Economic coverage has been disappointing
Journalists covering economic matters in the current Federal election have been very disappointing.
A great deal has been made of Mr Albanese not knowing the current unemployment rate.
The only sensible comment that I have seen was John Howard's "So what?".
The unemployment figure is largely meaningless because the Coalition uses its employment figure to hide chronic under-employment.
Anyone working for merely several hours a week is classified as employed, although the recipients could not live on what they receive.
The really significant figure is the number on Job Seeker - and that is currently rising.
Encouraging people to become "homeowners" on two and five per cent deposits delivers them as interest-paying slaves to private enterprise banks.
In Singapore, everyone has a reasonable expectation of becoming a homeowner without paying any interest.
We could do the same had we the will to change the system.
It is significant that private banks have always led the way in donating money the Liberal Party at election time.
The Liberal Party always makes much of being a low taxer.
However, high tolls on privately-owned highways, premiums on all forms of insurance to be creamed off as dividends for shareholders, and rising cost of living not matched by usage increases are all taxes hidden under other names - and benefiting only part of the population.
The Coalition claimed to have restored the Federal Budget to the black pre-Covid.
That might be considered less than honest.
Interest paid on foreign debt appears in the Budget, but not the debt itself.
The debt itself was blowing out very considerably, incurring large additional interest obligations, left to be confronted by future politicians.
SOURCE:
Letter, 5 May 2022
Barry Bridges, Umina