If Australians want nice things, try shunning the destructive newsrooms

The latest economic update strongly endorses Labor and repudiates the media-backed Coalition, as Alan Austin reports.

IN APRIL 2022, the independent heads of Treasury and the Finance Department released their detailed pre-election report on Australia’s economy.

They anticipated, based on the settings of the well-established Coalition Government, that over the next three fiscal years, deficits would total $181.5 billion and the gross debt would expand to $1,117.0 billion, well above a trillion dollars.

That was fine by the Australian Financial Review (AFR) and most other mainstream newsrooms, which endorsed the Morrison-led Government for a fourth term.
Many of us in the alternative media monitoring economies in comparable countries were appalled at that prospect and urged a change of government.
We can now review the outcomes over those three years after voters defied the Financial Review, ABC News, the Murdoch newsrooms and others.

Department heads give worst ever economic report after eight Coalition years

The heads of Treasury and the Finance Department have just issued the most pessimistic Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook report.

Electors resoundingly vindicated

The Final Budget Outcome (FBO) for the 2024-25 year, released last week, overwhelmingly validates the Albanese Government.

Federal revenue over the three years from 2022-23 to 2024-25 was $306.1 billion higher than the boffins forecast in April 2022. This followed Prime Minister Albanese’s instructions to the tax office to go after the tax cheats the Coalition had been protecting.

Spending was marginally higher, but none had been wasted on rorts and rackets. It all went to community-building projects, including hospitals, medical clinics, roads, rail, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and higher incomes for workers and welfare beneficiaries.

Instead of deficits deeper than $180 billion, those three budgets yielded net surpluses of $27.9 billion. Gross debt at June 2025 was just $928.6 billion — a thumping $188.4 billion lower than the Coalition was slated to inflict. The deficit was just $9.99 billion over the year to June.

Coalition banished forever

The FBO shows that if the Coalition hadn't stacked on more than $600 billion in gross debt during its criminally incompetent regime, the budget would have been in surplus in 2024-25 – for the third straight year – and likely have remained so henceforward.

If we revisit the six boom years between the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID downturn, from 2013-14 to 2018-19, we see that all well-managed advanced economies generated strong budget surpluses.

Norway, Germany, Luxembourg and Kuwait delivered six surpluses out of six. New Zealand, Denmark, Switzerland and Hong Kong delivered five. The Netherlands, Sweden, Iceland, Lithuania, Malta, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and even Greece delivered four.

Australia’s Coalition couldn’t generate one surplus even under the most benign conditions. Had Australia not been saddled with the least competent economic managers in its history, all those deficits could have been surpluses.

Australia's news media landscape may have changed forever

The influence of the malicious mainstream newsrooms should be reassessed following Labor’s stunning landslide.

Then, if the Coalition had only squandered 2% of GDP in 2020-21 during the COVID downturn instead of an appalling 5.4%, the debt would be lower today by another $112 billion, near enough.

Absent Coalition corruption and mismanagement, Australia’s gross debt and resulting interest bill would be around half its current levels. Had last year’s interest – an appalling $24.3 billion – been halved, all else equal, the surplus would have been $2.15 billion.

The message is clear. Never let the Coalition anywhere near government ever again.

Other highly positive news

Gross disposable household income increased to an impressive $1,678.3 billion through the year to June. This is an increase of 6.6% over the previous record year, up 4.5% after inflation.

Total household wealth reached a record $17.76 trillion in the June quarter, up an impressive 7.49% on the year before.

S&P Global has reaffirmed Australia’s AAA credit rating, keeping the economy within the club of nine trustworthy creditors with top ratings with all three major agencies.

Inflation, employment, wage rises, housing starts, retail sales, exports and GDP growth are all close to optimum.

Media mendacity exposed

Throughout Labor’s term, the Financial Review has consistently sought to deceive its readers. Headlines above misleading if not blatantly mendacious “stories” include:

‘RBA warns of weak incomes, high inflation if productivity lags’;
‘The Government has little to show on economic reform’;
‘Fragile and unconvincing: Why the economy is struggling to rebound’; and
‘Labor’s lack of spending discipline cost Chalmers a third surplus’.

Getting tough for mainstream media liars to ignore economic facts

More data has emerged confirming the Liberal-led Coalition's cost-of-living crisis is now behind us, but mainstream journalists don't share it.

AFR also lies about Charlie Kirk

Swerving slightly from economics, the AFR confirmed its lurch to the nutter Far-Right last month with an opinion piece from the Institute of Public Affairs containing multiple destructive lies about political activist Charlie Kirk’s murder.

Titled, ‘The Left celebrates Kirk’s death because they couldn’t cancel him’, the AFR’s unhinged rant asserted:

‘... because the Left is obsessed with dismantling power structures, many openly celebrated the silencing of a debate they could not control.’

Blatantly false. No leader or significant figure from the Left welcomed Kirk’s death.

Democratic former Vice-President Kamala Harris said:

‘I am deeply disturbed by the shooting in Utah. Doug and I send our prayers to Charlie Kirk and his family. Let me be clear: Political violence has no place in America. I condemn this act and we all must work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence.’

The second lie was that violence is from the Left: ‘Kirk’s opponents could not match his words, so they reached for the sword.’

As shown here and elsewhere, none of the 24 political assassins in the USA since 2018 was from the Left. Four killers were registered Republicans, 15 were MAGA faithful, three were far-right extremists and one was a Black nationalist. Kirk’s killer came from a gun-loving Christian family of Trump-voting registered Republicans.

The principal target of the AFR’s irrational anger, Hannah Ferguson, has ably responded with this Facebook clip.

If Australians want economic rewards for effort delivered fairly and abundantly and also a harmonious community, they should marginalise the Financial Review and its malignant fellow fabricators.

Alan Austin is an Independent Australia columnist and freelance journalist. You can follow him on X/Twitter @alanaustin001.