STEPHEN JOHNSON: Albo has wrecked our economy and left us poorer than we were seven years ago – here are the two major changes he needs to make NOW

Anthony Albanese is Australia’s worst economic manager in more than a generation, and that is no exaggeration.

He has achieved the unthinkable feat of presiding over an embarrassing decline in living standards despite record government spending.

Under Labor’s watch, Australians have experienced the biggest drop in disposable income among OECD nations, and adjusted for inflation, households have less money to spend than they did seven years ago.

After paying taxes, the average Australian is poorer than when Labor came to power in 2022.

And outside of Covid lockdowns, the economy is growing at the slowest pace since the 1991 recession.

However, the Reserve Bank of Australia has stated that it will not cut rates in the short term because inflation remains too high.

Borrowers are receiving relief in New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and across Europe, and their incomes are increasing.

But Australians are still burdened by monthly mortgage payments that are almost double what they were when Labor won the election against the opposition, following the steepest rate rises since 1989.

While Australia is not in a technical recession, it has been in a per capita recession since early last year.

The production of goods and services by all Australians has been declining for a record seven consecutive quarters, worsening Australia’s productivity crisis.

This per capita recession is even worse than the stagflation era of the early 1980s, when unemployment and inflation reached double digits at the same time.

Now Treasurer Jim Chalmers has taken the extraordinary step of blaming state Labor government spending for public sector spending that hit a record level during the September quarter.

“The majority of this was state spending, and the majority of the Commonwealth’s share was defense spending,” he said breathlessly in a press release on Thursday.

“State and local spending accounted for 60 percent of public demand growth in the quarter.”

This Labor government of former university student activists is choosing to point the finger at someone else rather than act like political adults.

Until now, the government has ignored numerous warnings from Michele Bullock (the Labour-appointed Reserve Bank Governor no less) that state and federal governments are spending too much money.

Cherelle Murphy, chief economist at EY, noted: ‘It’s hard to find a government in Australia that doesn’t have a record capital program for the next four years.’

The Labor state governments of New South Wales and Victoria would not need to spend record amounts in the tens of billions on new rail infrastructure projects if it were not for record immigration.

Immigration is a federal issue, so it’s time for the Albanian government to actually do something.

A large portion of the record 500,000 migrants arriving in Australia each year are moving to Sydney and Melbourne, putting further pressure on the transport network.

The previous Labor government slashed immigration during an economic crisis: under Paul Keating it fell below 35,000 in 1993 so it could prioritize tackling high unemployment.

Instead of bowing to the big business and university lobby, the Albanian government could at least immediately cut immigration in half.

In fact, that is what they promised to do in the May Budget, but they have not yet delivered even vaguely.

The Labor Party could show that it is in charge and above the demands of special interests.

After all, surging population growth has barely stopped Australia from a paltry 0.8 per cent economic growth rate.

A population slowdown would at least ease pressure on services inflation.

It is 18 months since Dr Chalmers, who did a PhD on Keating when he was prime minister, made the extraordinary claim that the federal government had no control over immigration.

“That’s not a government policy or a government objective,” he said on the ABC question-and-answer show.

“It’s not a floor or a ceiling, it’s not something the government determines.”

Pardon? So why the hell do we elect governments?

First, the Albanian government claims that it does not control immigration.

Then he blames someone else for public spending that reached a record 28 percent of GDP, or gross domestic product.

With iron ore prices plummeting next year, Canberra will collect less in tax revenue from companies.

Labor will no doubt resort to its usual tactic of blaming someone else or citing so-called “global factors”.

With an election scheduled for next year, Labor should strengthen and tackle wasteful public spending by reducing the Future Made in Australia green manufacturing subsidy scheme.

It needs to stop pandering to the Greens who want Australia to use renewable energy to make up 82 per cent of its energy mix by 2030, a policy target that will be very expensive to achieve.

Without a doubt, reducing immigration instead of spending more money is the best way to reduce future carbon emissions. Just a thought.

Labor has boasted of its two consecutive budget surpluses but downplayed deficit forecasts for the coming years.

Dr Chalmers denied the EY chief economist’s accusation of “a bleak and hopeless economy”, preferring instead to dismiss that observation with the phrase: “I don’t share the bleakest of those assessments.”

Admitting a problem is the first step in addressing it, but that appears to be beyond the reach of this government.

To use a Gough Whitlam phrase much loved by Labor true believers: it’s time to take some bloody responsibility.