Stenography and journalism

For some unknown reason, and in diametric opposition to all the available evidence, the media seems to think that because the federal government tells them that they are ‘superior economic managers’ of our economy, it is actually true. I suspect the mainstream media think this because their proprietors want to keep the public funds flowing into their coffers by way of subsidies, grants, government advertising and tax cuts. 

In a wonderful article for Michael West Media (if you haven’t subscribed, you should), based on the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook Database for April 2022, Alan Austin has demolished the equine ordure of the Coalition as ‘better economic managers’¹. Here are a few highlights:

GDP. In 2011 Australia was 12^th on the list of nations (over 250,000 population). After Labor lost office it dropped to 14^th and is now at 13^th1.

GDP per capita. In 2012 and 2013, at the end of Labor’s last term in office, Australia was ranked 6^th, behind only the small rich nations Luxembourg, Norway, Qatar, Switzerland and Macao. Now we are ranked 11^th1.

Unemployment rate. In 2012, Australia’s unemployment rate as measured by the IMF had us ranked 25^thof 106 countries. Under the Coalition, this fell to 45^th in 2019. Now we are ranked 31^st1.

Inflation. In 2012, Australia was ranked 6^th with an inflation rate of 1.69%. In 2021 we were ranked 50^th1.

Government structural balance. This is a measure of the sustainability of revenue, spending and savings. The IMF measures it for 80 countries. In 2013 when the Coalition gained government, we were ranked 43^rd. In 2021, Australia was ranked 74^th1.

Government gross debt. Among rich OECD countries, in 2012 and 2013, Australia was ranked 4^th. In 2021 we were ranked 18^th among the OECD countries¹.

In addition to this ‘better economic managers’ drivel, Morrison and Frydenberg have stated that the Australian economy and the ‘post-Covid recovery’ is one of the best in the world. This is also equine ordure. Australia’s growth rate in the December quarter (of 2021) was 3.4%, giving an annual growth rate of 4.2%, ranked 28^th in the OECD, whereas it has often placed in the top ten in recent years².

As I related in a previous article on an online conversation, someone complained to respected journalist Katharine Murphy that she had said the Liberal Party’s traditional strength is economic management. She, astonishingly replied with “It’s a reflection of public opinion….” I and many others were rather surprised at this, to say the least³. Is it a journalist’s job to repeat the drivel the punters are told to believe by the Murdoch media and the Liberal Party or actually to report the facts? Or is it their job to get at the facts and relate those. The facts tell us that the ‘good economic managers’ mantra is not true.

If someone as respected as Murphy can be so unconcerned about repeating such nonsense, what can be said of other lesser … um … ‘journalists’ who simply repeat Coalition talking points, use Coalition epithets. This includes people like Samantha Maiden (Murdoch) and Fran Kelly (ABC) who used the ‘retiree tax’ lie when referring to the Labor Party’s franking credit refunds policy at the 2019 federal election⁴.

The Liberal Party’s characterisation of the Gillard government’s very effective Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) as a carbon tax, and many in the media followed in calling it a carbon tax. At the time, the Murdoch bias was clear in that 77% of articles in Sydney’s Daily Bellylaugh, 70% of articles in Brisbane’s Courier Fail, 62% of articles in Melbourne’s Hun (Herald Sun), and 44% of articles in The Australian referred to the CPRS only as a tax. Only 29% of articles in Melbourne’s The Age and 37% of articles in the Sydney Morning Herald referred to the CPRS only as a tax⁵. Others in the media using the term included Greg Jennett⁶ and Andrew Probyn⁷  (I don’t watch commercial television so I have little idea what is said there). In addition, it was referred to as a carbon tax on the ABC’s Facebook page⁸. Even Peta Credlin (Tony Abbott’s keeper) acknowledged that the CPRS was not a carbon tax after she and the laughably incompetent Abbott had been deposed⁹. It makes you wonder why supposed professional journalists used such a misleading name. Is it because of laziness, or complicity?

When in opposition during the 2013 election campaign, the Liberal Party referred to the then Labor government’s ‘debt and deficit disaster’. That was when the net debt was less than $200 Billion¹⁰, or about 10% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while the budget deficit was $23.5 billion¹¹. Prior to the 2019 election (and prior to Covid-19 arriving), net debt was just under $400 Billion, or about 19% of GDP, while the budget was still in deficit to the tune of $5.3 billion¹². As shadow finance minister Jim Chalmers stated in late August of 2018, the Coalition government had doubled Australia’s debt. It was pretty close to the truth, as a fact check by The Conversation showed that it had risen by 95%¹³.

Of course, there was no reference to a ‘debt and deficit disaster’ from the government nor, more disturbingly, from the mainstream media in the lead up to the 2019 election. During the 2022 election campaign, when it looked like Labor were going to win, Phillip ‘Dorothy Dixer’ Coorey of the 9 Media said that electing Labor would lead to greater debt and deficit¹⁴.

 Now, perhaps funniest of all, the Murdoch budgie cage liner, The Australian, has a story entitled “We need to hold Labor to account on the debt and deficit disaster”¹⁵. It was not meant to be satire, but could easily pass for it. To call people who write this stuff journalists, is an insult to real journalists. The media in Australia is in a parlous, partisan state and needs to be fixed. It should start with the Murdoch media being broken up and sold off.

Sources

1. https://michaelwest.com.au/scott-and-josh-superior-economic-managers-not-according-to-the-imf/
2. https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/insiders-leads-coalitions-election-campaign-on-economic-supremacy,16146
3. https://blotreport.com/2022/04/09/the-medias-job/
4. https://blotreport.com/2019/05/20/symptoms-of-media-dysfunction/
5. https://www.uts.edu.au/sites/default/files/sceptical-climate-part1.pdf
6. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-04-18/alps-popularity-suffers-under-carbon-tax/2611654
7. https://twitter.com/insidersabc/status/878762238529552384
8. https://www.facebook.com/abcnews.au/posts/149145198485065
9. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/carbon-tax-just-brutal-politics-credlin/3dsmh3o6a
10. https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/BudgetReview202122/CommonwealthDebt
11. https://archive.budget.gov.au/2012-13/fbo/2012-13_FBO_Consolidated.pdf
12. https://archive.budget.gov.au/2018-19/fbo/FBO_2018-19_web.pdf
13. https://theconversation.com/factcheck-has-australias-net-debt-doubled-under-the-current-government-100819
14. https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/labor-costings-to-contain-bigger-debt-and-deficit-20220516-p5allh
15. https://twitter.com/MikeCarlton01/status/1532998989531844608