ever score on corruption. It echoes the Economist Intelligence Unit’s assessment that Australia has now tumbled to its worst outcome ever on democracy and civil liberties.
It bolsters recent highly negative commentary on the deterioration of the economy by the OECD. Its report from last April found GDP per capita is nine per cent lower than the OECD’s best performers, productivity is 15 per cent lower than the best performers and inequality is higher than in most advanced economies.
It is corroborates the World Bank’s findings that Australia is at an all-time low ranking on debt and deficits. And it backs up media reports that Frydenberg is the worst treasurer Australia has had. Based on measurable outcomes, his immediate predecessor Morrison was the second worst.
Heritage’s findings signal that the next IAREM ranking of all global economies will see Australia considerably lower than the dismal 23rd in the world it achieved last November. That’s down from top ranking from 2009 to 2013.
Taken together, all these negative reviews shout one clear message – the current Government in Australia, virtually alone in the developed world, is delivering ever-deteriorating outcomes year on year.
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This is part of a longer article published today by Independent Australia:
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The original article is available here in full for free:
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/morrison-humiliates-australia-further-with-lowest-economic-freedom-ever,16070
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“Alan Austin is a great Australian journalist and,
I think, a pirate. I steal Alan Austin’s findings all the time.”
~ Jordan Shanks
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