Factchecking the leaders on cost of living, budget repair and Gaza

In a rare memorable moment during a rather desultory Federal election leaders’ debate on Tuesday this week, PM Anthony Albanese accused Opposition Leader Peter Dutton of gaslighting the Australian people.

The comment was made in reference to energy policy, with the PM saying that the “only gas policy that the Coalition [has is] gaslighting the Australian people”. But it could equally apply to many other Dutton claims, both during the debate and otherwise.

In this piece, we unpick claims made by Dutton during this week’s debate about inflation, energy policy and budget management. We will also be discussing a dubious claim made by Albanese in the debate on Australian arms sales to Israel.

It should be noted that there was also a rather chaotic Treasurers’ debate on Wednesday between Jim Chalmers and Opposition Treasury Spokesperson Angus Taylor. Unfortunately, Taylor’s reference to facts in his responses were so tangential, almost always referencing unsupported or misleading statistics, that virtually all his testimony could be classed as spin.

AUSVOTES ECONOMIC FACTS #1: In fact, Labor has inflation back under control

The economy is a dominant issue in the election. From now until polling day, Independent Australia will outline some key facts on the economy that put the kybosh on many of the myths, lies and distortions being peddled in the election campaign.

FACTCHECKING THE LEADERS’ DEBATE

There were many other issues that could have been included in this section, including crime, international relations and health spending. For the sake of brevity, however, we will focus here on the issues outlined above.

COST OF LIVING / ENERGY INFLATION

With inflation steepling globally during the COVID pandemic, the cost of living has hit Australians hard.

Hoping to make hay on this topic, Dutton referred to this issue several times in his debate statements, saying “it was confronting” to see so many people “struggling with the cost of living”. Dutton accused the Albanese Government of not doing enough to ease cost of living pressures and argued that the Coalition could “deal with the cost-of-living crisis more effectively”. This was supported by Liberal Party attack ads during the commercial breaks alleging that inflation under Labor was out of control.

Dutton’s rhetoric about the Coalition dealing with the crisis effectively is easily dismissed, since inflation began spiralling under the previous Morrison Government. Indeed, the largest yearly increases in the CPI were during their regime. However, since it was a global crisis, it is difficult to hold them solely responsible.

What we can safely say is that the Albanese Government has, during its term, rapidly brought inflation down, from record highs to now below the RBA target margin of 3%.

Dutton also claimed the energy prices were going through the roof under Albanese, for which he offered a vague nuclear policy, increased support for fossil fuels (literal gas lighting) and a cut to the fuel excise.

AUSVOTES ECONOMIC FACTS #2: Energy prices are plummeting

The economy is a dominant issue in the Election. From now until polling day, Independent Australia will outline some key facts on the economy that put the kybosh on many of the myths, lies and distortions being peddled in the election campaign.

However, official figures show that over the past 12 months, energy prices have fallen by 12% ─ the best in the developed world by a considerable margin.

With this in mind, it is difficult to describe Dutton’s claims on inflation as being anything other than puff.

BUDGET MANAGEMENT

Modern monetary theorists will say that surpluses don’t matter, but this article is not about economic theory. In terms of Australian elections, the Liberal Party has weaponised the idea that Labor is the big-spending party of “debt and deficit”. We can all remember the famous 2019 “Back in Black” Morrison/Frydenberg budget of 2019, including coffee mugs.

Of course, that was a projected surplus that never happened. Morrison lost power and Frydenberg lost his own seat, which suggests that, for the public, public debt matters.

Dutton, during the debate, chastised Albanese for not doing enough to promote “budget repair” and, despite saying he wasn’t doing enough to ease the cost of living, criticised the PM’s recent tax cuts for the less well-off.

AUSVOTES ECONOMIC FACTS #3: Wage growth on the rise under Labor

It was quite a jumble of rhetoric, but what was clear from the official figures is that the only Government to have delivered an actual surplus in more than a decade was the current Labor Government.

All this indicates that Dutton’s claims about Labor's budget management ineptitude are false.

ARMS TO ISRAEL?

A young audience member asked leaders what they would do to address the “fact” that at this moment, “our taxes are going towards the funding of weaponry aiding the onslaught on the innocent people of Gaza”.

Anthony Albanese, in his reply, stated that “no Australian weaponry involved in what is going on in Gaza. That is just not the case.“

He backed up the Government’s claim that no Australian-made arms or ammunition have been supplied to Israel in the past five years.

However, as Amnesty International has pointed out:

‘[B]ecause of Australia’s opaque approval process for arms transfers, we don’t know what arms are exported, to what country, or for what purpose. The reality is that even if Australian-made arms are not being used by Israel in Gaza, it is impossible for Australians to know.’

All of this makes its claim about not supplying arms to Israel impossible to verify and dubious at best.

Long-term goals vital for voters in upcoming election

Short-term promises being made by the major parties in the lead-up to the election offer nothing more than the illusion of security.

CONTINUING TO CHECK

Facts are important. So important, in fact, that from Tuesday this week and every day up until the election on 3 May, we will be running a series of short factual articles by outstanding economist Stephen Koukoulas, who will be diffusing many of the more gaseous economic furphies being perpetrated upon the Australian people during this election campaign.

You can see Stephen's fact-checking stories published on IA so far HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

If there were truth in political advertising laws, we possibly wouldn’t need to do this, but there isn’t, so we do. Don’t miss this series and make sure you share the truth widely, because reality is a precious commodity in this “Trumpified” world.

Yet another reason to keep subscribing to Independent Australia.

This is an abridged version of an editorial originally published in the IA weekly newsletter. Subscribe now to read the full version online in the IA members-only area.