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I’ve frequently compared Anthony Albanese to another Labor PM, James Scullin. Like Albanese, Scullin won in an unprecedented landslide – just two weeks before the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The Great Depression mightn’t have been Scullin’s fault, but he copped the voter’s ire. Not least because he was clearly completely unable to deal with it.
Just over two years after his great electoral triumph, Scullin was forced out in an even bigger landslide, becoming the first and last one-term government since Federation.
Albanese might have had one term’s grace already, but he’s about to get belted in a way no government has in living memory.
Australians have never felt worse about their financial situation as they face a double whammy of rising interest rates and higher fuel costs.
ANZ-Roy Morgan figures show consumer confidence has collapsed to its lowest level since the research began in 1973 […]
Australians now feel lower about their finances than during previous recessions, including the 1970s oil shocks, the dot-com bubble burst, the global financial crisis and the Covid downturn.
If Albanese thought Australians were in an uglier mood than a bunch of swivel-eyed beardies, oops, I mean, ‘moderate Muslims’, at Lakemba mosque, it’s about to get even nastier.
Aussie households are bracing for a triple cost of living blow – which could cost anywhere from $159 to $318 a month – from Friday that could leave thousands “breaking at the seams”.
Mortgage holders have been warned the March interest rate hike comes into effect at the end of this week.
The RBA lifted the cash rate by a further 25 basis points from 3.85 to 4.1 per cent, on March 17, with all four major banks passing it on in full starting from March 27.
According to Finder, homeowners with a $500,000 mortgage on average will need to find an additional $159 a month following the back-to-back rate hikes.
For those owing $750,000, repayments will rise by $238 and a mortgage holder owing a bank $1m will now have to find an additional $318 a month in repayments.
The average mortgage in Australia now is a shocking $700,000, with monthly repayments of nearly $4000 dollars. Another $238 on top of that is going to put many families, if not against the wall, then surely staring cross-eyed at the wallpaper.
There’s more about to smack their noses into the plaster.
Fast forward to April and households will be hit by the sharpest rise to health insurance premiums since 2017.
In February health minister Mark Butler approved the fastest rise to private health insurance premiums since 2017, up an average of 4.41 per cent […]
According to Choice gold-level cover with the big five would feel the sting the most, with an average rise of 13.3 per cent.
Choice health insurance expert Mark Blades warns over the last five years the government approved cumulative increases of 14.8 per cent to insurance policies.
But wait! There’s more! How would Australians like a set of steak knives jammed up their jacksies?
Canstar’s data insights director, Sally Tindall, says there are multiple ways households budgets have been impacted.
“Between surging grocery bills, skyrocketing petrol prices, the end of electricity rebates and rising health insurance premiums, household budgets could well be breaking at the seams on the back of this news,” she said.
Poor old Jim Scullin will be waiting to commiserate with Albanese in whatever post-career hell it is that unlamented Labor ex-PMs get a Gold Card entry to.
