After seven years of a Coalition government, household debt is the second highest of 43 countries; we ranked third last out of 35 OECD countries for wage growth and we have the third most unaffordable housing market in the OECD. But the good news is that the combined worth of Australian billionaires is 52.4% higher in December 2020 than it was a year earlier.
Among the myths that seemingly never die is the belief – parroted by a supine media – that Liberal Governments are competent economic managers. This is despite overwhelming evidence that Australia’s performance across a range of areas is declining compared with other comparable countries.
Now Labor MHR for Bruce, Julian Hill, has belled the cat with a comprehensive report, “Australia’s Global Performance: Falling behind”, which demonstrates that “Australia is going backwards under the Liberals, and falling behind much of the rest of the world”.
The report is damning for the Government. Hill notes that when Morrison won the 2019 election his speech rhetorically asked:
“How good is Australia!?
The Prime Minister has developed a truly inane habit of asking that same question over and over again. Expecting that no one will ever bother to answer.”
It is a question Hill says can easily be answered – “not so good any more – going backwards and being left behind”. The answers he provides are drawn from OECD and other official figures, including detailed research by the Parliamentary Library which compares Australia’s performance with other countries since the Liberals came to power in 2013.
They show:
Real wages in Australia were 0.7% lower in 2019 compared to 2013, and Australia sat in third last place out of 35 OECD countries for wage growth. Now the Government is pursuing policies that will further depress wages and increase insecure work while inequality is getting worse. Australia has become the 11th most unequal nation in the OECD and ranks behind most of Western and Northern Europe, as well as Canada in its rate of inequality.
Hill cites Bloomberg research which show that Covid has been great for Australian billionaires, whose combined worth is 52.4% higher in December 2020 than at the same time in 2019. Needless to say, Morrison tax policies give leave passes to companies that use tax havens and major tax avoidance strategies while delivering tax cuts that favour the wealthy.
- Just 20% of people in Australia hold 64% of the nation’s wealth while the younger and poorer 60% have just 16% of the wealth.
- Australia has the third most unaffordable housing market and is the 11th most unequal OECD country.
- Australia ranked fifth last in the OECD in terms of its productivity rates. In fact, Australian productivity was negative at -0.3%.
- Household debt as a share of GDP is 119.4% — now the second highest rate among 43 countries.
- Australia ranks behind Uganda at 87th out of 133 countries globally for “economic complexity”. Economic complexity measures the ability of countries to make and export a wide variety of goods, especially complex, high-value products that few other countries can make.
We dig things up, harvest things and cut things down and under Morrison’s Government the economic trend is towards the products of the past and not the future.
In doing so we are putting too many of our eggs in the one basket as the IMF Export Diversification Index (a long-term study of export diversification and quality) showed with us ranked 84th globally in 2014. Back then trade with China was about 26% of total exports but in 2019-2020 it had reached 35%. To make matters worse, swashbuckling foreign policy is putting much of that at risk.
Australia ranks 54th out of 64 countries in the 2021 Global Climate Performance Index. Our rate of greenhouse gas emissions per capita has been the highest in the world. It’s official government policy to invest in dying industries while claiming it can’t encourage electric vehicles because that would involve subsidies – typical Morrison hypocrisy given the subsidies rorts it throws around.
We also have the second highest level of biodiversity deterioration in the world and Australia’s wild koala population is now at real risk of extinction.
For a government allegedly pro-business the World Bank has news – since 2010 Australia has slipped from 12th to 14th place globally in ease of doing business and fourth to seventh place overall for ease of starting a business.
Australian children’s educational outcomes have slipped in both national and international terms. Remote education during lockdown and distance has been handicapped by the fact that broadband speeds are now so slow that Australia ranks 61st in the world. Only our new French submarines will offer less value for money than the National Broadband Network.
The outlook for young Australians as measured by the NEET (Not in education, employment or training) rate is not that flash, as Morrison would say if he were interested in the subject. The rate for 20-24 year olds was 11.9% – the eighth lowest out of 27 countries compared with fourth lowest in 2010.
Private health insurance costs 36% more than it did and the coverage rate is at its lowest since 2005. Meanwhile, out-of-pocket costs for seeing a GP have increased by a third under the Morrison government and Australia now ranks eighth out of 11 high-income countries for healthcare affordability.
The Coalition has punished its enemies relentlessly. Cumulative funding cuts for the ABC total $783 million between 2013 and 2020. As a percentage of GDP arts funding is 0.72% – well below the OECD average of 1.09%.
International corruption rankings are not needed to tell Australians that Australia is becoming more and more corrupt, and Australians are increasingly distrustful of government.
Our greatest source of international shame is our treatment of Indigenous Australians. First Nations Australians have the lowest life expectancy among First Nations people in the world. Indigenous incarceration rates are 27% of the prison population despite Indigenous Australians being only 2% of the population. We also imprison young Indigenous (and non-Indigenous Australians) from the age of 10, an age not comparable with other developed nations.
We might well all ask: how the bloody hell did Morrison get us here?
Noel Turnbull has had a 50-year-plus career in public relations, politics, journalism and academia. He blogs at http://noelturnbull.com/blog/
Comments
26 responses to “How good is Morrison’s Australia? Going backwards and being left behind”
Noel – I envy how you do it!
I so admire the comprehensiveness and the breadth of your various observations. Not to mention your insightful commentary. Mate, that’s not to say that you should not be backing them up with relevant references. But I so love your assertions!
Observed Australia over the past couple of decades since Howard’s ascendancy appearing more like a cheap knock off of the US politically, economically and electorally; while looking backwards with a nostalgic rear view promoting British ‘values’ (LNP elites are seemingly more interested in serving the interests of the US and/or UK?)
This includes hollowing out and decline of the LNP (membership and policy making), introduction of US (permanent) campaigning techniques via Crosby Textor plus noisy dog whistling; radical right libertarian socio-economic ideology and policies (mostly) via Koch Network think tanks e.g. IPA and CIS; avoidance of climate or environmental legislation, renewable sources etc. on behalf of fossil fuels (e.g. focus upon blaming population growth/immigration as sources of environmental degaradation); then right wing media oligopoly running sociocultural campaigns (indirectly supporting the LNP) e.g. Sinophobia/Communist scaremongering; targetting and shaping ageing white Christian conservative nationalist redoubts, especially in regions (aka US mid western and/or southern, Brexit regional, Hungary, Turkey, Russia et al.).
I understand many normal (SE Oz) Liberal voters are concerned as to where does this all end when the demographic ‘tipping point’ occurs of when dog whistling of diversity (e.g. ‘the great replacement theory’), entrenched legacy media (with a ‘use by date’), catering to mostly ageing/declining monocultural Anglo/Irish culture, no meaningful climate policies and big business running without legislative nor regulatory constraints; not just a bad look from the outside but a risk when electorates move beyond the baby boomers and are more diverse and knowledgeable?
Thank you Noel Turnbull for your usual high quality contribution.
Key messages to come out of this article are that our deterioration in a number of measures cannot be ascribed to COVID because they are relative with other countries which have suffered (many much worse than Australia) from the virus.
On all measures noted in the above article we have slipped on the scorecard. Why this has occurred and the answer are easily dealt with. There is an appalling lack of leadership in this country. We have a PM who when asked a difficult question either ignores it, disagrees with the premise of the question (?) or accuses the questioner that he/she is indulging in the politics of envy. Really this is a disgrace and pathetic.
Little wonder our relations with China are at a low ebb – there are no adults in the Australian room.
It essentially comes down to a perverse lack of values residing in the minds and souls of the participants. Slogans such as “have a go and you will get a go” simply do not cut it.
A basic set of values – honesty, integrity, emotional intelligence, compassion, predictability, responsibility and fairness – on which to set a platform for principles leading to policies would have all Coalition members failing miserably.
It is difficult to see a way out of this serious problem.
Regards
Erik
“The answers he provides are drawn from OECD and other official figures, including detailed research by the Parliamentary Library”
In line with Noel’s comment on how the LNP treats its perceived enemies, that piece of objective research should see the budget for the Parliamentary Library decimated. A bit like what happened to the ANAO when they told the truth about various government rorts.
For fear of being like a cracked vinyl record, we got there because for the last several years, we have been having a deteriorating trade relationship with China. The deterioration was initiated by Australia from a combination reasons. I believe that the first is caused by a lack of self confidence of the LNP government, a government that does not feel confident about the country being surrounded by a sea of Asians. Instead of learning to live with its neighbours, it sees ghosts in every corner, especially Chinese ghost that seems to loom larger with each passing year. Singapore is in about a similar situation, and island of majority Chinese surrounded by a sea of Malay (by race, Indonesians are classified as a Malay race, so are the people of the Philippines and the indigenous people of Taiwan) people. The Chinese have traditionally been not well liked in the region. Yet Singapore has made itself accepted among them, especially as an important member of ASEAN. The LNP government has little competence and inclination in engaging with its regional neighbours apart from wanting to sell them more Australian products.
The second problem is that this lack of self confidence has made the LNP government lean more and more on the US to provide it with the level of protection that it thinks it needs. In return for this protection, it feels obliged to return the favour by participating in naval exercises in the South China Sea, taking sides in the disputes over the SCS islands, calling for an Iraq style inspection of China in Covid19 investigation, forming the QUAD etc. It takes advice from Japan in its dealings with China despite the fact the Japan attacked Australia during WWII while China fought on the same side – the Allies. This was made worse by the MSM demonising China with spins and conspiracy theories; putting a brake on Chinese investments and initiating punitive tax on an array of Chinese products. A retaliation by China was labelled as bullying by Australia.
The demonising of China and the Chinese reignited a latent leftover of prejudice against Chinese and other Asians during its early formative years. For this journalists in the MSM have a major role. If anyone doubts the gravity of such a situation, please read today’s CNN news. An 84 year old Thai man walking in the street was beaten to death because of the incitement to hate. President Biden has just signed an order for action to reduce such hate crimes. I provide the address below:
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/08/us/asian-american-attacks-bay-area/index.html
If the Australian economy is in the doldrums, it is not because of Covid19. It is because the government of Australia sees its biggest trading partner, China, as an enemy. If anyone thinks that this is an exaggeration, just think of Eric Abetz’s attempt to coerce three Australian Chinese to condemn China. Despite the pandemic, a good trading relationship would have seen any amount of Australian products exported to China to feed an ever growing middle class. We would be way ahead of everyone else in the OECD. The Chinese middle class is estimated to be around 400 to 500 million, about 20 times the total population of Australia. Australian products are trusted and sought after by the Chinese (not just the middle class) as of high quality. Yet the government, cutting the nose to spite the face, willingly sacrifices this advantage.
The price to be paid will be felt by all Australians later; not now because the government is presently handing out money to combat Covid19 lockdowns. The difficulty in addressing the situation is that the realisation, if at all there is any, has come too late. It is made more difficult by an electorate strongly influenced by the Murdoch media, SMH, Channel 9 and even the ABC (Beverley O’Connor, The World, at 10 at night). Even a country with as much talent and ability as Australia will find it very hard to pick itself up once economic problems hits hard. The talented and able will find havens elsewhere. Pessimism may not be pleasant, but it prevents one from falling hard.
Australia is not surrounded by a “sea of Asians”. It is merely surrounded by SEA. Its nearest neighbours (apart from New Zealanders) are Melanesians and various kinds of SE Asians, but they are all quite a long way from our shores, and especially from our major population centres.
SE Asians, as you say, are also Asians. Indonesians are Asians. In the Pacific, Polynesians are genetically similar to Asians and has been said to be closely related to Asians, although I have not kept in touch with that subject recently. They are not a long way away. Indonesians used to fish in Australian waters.
Besides all of Micronesia has a mix of peoples of different origins, Melanesian as well as many from Asiatic backgrounds.
SE Asians, as you say, are also Asians. Indonesians are Asians. In the Pacific, Polynesians are genetically similar to Asians and has been said to be closely related to Asians, although I have not kept in touch with that subject recently. They are not a long way away. Indonesians used to fish in Australian waters.
Maybe in the days of sail. The is no such entity as SE Asians. ASEAN is a politic construct not a sovereign or ethnic identity.
Yours is a great observation. Even the words Asian, European, American and African are human constructs for different purposes. When people say Asians, do they mean Indians, Malays, Central Asians, Chinese or Japanese? These are so diverse groups culturally and genetically that it really is meaningless to lump them together as Asians. Of course as humans we all have underlying similarities. Ultimately, we are all humans and better referred to as humans.
The same applies to “anglo-saxons” and “western values”. My grandparents were Spanish and Irish. I have no shared “values” with the English crown and its Butchers Apron. And we are all humans. Vulnerable and hopeful.
The Australian MSM has also covered itself in disgrace again. The WHO report on COVID in PRC suggests strongly an origin of importation in frozen food product. The cowards and slime merchants (Peter Hartcher) not a word. Appalling.
They also tried to pin the military coup in Myanmar on China as a supporter of the regime.
Nothing could be further than the truth, there is an article on P&I today that explains why.
It also points out that China does not formally comment on other countries’ internal politics when it comes to their sovereign right to work out what kind of governance they want. If only the US and Australia could do the same when it comes to China.
I am 67 years of age, and never have I seen such a manufacturing of consent for war targeting only one country in my entire life. The sheer volume of negative commentary alone makes it a racist and deeply prejudiced campaign. It even out does Iraq where at least some journalists agued against Johnny Howard’s stance and our participation in the US driven illegal war.
It has got to the point of a national hysteria. I have a few years on you George and I have never seen anything like it also. They are going bonkers. Some of them literally. It has got to the level of the evil Dr Fu Manchu crude propaganda of the thirties.
I can’t agree more
I’ve been collecting images lately after the Xinjiang claims of rape etc. How much this fits into a common theme that has permeated the minds of many:
http://www.angryasianman.com/images/angry/yellowperil05.jpg
https://pulpcovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/the-Ghost-Detective-Fall-1940.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/92/dc/c0/92dcc0b05fc77b8065de68ec5faf068e.jpg
Did you also notice how they massaged over and distorted the WHO comments on their work in Wuhan? The basic view from WHO is that the virus could have come from anywhere, even frozen food as it did in a cluster in New Zealand. It is not even related to bats or pangolins. A completely different virus. Even the ABC’s coverage tonight on 7:00 news was utter rubbish featuring bats and pangolins. They made up trash.
No mention of how it made Morrison and his clowns look like amateurs when it came to pushing for the inquiry, and also no comment on the spurious claims they made at the time.
You would think that the WHO team which went to Wuhan, consisting mainly of eminent Western scientific experts, would elicit some level of respect from our media.
But alas, their professional comments do not accord with the rabid narrative of the Western media, including ours. Victorian Liberal MP Tim Wilson even said that WHO’s credibility is on the line! After ripping out $700 million out of the ABC, I also think the government’s hatchet job on it also has had the effect of shifting the organisation to the right. The reactionaries are onto a winner!
The ABC and Fairfax both distorted the preliminary findings. Both have politicized a pandemic which is disgraceful. Yesterday Xi announced a trade deal with the Central and Eastern European countries to increase their agricultural exports to PRC over the next five years. I guess PRC is doing the diversifying and Morrison is doing the lying. I weep for my country. No principles, no respect and in a few years no trade.
Well said Teow Loon Ti.
Outstanding article. Thank you so much. Great resource in the bare knuckle debates with the exceptional people of Western values.
Going backwards or staying the same?
One might say that about climate inaction, emissions growth, stagnant wages, or 6% unemployment. The more things change, the more things stay the same. And I suspect that the Morrison government have a vested interest in continuing the tradition set by decades of former Coalition governments.
Garry Linnell in the New Daily pointed out, with some justification that, “Australians don’t believe in a perfect world. They just want their old one back.”
https://thenewdaily.com.au/entertainment/people-entertainment/2021/02/09/garry-linnell-albanese/
Whilst the article was a little tongue in cheek, nevertheless, it revealed the malaise that has affected Australian politics for decades, and identified the voting population accomplices that want to keep the status quo.
The majority of Australians are just really a frightened and cynical bunch constantly brainwashed with the enduring myth of the lucky country.
You are on the money.
Frightened and cynical. And despite the reality on the ground of a multi-cultural society, our Anglo tribal leaders not only ‘want the old one back’, they want the British Empire to be back. Stuff the natives, stuff the non-Anglos, we are an Anglo colonial outpost, and proud of it!!
Climate change, nuclear doomsday clock ticking away, gender equality? Give us a break! Black lives don’t matter, ok?
Australia, circa 2021.
Its called “Western values”.
Ha ha! I think those values could be what they study in the Paul Ramsay ‘Western Civilisation’ course (directed by one John Howard and another Tony Abbot).
You are right, it is neo-imperialism, not that it ever stopped from America’s point of view.
You can see this right across the board with the same people pushing the same lines.
The fear is white people and those of European backgrounds will disappear. Many amongst them still think white folk are superior. These are ideas from the 19th Century.
Another fear that the same cohort of people project is that white people will lose their economic dominance over the previously exploited peoples they controlled to their advantage.
The establishment of (biased) Western degree courses at universities is an example of where they are prepared to go. Luckily our most important universities said no.
And it is always people like Howard, Abbott and Abetz pushing such ideas. Downer’s behaviour over Timor L’est could have come straight out of a British manual on imperialism and colonialism. In their absurd persecution of Bernard Collaery and Witness K, they reinforce the point.
Then there the cost restrictions place on students doing Arts, faculties that include geography, languages, philosophy, anthropology, social sciences, and studies into other cultures.
And the extreme reluctance of Morrison to say a word of condemnation against white supremacist groups in this country, and the racist attacks against people of Chinese and Asian heritage in Australia, many of which are Australian citizens.