Luxury spending boom exposes newsroom lies about the economy

The latest consumer spending data confirms the economy is managed far better than the media acknowledge, as Alan Austin reports.

IN DECEMBER, Australians allocated 23% of all retail spending to dining out, cosmetics, jewellery, hairdressers and beauty salons. First time ever. That’s according to last Monday’s consumer spending data from the Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The percentage is significant here. When times are tough, a higher proportion of household outlays goes on food, clothing, utilities and other essentials. With extra cash, families can spend more on restaurants, holidays and lavish gifts.

Over the full year just ended, Australians spent an all-time high of $211 billion on these luxuries. That was 6.5% above the previous high in 2024. Inflation through 2025 was just 3.76%, so price rises account for only part of that surge. Higher wages account for the rest.

Last week’s data shows the ratio of luxury spending to all outlays through 2025 reached an all-time high of 22.8%. See chart below.

Multiple datasets from the various authorities confirm that real disposable incomes are steadily rising. Australians took 12.55 million overseas trips in 2025, according to last Thursday’s ABS flights report. That’s 8.2% higher than the previous record set in 2024.

The Chamber of Automotive Industries advises that more than 1.24 million new cars were sold in 2025, setting a record for the third straight year. Plug-in hybrid vehicles advanced most, with sales up 130.9% on 2024.

Light aircraft and business jet sales are also on track for a record year, although final figures for 2025 are still pending.

The ABS reports the strong surge in imports of cosmetics and perfumes in 2023, which IA analysed last year, is accelerating. Total imports in 2025 were $3.95 billion. That’s 6.2% higher than in 2024 and up a hefty 30.4% on 2022. See chart below.

The value of imported jewellery, gold and gemstones jumped in 2025 by 17.6% over the previous record, in 2023, to $3.04 billion.

Media manipulation and mendacity

These results put the anti-Labor newsrooms in a dreadful bind. They could now alarm their audiences into believing the current buying spree is fuelling inflation. But most media are still claiming, quite falsely, that Australia remains in a cost-of-living crisis with ever-worsening poverty. And, of course, they can’t have it both ways.

Right now, the poor petals don’t know which way to jump. They have invested so much in Labor’s costs crisis – despite that strategy having failed spectacularly in last year’s Federal Election – they are loath to abandon it. But it is patently not true.

So, which anti-Labor lies will work best henceforward? That consumers are crushed by ever-rising expenses or the spending boom is fuelling inflation?

That dilemma was displayed hilariously in a schizophrenic op ed in The Daily Telegraph and other Murdoch rags, titled, ‘Australians continued spending spree as household costs jumped again in November’.

The article claimed:

‘Black Friday spending and major events fuelled a shock spending boom in November, but experts say there are still questions over the financial position of Australian households.’

So which is it? Too much wealth, or dire hardship?

Facts from the coalface confirm poverty is easing

As the 2025 report card on Australia’s economy is filled in, the good news is outweighing the bad.

Costs crisis claims continue

ABC News is still pushing the false narrative of punitive expenses with ‘Cost-of-living crisis sees more young women neglecting health and basic needs’, and Channel Nine with ‘Priced out of parenthood: Grocery prices, energy bills and housing insecurity blamed for Australia's falling birth rate’.

Similar gloom and doom is broadcast on SBS, in The Nightly, The Australian, The West Australian and elsewhere. All these contain inaccuracies, distortions, omissions and sometimes blatant falsehoods.

ABC News tried to frighten its hapless audience last Wednesday with ‘Rental affordability hits record low as rents rise 2.5 times faster than wages’. It claimed rents ‘climbed 43.9 per cent in the five years to September 2025, compared with wage growth of 17.5 per cent over the same period’.

The wage rise data is correct. The rent increase may or may not be right. No source is linked. The deception is that Commonwealth rent assistance, which increased over that period by a thumping 54.3%, is not even mentioned. At $7,457 annually for a parent with three kids, that has eased the rent burden for around 1.4 million households. Pretty reprehensible omission.

Spending shock horror outrage

The opposite storyline claiming excessive prosperity is destroying civilisation as we know it is advanced by Seven News with ‘Consumer sentiment in focus as spending gathers steam’ and The Guardian in its piece ‘The return of inflation may poison Labor’s second-term agenda and scare more voters to the fringes’.

Both these “news” items worry that Westpac’s consumer confidence index has declined marginally from recent highs. First up, consumer confidence does not measure anything real. Second, January’s index at 90.5 points remains higher than at any time between April 2022 and November 2024.

In fact, neither narrative is true. Treasurer Jim Chalmers has actually pulled pretty much all the right levers at the right time.

As shown here last week, Australia’s jobless rate has been under 4.5% for 49 months, inflation has been below 4% for 25 months, annual GDP growth has remained positive for 19 quarters, and interest rates have been under 4.5% for 14 years. That has never happened previously since records have been kept.

Challenges ahead

Too many Australians still struggle to find work and pay the bills. So, however successful Albo and Dr Jim were in 2025, there’s more to do.

With the 2026 Budget three months away, we shall soon see their forward strategy. They have now seen off the Coalition as an obstructive force. It would be great if the mainstream media could now cease its mindless negativity. Or be boycotted out of existence.