After years as a conspicuous laggard on economic growth, Australia is back in the developed world’s top ten. It has skidded in sideways at high speed with a bunch of red hot trade reports in one hand and a bottle of Champagne in the other.
Australia has not just rejoined the OECD’s top ten, it stormed in at number four. Only Ireland, Iceland and Colombia – all with highly volatile economies – have higher annual rates of growth of gross domestic product (GDP). See grey and blue chart, above.
This follows the ejection of the conservative right wing National Party and (so-called) Liberal Party administration in May this year and the election of Anthony Albanese’s reformist Labor government.
Australia’s September quarter figures – released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) last Wednesday – show GDP growth for the three months to September was 0.65% for the quarter and a thumping 5.87% for the year.
They expose recent doom and disaster predictions by the corporate sector and the Coalition’s struggling shadow treasurer as hollow and mendacious.
Surprising surge in growth
This is a phenomenal turnaround. For the last nine years, the Coalition’s waste, corruption and sheer incompetence have seen Australia languish in the bottom half of this OECD table. Just three months ago, the June quarter figures showed Australia’s GDP growth ranking 22nd. A year ago, Australia ranked 30th.
Living standards rising
A handy measure of the quality of family life is household consumption expenditure. This is the money families or individuals have available to spend on necessities – and a few luxuries, we hope – after paying all direct taxes. Obviously, the more spent the higher the standard of living in most cases.
This variable rarely declines except during global recessions, as happened in the early nineties recession and the global financial crisis (both marginally) and during the COVID pandemic (severely).
Unfortunately for Australian families, this also went backwards twice during the Coalition boom years, with no explanation other than mismanagement.
September’s number was $287.2 billion, which was up an impressive 11.8% from $257.0 billion last September.
Wages growth
Australia’s wage price index rose 1.0% in the September quarter and 3.1% annually, according to the latest data. The ABS report said:
"This is the highest quarterly growth in hourly wages recorded since March quarter 2012 ... This growth was primarily driven by increases in wages for the private sector which grew at twice the rate of wages in the public sector.”
This was largely the result of effective union advocacy and the largest Fair Work Commission award increase in more than a decade.
Buoyant trade
Exports have set new records since the May election as fractured relations with regional neighbours and trading partners have been repaired. Monthly exports exceeded $60 billion in June for the first time, repeated in September and October. Australia’s balance of trade was $12.22 billion in October, the highest October level on record.
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More remains to be done to restore Australia’s wealth, income and fairness after nine years of gross neglect. Persistent problem areas include inflation, wage levels, jobs training, job participation, keeping students in education, overemployment of seniors and the gross debt.
We shall monitor these in coming days. But right now, a glass of bubbly is in order.
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This is an abbreviated version of an article published today in Independent Australia. The original article is available here in full for free:
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/we-expected-an-economic-turnaround-but-not-this-swiftly,17061
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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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtV-2X4BjQI