Thank God we have experts like the Reserve Bank governor to tell we schlubs that the country’s in the shitter. I mean, we’d have never worked it out for ourselves otherwise.
I mean, until Michele Bullock came out this week and declared that Australia was stuck in a sustained decline of living standards, I’m sure we were all whistling Zippitty-doo-dah out our arseholes as we skipped along hand in hand, throwing wads of cash into the air.
Jim Chalmers and Ms Bullock said that despite a third rate cut since February, households were still facing economic pain from higher costs baked in from high inflation that was now moderating.
Those ‘baked in’ costs she’s talking about are the even more demented than usual Labor addiction to taxing and spending, while choking everything in a suffocating blanket of red tape.
The RBA, which lowered forecasts for capital expenditure, wages and household consumption, warned that other sections of the economy would be impacted if Australia could not reverse a decades-long trend of anaemic productivity growth. Heavy regulation, high growth in labour costs, weaker competition and stagnant business investment have been identified as pressure points that must be urgently addressed to lift productivity.
What we get instead is a government dancing to the whip-crack of big unions who want to get paid more for working less than ever.
The union movement will push for next week’s productivity roundtable to support shorter working hours, including a four-day working week, for Australians without any loss of pay.
The ACTU proposal, which has been slammed by business groups, also calls for sector-specific alternatives for shorter working hours where a four-day week is inappropriate, including more rostered days off and increased annual leave each year.
Under the proposal, conditions, including penalty rates, overtime and minimum staffing levels, would be protected to ensure a reduced working week did not result in a loss of pay despite people working fewer hours.
Well, union bosses have never had to work for a living, so why should anyone else?
The only people lazier and more grasping than union bosses are surely public servants.
A lift in public sector pay helped fuel stronger than expected wage gains in the June quarter, just as the Reserve Bank warned that lacklustre productivity was keeping real wage rises out of reach […]
In the year to June, public sector pay – capturing government workers such as nurses, police and bureaucrats – rose strongly, up 3.7 per cent, again outstripping the private sector, which recorded more moderate gains of 3.4 per cent.
So, the least productive ‘workers’ in Australia are the ones driving up inflation the most.
Tell me this isn’t a socialist government.
