A Response to Alan Austin, “Australia’s incompetent newsrooms fail to report best financial year ever”, Independent Australia, 7 September 2026, 8:00am:
ONLY ONCE since records have been kept has Australia achieved these four coveted outcomes together through a full financial year:
Jobless rate below 4.6%
Inflation below 4.6%
Interest rates below 4.6%
Annual GDP growth above 2%.
Throughout the entire fiscal year from July 2025 to June 2026, the results on these critical indicators were:
Jobless rate ranged between 4.08% and 4.49%, closing the year at 4.43%
Inflation fluctuated between 2.96% and 4.57%, finishing at 3.75%
Interest rates varied between 3.6% and 4.35%, closing at 4.35%
Full-year GDP growth was 2.35%
Never before, since data was collected soon after the Second World War, has Australia managed such outcomes. The economy came close in 2007-08, except for interest rates above 6.25%.
It is not the point of Alan Austin, but it is an invitation to dig deeper.
The numbers can tell you many stories. But how relevant is the economy to a person’s life (“The People”)? If the economy is at the extremes in a factor or two, yes, the externals impact upon a person’s life. But otherwise, it is of a mere tertiary significance. Those who disagree are usually those obsessed with monetary policy.
I am among the 4.6% “unemployed”, even though I have a registered business and successfully completed a $10,000 contract early this year. Does it make sense that now my only income is an inadequate job seeker social security? The economic problem is not government spending in this case, directly. It is the failure of wisdom of potential employers to employ or short-term contract me in my disciplinary fields of teaching and research: history, education, sociology, and philosophy.
I am certainly not alone among scholars, but, in Australia, I am one of the absurdly worse case. It is not the economy (as such) which has put me in this situation. The principle cause is the failure of cognition among potential employers, particularly in the universities, among private institutes, and in government.
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