Labor won’t Increase JobSeeker: Google it, Mate.

Prof. Mitchell's unemployment benefits rate versus poverty line, source

Forget about it, boys and girls. What Labor promises one day, they forget the next.

Although leaving the amount unspecified, last year Shadow Social Services Minister Linda Burney promised a new Labor government would increase unemployment benefits (JobSeeker). Full stop, end of the story. How could Labor not do that? You know the tale Albanese likes to tell, all teary-eyed: his single mom, living in public housing on a pension. He grew up on Struggle Street. He’s “Albo” and he cares about you.

Well, that was then, this is now:

(source)

So, what changed between then and now to make Albo renege on his word?

Look at Mitchell’s chart. As prices take off on a plane, unemployment benefits struggle on a ladder. The gap grows larger and larger and larger. This keeps changing but it demands an increase in the unemployment benefits rate, not a freeze.

I’ll tell you what changed. The election campaign began and the COALition is questioning the ability of a Labor government to manage the economy. That’s what changed.

 

Good “economic management” translates as “fiscal responsibility” for Labor: Government spending cuts. So, Albo decided to sacrifice the unemployed at the altar of “fiscal responsibility”. Why the unemployed? It could have been climate change, or the workers, or whatever. It just happens that the unemployed are a softer target. 

 

More generally: Labor’s “fiscal responsibility” is a byword for “Albanese’s ready and willing to betray whatever and whoever it takes to gain the approval of the rich”. He’s showing he’s the kind of PM the rich can go to bed with: ruthless, cruel with the little people, subservient to the rich.

And get this: Albanese is a member of the “Socialist Left”, the Left wing of the centre-Left Australian Labor Party. What can you expect from the COALition? This is what bipartisanship means.

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Although Albanese’s bastardry still makes my blood boil, if I am honest, I have to admit this latest betrayal wasn’t unexpected – and it shouldn’t surprise you either. Back in 2020 one could already see Labor’s re-discovery of “fiscal responsibility” coming (believe it or not, I did).

Fraudenberg announced the Government’s “eye-watering” (as the pundits used to describe it) 200+ billion dollar spending in March. All talking heads were stunned: the COALition “spendathon” contradicted everything they claimed about “fiscal responsibility”.

Kevin Rudd was pointing fingers at the COALition’s hypocrisy. And yes, Government debt exploded – much to the concern of so-called experts. But in the two years since, the sky hasn’t fallen. There is some inflation and it may still go up, but it’s due mainly to imports.

On March 31st that year shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers was already telegraphing his party’s unwillingness to do anything in the eventuality of their victory:

One of the consequences of this is that we will be saddled as a nation with a generation of debt. It might be something like a trillion dollars by the time the government’s finished.

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I think the problem is general to Labor, but Albanese exemplifies it well: unwillingness to fight back. I don’t know about you, but I can’t see him – or any other Labor politician, for that matter – doing what Marina Ovsyannikova did.

Let me give you an example. Scotty from Marketing is currently savaging Albanese over his (Scotty’s) allegedly masterful management of the economy. Yesterday a blond female reporter, echoing Scotty’s talking point, asked Albanese about his credentials as economic manager.

Albanese could have shot back at the reporter: “I have an economics degree, but what are Scotty’s credentials? His field is marketing. He’s a glorified salesman. And, judging by his ‘Where the bloody hell are ya?’ campaign, a not very talented one. His one undeniable talent is at self-promotion: because truth means nothing to him”. With that Albanese would have not only defended his own position, that would have put the ball straight back into Scotty’s side of the court: everybody knows Scotty’s a liar.

Instead, he mumbled weakly about his degree in economics.

His instinct is to keep his head low. Lack of principles, I think, is at the root of Albanese’s (and Labor’s) cowardice.

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By comparison, federal Greens Leader Adam Bandt gave me a very pleasant surprise today. He went to the National Press Club to outline the Greens’ policies. During the Q & A session following, Ron Mizen (Australian Financial Review) asked him the following question:

You said in the speech that wages growth wasn’t going particularly well. What’s the current WPI?

Local commentators call this kind of dishonest, childish, trick question “gotcha questions”. Of late “gotchas” have become popular among journos working for pro-business media (like the AFR).

Just last Monday Albanese was asked point blank what the current unemployment and cash rates were. Instead of honestly admitting he didn’t memorise the latest ABS releases and asking Katty Gallagher, his shadow Finance Minister – who was with him and actually knew the answers – if she could answer, his first reaction was to try to bullshit his way out – to universal hilarity. (In fairness, journos working for Left-leaning media launched that trend last February, when they asked Scotty if he new the price of a loaf of bread.)

Bandt, on the other hand, put Mizen on his place in a way neither Labor nor the COALition pollies ever could. He replied:

Google it, mate! If you want to know why people are turning off politics (…)

And those questions are designed to show that politicians are somehow out of touch and not representative of every day people. News flash! Most of the people in Canberra are on six figure salaries just passing time until they go out and work for the coal and gas corporations and get a 6 or 7-figure lobbying job.

You know what would be a better way of showing that politicians are in touch with the need of everyday people? It would be passing laws that lift the minimum wage. It would be making dental and mental into Medicare. It would be making sure that we wipe student debt and build affordable houses. And when you’ve got wages growing at about 2 per cent and inflation at three and a bit per cent, that is the problem. And I hope that at this election, we can lift the standard and turn it into a genuine contest of ideas.

And you know what? The journos attending – largely Labor or Liberal, you can bet your backside – applauded Bandt. People can tell when someone has the guts to tell the truth. With that question Mizen intended to embarrass Bandt. Mizen himself ended up red faced.

 

Good on you, Adam.

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If you really care about the poor, the working people, the environment, give the Greens some thought this election. Your preferences matter. Labor only cares about getting cushy parliamentary jobs.