Labor victory proves public rejected malicious media falsehoods

Saturday’s electoral mauling of the Coalition was a resounding rejection of media lies and distortions, as Alan Austin reports.

THE EDITORIAL WRITER for the Australian Financial Review (AFR) who prepared last week’s endorsement for the 2025 Election had the easiest assignment of his or her career. This time around, the choice was crystal clear.

The first task was to identify the key issues, which the AFR did well. There were 11. Then it was a matter of comparing the records of Labor and the Coalition on all 11 and evaluating promises for the future.

These were:

inflation;
living standards;
budget deficits and debt;
economic management overall;
global uncertainty and Trump’s erratic trade decisions;
defence;
social cohesion;
recognition of the First Australians;
relations with China;
managing the energy sector; and
climate change.

On all of these, the actual outcomes overwhelmingly favour Labor, as this journal and other evidence-reliant publications have demonstrated.

Then, bizarrely, the AFR endorsed outgoing Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and urged a return to the corruption and incompetence of the Coalition.

The AFR editorial was riddled with blatant falsehoods. Here are just a handful.

Labor has worsened inflation

‘On Labor’s watch... high inflation eroded Australian living standards.’

Yes, inflation surged. But it was not under Labor. (See chart below.)

(Data source: ABS File 6484 Table 1 and ABS File 6345 Table 1)

Clearly, Labor’s record is excellent. The last three quarters have seen inflation in the Reserve Bank’s optimum band, with no suggestion this will shift.

Since the Abbott Government’s 2014 budget took effect, how many times has the Coalition delivered consecutive quarters within the optimum band? The answer is never.

How many single quarters, out of their 31 quarters since 2014, were in that band? The answer is three. The AFR team are craven hypocrites.

Living standards fell under Labor

‘[Labor] have... offered next to nothing to fix living standards, which are barely higher than they were ten years ago.’

As demonstrated here, here and elsewhere, living standards fell under the Coalition in 2021 and 2022. They have now been fully restored for the vast majority.
This is proven by current record spending on dining out, new cars, boats, light aircraft, imported cosmetics and jewellery and other luxuries.

Emergency calls to the National Debt Helpline in April were down 14.2 per cent from March, and 8.4 per cent below April last year. Australians are enjoying a consumer spending upsurge.

Right-wing media forsakes Australian loyalty to placate Trump

The conservative media has greater loyalty to President Trump than to our national interests, particularly in light of his tariffs on key sectors of the Australian economy.

Budget surpluses

‘They have waved the white flag on achieving a budget surplus in the next four years...’

The AFR wants to conceal Labor’s surpluses in its first two years and the substantial reduction in deficits over the forward estimates.

Economic outcomes overall

‘Nevertheless, the Government’s overarching failure has been its poor economic management.’

A malicious lie. Almost all outcomes are now vastly better than at the last Federal Election. These include inflation, jobs, budget surpluses, debt to GDP, export volumes, corporate profits and poverty reduction.

Last month’s Fiscal Monitor from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) showed Australia’s decline in global rankings on most indicators between 2015 and 2022, and the rises since 2022.

Government expenditure ranked ninth last year, up from 13th in 2019. (See chart below.)

Both sides are the same

‘It says a lot about this campaign that many voters have trouble telling the difference between the policy platforms of Labor and the Coalition.’

Newsrooms want voters to believe that. Actual outcomes prove Labor’s superiority.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is responsible for his Voice initiative's failing

‘It’s a campaign where Albanese, the architect of the defeated Indigenous Voice to Parliament Referendum, could not find time to visit a remote Indigenous community...’

Multiple untruths there. The referendum process was started by Indigenous leaders with their Uluru Statement from the Heart. The PM was the conduit through Parliament, not the architect. It failed because of the treachery of Dutton and his senior colleagues.

Albo travels regularly to the remote communities, including as recently as February.

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.

Albo is complicit in Chinese naval exercises

‘The Prime Minister went to extraordinary lengths to play down Beijing’s provocative naval circumnavigation of the Australian continent in February...’

Pure nonsense. The Chinese, according to historians, have been sailing around the world for centuries.

No one has shown what the PM should have done differently, nor any harm from that episode.

Dutton was the man of the hour

‘Dutton [is]... a prime ministerial candidate able to make the decisions required to get our economy back on track.’

Clearly, the majority of voters did not buy that.

Other newspapers just as culpable

The AFR is not alone in its hypocrisy. News Corp outlets which backed the Coalition were The Australian, The Courier Mail, The Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph and The Mercury. Others were The West Australian and Seven West Media’s digital newspaper, The Nightly.

Their reasons for favouring the Coalition were mostly spurious. All have been justly smacked in the teeth.

Dailies which supported Labor were The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times. The Adelaide Advertiser called for a majority government without specifying a preferred party. Guardian Australia called for a minority Labor Government with the Greens sharing power.

Australians are miserable and anxious because the media coaches them

Lamentable reporting by mainstream media hacks is a major reason Australia ranks well down the global happiness tables.

Looking ahead

Back in October 2023, this column urged voters outraged at the Coalition’s destruction of Indigenous aspirations to vote out Liberal and National MPs in seven marginal seats, which we identified, and another 12 vulnerable seats.

It appears all seven MPs have now lost, as have half of the 12.

Such a historic belting as last Saturday’s will generate analyses, critiques and excuses henceforward.

Let’s hope this result confirms that Australia’s lying pro-Tory newsrooms have lost their influence, just as they have lost their integrity and credibility.

Is it too much to hope they return to reporting what is actually happening accurately and fairly?