Australia now has best-ever economy and worst-ever reporters

As Alan Austin reports, coverage of the latest Federal Budget proves that economic reporting standards are at an all-time low.

DATA PLACED IN THIS MONTH Budget Confirm that Australia’s finances are the envy of the world.

It is the only country on the planet with unemployment and inflation rates below 4.7% and average wealth over US$250,000 (AU$350,000) per adult. It is also the only economy with triple-A credit ratingsinterest odds Between 1% and 5% and the government debt below 25% of gross domestic product (GDP).

More importantly, the budget outlined bold fixes to decades of debilitating injustices.

In many other countries, correspondents will seize the opportunity to boost national confidence by enthusiastically celebrating such excellent results.

Instead Australia’s newsrooms greeted the budget with headlines like:

‘Budget fiasco: Prime Minister has 48 hours to step back, otherwise great pain awaits’ (Australian);
‘Bereaved family will be worse off than $7,000 due to Labor’s unfair new rules on discretionary trusts’ (Sky News);
‘A future betrayed in Australia’ (Audience);
‘Budget spending raises fears of further interest rate hikes’ (AAP/MSN);
‘The dire consequences of Labour’s ideological war on wealth’ (Australian);
‘Treasurer faces backlash over Federal Budget’ (9 News); And
‘Chalmers has given up on fixing debt and deficits’ (AFR).

These reports are full of malicious distortions, blatant lies, and vitriolic personal attacks. World leaders ignore many achievements.

The following seven hoaxes are regularly spread by nearly all newsrooms. They are in constant rotation on Sky News and other Murdoch channels. hacks over there Australian Financial Review Nine Entertainment’s other publications regularly broadcast these fabrications, as do radio and TV stations.

The quotes in italics are from a deeply misguided 11-minute excerpt. speech between Mike Jeffreys and chief economist on Radio 2GB and 4BC macrobusiness, Leith van Onselen.

1. Living standards are falling

“Australia’s productivity is abysmal. In fact, over the last decade, we’ve had one of the lowest productivity gains in the developed world, so our living standards aren’t rising.”

Living standards fell in the wake of COVID from early 2021 to mid-2023, but have risen impressively since then. In 2025 and 2026, Australians had record overseas trips, record cars and record per capita population. light aircraft sales, record private school enrollments, and record rates for dining out, retail sales of jewelry, cosmetics, and other luxury goods. See the table below.

(Data source: Australian Bureau of Statistics)

2. Wages don’t keep up with costs

“Real wages in Australia have fallen by about 6% in the last five years. So when we adjust for inflation we’ve all gone backwards… It’s crazy.”

There is a grain of truth here. Real wages fell between March 2021 and September 2023, of course, due to Coalition policies.

Since December 2023, inflation It was 9.7%. Average fees increased by 11.7 percent total fee age increased by 15.1% pension increased by 13.3 percent unemployed young people increased by 16.7% allowance 20.3% higher and Commonwealth rent help increased by 39.4%.

3. Australia is a high-tax country

“Income taxes are incredibly high in Australia. Personal income taxes…are among the highest in the world.”

The evidence disproves this persistent lie. Australia’s best personal income tax The rate has now fallen to a modest 45 percent, as in the UK, Germany, Italy and South Korea. It is higher in the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Iceland, Sweden, Belgium, Finland and Israel. Austria, France, Japan and Denmark are above 55%.

Australia’s total tax intake is currently among the lowest in the world. This is mainly because the goods and services tax (GST) is only 10%. Equivalent retail sales taxes over 18% in Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Ireland and elsewhere; In Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Hungary it is over 24%.

4. Labor continues to raise taxes

“There’s no point in trying to improve yourself because you’re going to get more taxes. The government has actually opened up all these new revenue streams, right?”

Wrong. Last month Financial Monitorpublished by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows taxation relative to GDP for 31 developed economies.

Australia ranked 26th out of 31 countries for high tax rates in both 2025 and 2026. Only Ireland, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and the USA were lower. This is better than the ill-fated Coalition’s ranking.

5. Labor is bad for business

“It’s in the DNA of the Labor Party. They don’t really care about small business.”

The evidence shows that large, small and medium-sized businesses employ more people, grow faster and make more profits under Labour.

Total gross activity in March, as shown here profit It increased by 3.7% to a record $316.2 billion in 2025 in all sectors except mining. See the table below.

6. Labor Spends More Than the Coalition

“The government has no incentive to cut spending because their biggest source of revenue, personal income tax, is rising every year and they can spend more of it on waste.”

this month Budget Paper No.1 It shows the ratio of expenditures to GDP since 1970. Former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam It spent the lowest among all PMs, spending an average of 19.6% of GDP. Anthony Albanese average 25.2%, which is lower Tony Abbott, Kevin Rudd, Bob Hawke And Paul Keating. Highest spending so far Scott Morrisonthe average was 27.5%.

7. Business investment is decreasing

“We have historically low business investment, very low productivity growth.”

The seed of truth here is investment crashed Between 2013 and 2021, under hopelessly incompetent Coalition rule. See the table below.

Except for brief periods of severe global crises, business investment has increased under all governments except Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison since 1992. It is constantly expanding again under Albanese’s management.

The questions these incessant hoaxes raise are: Are Australia’s economic reporters too stupid to know what’s really going on, or do they know but choose to deceive?
Did they understand how devastating Are they in national social harmony?

Alan Austin is an Independent Australian columnist and freelance journalist. You can follow him on Twitter @alanaustin001 and Bluesky @alanaustin.bsky.social.

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