By Alan Austin
A colourful meme showing a grumpy Anthony Albanese and a genial Scott Morrison is doing the social media rounds.
Federal ministers have posted it on their Facebook pages with the comment “The next election will be a choice – a choice about who can best manage our economy to ensure a stronger future. It’s a clear choice.”
The meme lists fifteen items which purport to show the Liberals beating Labor. It is blatantly dishonest.
1 and 2. Unemployment and youth unemployment.
It is quite deceptive to compare today’s jobless rate with 2013. First, the collapse in migration has reduced the numbers of people with jobs and without jobs. So while this has cut jobless rates, it has also led to record job vacancies and dismal productivity.
Second, low hours worked per person per month makes the jobs market look healthier than it is. The lowest monthly level through the Labor years was 85.8 hours. This collapsed to below 84 in 2016 and below 80 in 2020. The latest monthly number, for January, was 79.4, the lowest January figure on record.
Thirdly, the public service has expanded inexplicably since 2015 by 464,000 “workers”. That is 3.4% of the workforce.
Yet even so, Australia’s headline jobless rate today of 4.2% ranks a lowly 15th in the OECD. In September 2013, Australia’s 5.7% ranked sixth. Labor clearly wins.
3. Welfare dependency
Of course welfare recipients would be high in 2013, after the worst global recession in 80 years. That was true everywhere.
But for this measure to have declined by less than one per cent is an appalling failure, given the boom times since 2014.
Corporate profits have soared 81.4% over that period. Taxation revenue has climbed 47.5%. For welfare dependency to have barely moved is shameful.
4 and 5. Taxation rates
It is blatantly dishonest to cherry-pick one or two tax brackets and try to make comparisons over a nine-year span. The best measure is the overall tax take relative to GDP.
According to Treasury, the Tax Office and the Bureau of Statistics (ABS), taxes are always higher under the Coalition. John Howard was the highest-taxing PM since records have been kept, Morrison the second highest.
6. Electricity prices
Over any nine year period, some prices will go up, others will go down. The critical measures are the overall inflation rate and wage rises. The data is crystal clear that inflation is always lower under Labor and wage rises are always lower under the Coalition.
7. Defence funding
It is extremely deceptive to compare military spending to GDP without noting (1) military needs and (2) the quantum wasted. When these are considered, Labor’s record is much stronger than the Coalition’s. An extremely high percentage of military spending under the Coalition has been wasted – from the F111 jets ordered in the 1960s which never flew in combat to the submarines ordered from Japan in 2014, then cancelled, then ordered from France, then cancelled, then … who know what will happen next? Billions have been wasted.
8. Naval shipbuilding
It is false to claim Labor built no vessels. The hull of the aircraft carrier HMAS Canberra was constructed in Spain in 2008, then transported to Williamstown, Victoria, in 2011 for completion. It was officially christened in February 2013. There appear to have been others.
It is equally false to claim 70 vessels were built since 2013. Published lists of Australia’s naval fleet show seven Australian-built vessels have been commissioned since 2013. Several of these were designed and ordered under Labor.
9. Foreign criminal visas cancelled
Why are so many criminals now seeking to come to Australia? That is answered by Transparency International which has shown corruption has escalated since 2014. Last year’s report claims:
“Australia faces several corruption challenges, including anonymous company ownership and money laundering. Following the FinCEN files, where thousands of leaked financial documents exposed a vast paper trail of money laundering across the globe, more than US$150 million were traced back to Australian banks.
“The country also shows severe deficiencies when it comes to corruption in international real estate.”
Australia’s international anti-corruption score was much healthier under Labor.
10. Detention centres for illegal immigrants
The sneaky deception here is that the Liberals under Tony Abbott abandoned bipartisanship on border control to maximise the deaths at sea during the Labor years. As is well-documented, Abbott orchestrated a global advertising campaign attracting illegal boats to Australia.
After the 2013 change of government, bipartisanship was restored by the Shorten Opposition and the billboard abandoned.
Nevertheless, Australia is now despised globally for its asylum seeker policies, as was not the case before 2013.
11. Hospital funding
No source is given, so we cannot check those figures. The deception here is that the break-down into public and private hospitals is not shown. The ABS confirms that private sector profits have soared since 2014. So these numbers may simply reflect higher corporate profits rather than quality care. We need more data.
12. Medicare bulk billing rates
So what? Far more critical is the impact on costs for vulnerable Australians. Advocacy groups remain profoundly concerned at the extra burden following the Morrison Government’s Medicare cuts.
13 and 14. Aged care and schools funding
Again, no source shown, so we cannot verify those figures. The deception again is that we can’t see how much went to healthy hot meals for elderly residents or to new yachts for the rich foreign owners of the private nursing home corporations. We need more data. Same regarding schools.
15. Mobile phone towers
Does the Liberal Party really expect us to believe that no towers were erected before 2014? This item is simply a blatant barefaced lie.
Liberals actually the worst economic managers
None of these fifteen items shows that the Liberal Party is a better choice than Labor. In fact, an Independent Australia article lists fifty economic outcomes under the Morrison Government which have been worst ever or worst for a very long time. These include:
- the longest sustained retail slump;
- Australia’s deepest post-war recession;
- the deepest budget deficits;
- greatest increase in gross debtsince World War II;
- a record number of profitable companies paying no tax;
- greatest wasteof any government program ever;
- lowest infrastructureinvestment as a percentage of GDP;
- lowest rate of wagesgrowth; and
- the first and only time household spendingdeclined year on year.
Not all these occurred during the Covid recession.
This exercise underscores two realities: First, the facts clearly show the current Government is the least competent at economic management since records have been kept. They also show Australia had the world’s best economy under Labor.
And secondly, the Liberal Party now relies entirely for its messaging on distortions, exaggerations and lies.
[textblock style=”6″]
Alan Austin writes regularly for Crikey, Independent Australia and Michael West Media.
[/textblock]
[textblock style=”7″]
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
[/textblock]
The P M, a Putid Mendacious polyp, is unaware of decency, honesty, skills, ethics, morals, professional standards. He is an operator, a liar, a propagandist, a fraud. He has NEVER ever worked as we know it, being a complete coddled dud as an office bumboy and even a failure in the liar’s world of advertising, where he was set up yet failed miserably. A backstabbing Bastard, he struts, loudmouths, lies, exaggerates, cheats, lies again, grins in extreme ugliness both inside and outside the skull, and, does nothing except announce and fail, spruiking spew and spam as if that will work as service. He is backed by a team of turdulous tossers and twits of no value. Let us get rid of this political POX now.
Paul Buongiorno wrote the other day that Morrison is dead meat because ‘…the mob isn’t listening any more.’
Presumably the only thing that can save him is another dose of ‘Bob Brown’s caravan.’
I don’t know about ‘dead meat’ ,but he has all the appearance of a dead cat..Bongiorno also claimed after hearing from a sitting minister (second hand?) that unrest in the ‘broad church’, is running at chaos levels as the polling remains in crushing defeat territory.Will anyone want the poisoned chalice? Sounds like a win-win to me.There’ll be no repeat of ‘Bob Browns caravan’ Doesn’t matter where you look,the Liar is fucked
And they keep getting away with the best economic managers Lie, propped up by the Murdoch press, brainwashing yje Numptys.
Flailing his arms around for a floating stick, the happy clapper has warned China not to help Russia. Or else…
I am reminded of a lovely line in ‘The Big Sleep’ where Philip Marlowe, cautioned by an adversary, says ’If you listen hard, you’ll hear my teeth chatter.’
Wouldn’t it be a stunning parting gift from the Coalition to this benighted nation – another fucking, futile US war to beg to be allowed to join?
Thank you for these comments.
For readers here who use facebook, please post a link to this analysis whenever you see Liberal Party ministers, members or supporters pushing their dodgy 15-point list.
Thanks heaps. AA
As expected ,the ‘Australian” propaganda outlet posing as a serious broadsheet, is ramping up it’s toxic garbage,latest insult it’s’mean girls’ article.Desperate gutter’journalism’ by a claque of vicious,vacuous imbeciles.Must be vying with SAD for bottom feeder of the week.The cadaver in New York must be very worried about his political wing.
As if Scummo is going to make a big announceable about NSW while he’s bullshitting his way around WA. That will have to wait until he’s back so he personally can make yet another big announce…sigh…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-17/prime-minister-blamed-for-nsw-flood-assistance-delay/100916128
What’s the bet that the bastards successfully screw it up and then try to squirm their way out fulfilling this this brain fart.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/17/lot-of-show-and-not-a-lot-of-go-aged-care-workers-struggling-to-get-morrison-governments-800-bonus
Can the “colourful meme” in this article at least have “Lies and misleading half-truths” (wince) superimposed over it? Before it spreads any further.
“Labor sources say Kimberley Kitching reported bullying in June last year”…Straight from the PMO’s dirt and rumour dept.Meanwhile Liberal sources report that Scooter from Actor’s equity is hated with a passion by everyone in the LNP,with the possible exception of ‘Robodebt’ Robert,who is running Scooter a close second.I sincerely hope the pricks completely implode before the election,which will save us all from having to wait until election night.They get ‘worser’ by the hour.
I wonder how long before Professor Doctor Scientist Philosopher Genius Kelly, Sluggo Christensen, and other assorted dipshits in parliament jump on this latest anti-vaxxer garbage?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-18/coronacheck-covid-19-japanese-encephalitis-pfizer-vaccine/100917492
Harry,
The LNP, using the WORSECON scale, has progressed from WORSECON 2: WORSER to WORSECON 3: WORSERER.
That only leaves –
W4: WORSTEST.
W5: TOTALLY FIRETRUCKED.
That Pfizer doc is over 1000 adverse reactions including “Encephalitis post-immunisation”. First I knew of this. How have these mRNA genetic concoctions been rolled out to billions of people without properly warning of such serious side-effects. This info only came to light after a FOI request to the FDA, one which Pfizer then tried to stall for 75 years. Thankfully, a judge with a conscience gave the doctors seeking answers their right to know what data the FDA had used in its EUA. How can anyone now be seen to have given Informed Consent? TGA / ATAGI could find out what Pfizer is up to if they wanted to. Maybe they can join with the panel of experts at the Aust Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA tasked with, apparently, silencing debate amongst doctors on pain of deregistration).
Call it a Collaboration of the Duds?
bob,
Back again with yet another round of your conspiracy drivel I see. Without any evidence to back up what you posted it’s all just opinion and conspiracy laden garbage to boot. Are you really trying to tell us that Pfizer has been using mRNA for 75 years? Evidence, where is your evidence? You made the claims, now back them up!
“Maybe they can join with the panel of experts at the Aust Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA tasked with, apparently, silencing debate amongst doctors on pain of deregistration).” Um…er…what the hell? Sigh…once again, supply evidence to back up a nonsensical comment.
“Bob”, Streams of concocted garbage, undoubtedly deliberate and misleading, are not part of decent discussion, more like muttering while masturbating. Stay out if you lie and just do it to gullible “friends.”
The SA election tomorrow might give a pointer or two.
The incumbent Libs appear to be in danger of losing and the issue that has “bit” has been ambulance ramping, which the government failed to address, As with their fed counterparts, they have had ample time to act on public welfare issues and like the feds, the response has been stand-offish running to cold slilence. He now says, “I have a plan”, but my guess is that voters will respond cynically, having been sold that pup before. Either way, in typical neo lib fashion, the libs have been slow to respond to any spending that involves the Public Good, including issues involving deaths through neglect.
Did Marshall make a mistake by allegedly suggesting a $660 million policy (according to the ALP), to build a basketball stadium ( lots of consultancies there!! ) or should he have should just said reports were false and he had no intention of implementing the project?. This when, particulalrly, the ramping issue “ramped up”, if you can excuse the pun.
I dont expect any massive swing to the ALP, but they don’t need a :”biggie” to have the Marshall government pitched amd much of iy will come down to Marshall’s inability to communicate. Like Morrison, the lack of credible communication has been grating.
It will be interesting to see if the glut of Indies is cut, of course.
So, like those recent byelections elsewhere, this could prove to be an interesting pointer.
Btw, the invisibility of Fed “mates” “helping out” has been an interesting phenomena. Stay tuneg..
GL, you can add US District Judge Mark Pittman to the list of ‘conspiracy drivelists’ who do not adhere to an official narrative: ‘Judge scraps 75-year FDA timeline to release Pfizer vaccine safety data, giving agency eight months’ https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/ 07Jan2022 – The FDA “won’t have 75 years to release thousands of pages of documents it relied on to license its COVID-19 vaccine. Instead, the federal agency will have just over eight months to do so, per a federal judge’s ruling.”
I looked at the APHRA website today so as to try and get it from the horse’s mouth, but the site is inaccessible. APHRA is on a mission to ban scientific debates and concerns raised by doctors on the frontline who are witnessing adverse events. Lucky there are a few out there like Dr Mark Hobart onto the right thing and sticking up for the public and their right to Full Informed Consent.
Try this in the interim – https://covidmedicalnetwork.com/open-letters/open-letter-to-atagi.aspx (08March2022) or https://www.gerardrennick.com.au/ahpra-whistleblowers/
PhilP, your power of projection is top notch.
The trust that the public has put in public health bodies and built up over many decades has been betrayed and that damage amplified by a delinquent MSM obviously onboard with the agenda. When the TGA mandates the full disclosure of the possible side effects and the full contents of the mRNA concoctions rather than mandating people ‘to get injected with who knows what’, I will stop looking at this issue. BTW, looks like Pfizer no longer has legal indemnity due to its deceit. Good riddance. Once they and their ilk are gone we can begin the clean-up phase and repair of what is left of the medical industry.
Bob,
You’re trying to use Rennick as evidence and/or proof? He’s a moron and anti-vaxxer.
Covid Medical Network? Um…this isn’t the first time you have tried to use them as evidence.
They do not even come close to being anything that even vaguely resembles credible evidence. Try again.
“That Pfizer doc is over 1000 adverse reactions including “Encephalitis post-immunisation”. First I knew of this…” And that statement has what to do with Japanese Encephalitis (which is mosquito borne)? It has been around a damn sight longer than the Covid vaccines so your comment is spurious bullshit.
https://www.health.gov.au/health-topics/japanese-encephalitis
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/japanese-encephalitis/
“GL, you can add US District Judge Mark Pittman to the list of ‘conspiracy drivelists’ who do not adhere to an official narrative: ‘Judge scraps 75-year FDA timeline to release Pfizer vaccine safety data, giving agency eight months’”
https://www.snopes.com/news/2021/11/19/fda-2076-vaccine-data/
https://fullfact.org/health/pfizer-vaccine-adverse-events/
Well, what a big swing against the Libs in SA.
At the moment, they predict an ALP government, but still a long way of a final result with postal votes etc to be countered.
The exchange of seats is adequate rather than huge, but the swing is the highlight, over 5%.
People may claim the election was decided on local issues, but don’t anyone tell me this is not a kick also aimed at Morrison’s government.
Convincing win in SA.
Scomo won’t be asked to campaign in too many seats around the country. John Howard being drafted to go to SA probably cost the Liberal Party quite a few votes.
The coverage by SKY and ABC could not have been in greater contrast : SKY were saying the electors must have been duped or lied to for there to be such a swing : the ABC were objective, factual and professional.
Terence, there’re plenty of media outlets I refuse to accommodate – typical preferential bias – SKY amongst them; the thought of settling in to a dose of Peta Credlin, Andrew Bolt, Chris Kenny et al is unappealing and I accept the potential criticism of deliberate ignorance on that account, but given the fast and loose relationship they have with objective and factual reporting it’s hilarious that they would charge the electors with the sin of being duped…. given they’re in the business of duping the very electors who they claim were duped.
A bit like a pickpocket expressing sympathy to the person he’s just fleeced of their wallet and car keys.
That aside, a great day for local politics with my home state returning to the Labor fold. I’m very pleased for the citizens of SA, and confident their circumstances will improve. One of my nieces is a paramedic in Adelaide, an ambo, and I cannot imagine the stress that she and her colleagues have been under during these last couple of years with their understaffing & underresourcing… a key factor in the incumbent govt’s loss to Labor.
Thanks GL. Checked the fullfact link to learn something new today and have to say the author Abbas Panjwani is dragging the chain. One of his previous articles ‘Covid-19 vaccines don’t cause immunodeficiency syndrome’ does not stack up. Pfizers ‘Cumulative Analysis of Post-authorization Adverse Event Reports’ lists more than 20 auto-immune conditions. Maybe he is relying the word ’cause’ to save his argument and if so he is correct. For those interested, Re-ignite Democracy has up a letter from the covidmedicalnetwork, sent to ATAGI in response to their latest advice (dated 6 April 2022) on ‘sedating children and adults for the administration of the C19 vaccination’ – scared of needles, don’t want to give consent, no problem.