Economics reporters lie and cheat to deviously derail Labor

Australia’s mainstream newsrooms are deploying multiple devious tactics to persuade voters to ditch Labor, as Alan Austin reports.

THE TRICKS economics reporters use to convince their audiences of the opposite of the truth are proving remarkably effective.

The Australian Financial Review (AFR) ran a deceptive essay in its weekend Perspective on 4-5 January, titled ‘Labor’s risky election play’.

The two authors quoted Opposition Leader Peter Dutton approvingly:

‘He is borrowing a killer line from the triumphant Donald Trump by asking Australians if they feel better off now than when Labor came to power in May 2022.’

Sneaky trick #1: Deceptive rhetorical question

Repeating this question is now routine. Having posed it, the newsrooms immediately shout an emphatic “No” before readers have time to reflect — but seldom with any supporting data.

This reinforces the falsehood day in, day out.

They have several other devious ruses — most of them displayed in the above AFR article.

Sneaky trick #2: Refusing to report actual advances

For the record, Australians are now vastly better placed financially than in 2022.

Here are just 15 facts, extracted from over 30 variables we monitor regularly:

1. Inflation was 2.31% in November, within the Reserve Bank’s optimum range for the fourth straight month. Near perfect. That compared with 7.38% two years earlier.
2. Interest rates have now been in the optimum band of 3% to 5% for more than two years with no sign of exiting that range. The rate has not moved significantly in that time.
3. Australians with jobs now number 14.6 million, up from 13.8 million two years ago.
4. Job participation has increased from 66.6% in October 2022 to an all-time high of 67.1% in October 2024.
5. Job vacancies in November were 344,000, down from 450,200 in November 2022, and well below the peak of 474,000 in the Coalition’s last month in office.
6. Employees’ share of national income is now 53.5 %, up from 50.1% two years ago.
7. The weekly minimum wage is $915.90, up 12.7% from $812.6 in 2022.
8. Wages overall have risen 7.7 % over the last two years. The CPI has increased by 6.7%.
9. The single youth allowance is $663.30 fortnightly, up 17.9% from $562.80 two years ago.
10. The single-age pension was lifted by 11.8% from $936.80 a fortnight in 2022 to $1,047.10 today.
11. Household wealth was $16.9 trillion last September, up 17.8% from two years earlier.
12. The ASX200 stock market index was 8,294 on Friday, up from 7,328 two years ago.
13. A thumping 1.18 million citizens returned from overseas trips in October, up from 722,000 in October 2022.
14. Total retail sales in November clicked over $37 billion for the first time ever. This was $35.3 billion two years earlier.
15. Spending on luxuries is now at a record 15.7% of all retail sales and an all-time high relative to GDP. See chart below.

Few, if any, of these remarkable results have been reported accurately, just as the 60-plus worst-ever outcomes under the Coalition were ignored. Anyone feeling worse off now is probably suffering media-induced amnesia.

Sneaky trick #3: Positing opinion as evidence

The main news element in the AFR’s tawdry “story” is from an opinion poll, used to assert that something quite false must be true.

They wrote:

‘JWS’s data shows the proportion of Australians who regard the economy as heading in the wrong direction, now sitting at 43 per cent, has never been higher in more than a decade…’

They want readers to conclude from this non sequitur that Labor must have failed and should go.

Sneaky trick #4: Repeating blatant falsehoods without correction

The AFR quoted Peter Dutton saying:

“Australians have become worse off and our nation has gone backwards.”

Both are demonstrably false. Australia has climbed virtually every global ranking since the 2022 Election and is now near the top of most. The AFR conceals this by not fact-checking Australia’s habitual liars.

Sneaky trick #5: Concocting their own lies

The AFR wrote:

‘…the increase in wages growth has not been enough to keep pace with inflation, fuelling voter discontent with the Albanese Government.’

That is the opposite of the truth. Wages over the last four quarters have grown 4.3%, 4.1%, 4.1% and 3.5%. Inflation has been 4.1%, 3.6%, 3.8% and 2.8%. So, for the last four quarters – one full year – wage rises have comfortably exceeded inflation.

The AFR has mashed together Labor’s recent excellent outcomes with the Coalition’s earlier disastrous results to hide the current successes:

‘Real inflation-adjusted wages… have fallen 4.7 per cent since mid-2021, taking purchasing power back to 2011 levels.’

Yes, but mid-2021 was during the failed Morrison/Frydenberg era. Labor isn’t responsible for that.

Sneaky trick #6: Accusing Labor of the media’s failures

The AFR quoted a pollster saying Labor will ‘lean on metrics that will show some green shoots of economic hope but still struggle to convince the all-important soft voter cohort’.

So after generating the world’s best recovery from the 2021-23 global inflation surge and issuing daily press releases confirming its impressive successes, Labor is blamed for reporters not doing their job.

Sneaky trick #7: Continual negative headlines

Even when outcomes are overwhelmingly positive, newsrooms drip feed damaging headlines relentlessly. Recent examples include:

The result of the craven media conning voters into believing the Coalition is more competent is that the economy always ends up much worse. Such is Australia’s doom.

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