Truths about price rises they don’t want you to know

As inflation in Australia is steadily easing, misinformation is relentlessly worsening, as Alan Austin reports.

THE CRAVEN hypocrites purveying economic analysis in the legacy media and online news outlets deserve the everlasting contempt of all reasonable Australians. Their malicious misrepresentations are keeping citizens ignorant, fearful and angry.

After one prominent online analyst maligned Australia’s economy shamelessly last week, a viewer wrote in the comments:

‘I have reached saturation point. I am just unable to process anymore of the evil today... I'd say too far to change it by humans. Revenge is mine, says the Lord.’

Poor woman.

Day in day out, week in week out, anti-Labor operatives lie about the economy, severely undermining life satisfaction, social cohesion and mental health.

The latest falsehoods concern inflation, which, according to last week’s update from the Bureau of Statistics (ABS), fell in June – for the third straight month – to just 3.75%. Yes, that’s still above the Reserve Bank’s 2% to 3% target, but not by much.

Economists and newsrooms collaborate to lie about Australia’s economy

Australia’s media has hit a new low in deceptive reporting, but with one positive note.

Manifest ignorance of context

Politicians and pundits who assert 3.75% is “disastrous” are unaware of global conditions. The OECD average is 3.72%. Only three countries have had inflation fall for three straight months after the March spike — Norway, Mexico and Australia.

They also deny historic reality. The Hawke Government is praised for its vision, discipline and lasting reforms. Yet inflation over the 35 quarters of Hawke’s reign with Paul Keating as Treasurer averaged 7%. It was higher than 9% for six quarters.

John Howard is hailed as the Yoda of the Liberal Party. When he was Malcolm Fraser’s Treasurer, inflation averaged 10.6% over its 29-quarter duration. It exceeded 12% for eight.
As recently as 2022, inflation averaged 6.6% over that year’s four quarters under the policies of the Morrison Government. Most of the mainstream media campaigned to have that incompetent rabble returned.

So when inflation is only 3.75%, fearmongering headlines must be condemned.

Hyperventilation from politicians such as Greens Senator Barbara Pocock, who claims that high inflation means “Too many households are just one rent increase away from eviction or homelessness”, are also highly irresponsible.

Mainstream media mendacity

Countless mendacious media reports have falsely blamed the Albanese Government and Treasurer Jim Chalmers for “catastrophic” inflation.

Headlines this year include:

‘You don’t have an economic plan: Opposition slams government over inflation as Australians face rate hikes’ (Seven News, 29 July);
‘Critics slam Treasurer Jim Chalmers over years of reckless spending and claim his upcoming May Budget move is proof he’s REALLY to blame for spiralling inflation’ (Daily Mail, 18 March);
‘Voters blame Albanese, not Trump’s war, as cost-of-living pain deepens’ (Sydney Morning Herald, March 16);
‘CEOs lay inflation blame squarely on government spending’ (The Australian, 11 February);
‘Fingers pointed at Federal Government over latest rate rise’ (Nine News, 4 February); and
‘Anthony Albanese, Jim Chalmers face fury over Reserve Bank’s interest rate rise’ (News.com.au, 4 February)

Australia’s newsrooms continue to suppress vital information

Australia is enjoying a rare era of sustained economic calm and stability, which the mainstream media actively denies.

Price rises under Labor and the Coalition

Now here’s the thing. Last week’s ABS files show itemised price shifts from 2017 to June this year (ABS file 6401 table 7). We can now compare increases over the three years from June 2020 to June 2023 under Coalition policies with those over the following three years, June 2023 to June 2026, after Labor’s first budget took effect.

We find this:

cheese: up 21.6% over the three years to 2023, then up 4.1% over the next three years;
bread: up 24.5%, then up 6.4%;
chicken meat: up 15% to 2023, then up 3.4%;
breakfast cereals: up 19.9%, then up 9.4%;
other cereals: up 14.8%, then up 2.7%;
ice cream and dairy products: up 21.8%, then up 8.7%;
soap and skin care products: up 13.4%, then up 1.9%;
pet products: up 26.3%, then down 1.3%;
cleaning products: up 20.2%, then down 0.1%; and
non-durable household products: up 19.5%, then down 2.6%.

Government critics have focused recently on new housing costs. Again, prices jumped 31% under the Coalition and just 11.8% under Labor.

Perhaps the most startling numbers relate to petrol and diesel over the last six years. Fuel prices increased 53% under the Coalition, then decreased by 9.1% under Labor.

Other products to have risen more under the Coalition include seafood, milk, vegetables, cakes, beef and spirits.

Newsrooms destroy life satisfaction while trying to report it

Constant lies about Australia’s economy weaken consumer confidence and social cohesion.

Some items were the opposite. Fruit rose 10.3% through the three Coalition years, then 12.9% under Labor. Coffee and tea were similar. Others to rise more under Labor include eggs, pork, lamb and beer.

What matters, of course, is the relative rise over the entire basket of goods. This was 16.91% under the Coalition, which averages 5.35% per year, and 10.16% under Labor — an annual rate of 3.27%.

Has any mainstream newsroom reported this? Not that searches reveal. If they did, their message would be clear: if you want stable prices, don’t elect the Coalition.

Promising news on the Press Council

This column gave up on Australia’s media watchdog in mid-2025 after multiple refusals to investigate patently false pre-election reporting on the economy.

In both sorrow and anger, we concluded that the pedigreed Dobermann Pinscher with teeth and attitude we were sold turned out to be a deaf and blind Chihuahua with arthritis.

We lamented its low rate of finding breaches of journalistic standards. These numbered seven in 2024, two in 2025 — and now three so far in 2026. We argued an efficient agency should be able to expose 25 shonky articles every month — just on the economy. See examples above.

The Council is now seeking a new chairperson who we fervently hope will revitalise it.

We will now resume submitting complaints and see what eventuates. Good doggy.

Alan Austin is an Independent Australia columnist and freelance journalist. You can follow him on Twitter @alanaustin001 and Bluesky @alanaustin.bsky.social.