(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Australia's media proprietors and editors will soon choose their preferred next federal government [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-04-22
Something unusual may happen next month when Australia’s newspapers endorse their preferred political party for the federal election on 3rd May. Traditionally decisions have been based on perceived economic management, having assessed past performances and future prospects. Nearly always, the coronation has gone to the right-wing Coalition.
The editors have seldom had a valid case, of course, but they have cobbled together plausible arguments, at least for their conservative core readers.
It seems unlikely, however, they can do that this year, given the manifest differences in recent outcomes by the two sides. The stark reality is that on virtually every significant variable, the progressive Labor Government led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has delivered demonstrably better outcomes. Labor was elected in May 2022 after nearly nine years of the Coalition.
Australia’s Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (right) with Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers. Photo courtesy Independent Australia.
Comparison of PEFOs 2022 and 2025
Last week’s pre-election economic and fiscal outlook (PEFO) is the latest document to prove this. PEFOs are well worth examining, as they are prepared by the politically neutral secretaries of Treasury and the Finance Department.
Comparing the 2022 and 2025 PEFOs, the differences are notable:
1. Deficits for the four years 2022-23 to 2025-26 were forecast under Coalition settings to be $224.4 billion. After Labor’s budgets took effect, deficits totaled $31.9 billion.
2. In 2022 the department heads forecast gross debt to reach $1,000 billion under Coalition policies in 2023-24. After the change of government, that did not happen. Debt is now forecast to hit the trillion some time in 2025-26. There is a chance this will not happen either, should iron ore prices recover or global conditions improve significantly. The chart below shows net debt comparisons so far.
Australia’s net debt history. Data: Australian Bureau of Statistics, chart courtesy Independent Australia.
3. Gross debt added by the Coalition from June 2022 to June 2026 was forecast to be $263.0 billion. Under Labor, that added debt is now estimated at $126.7 billion.
4. The gross debt target at June 2026 was $1,169.0 billion under the Coalition. It is now $1,022.0 billion under Labor – $147 billion lower.
5. The Coalition’s interest payable on the debt for the three years to 2025-26 was to have been $57.3 billion. Labor cut this to $45.7 billion.
History reversed
The opposite happened in 2013 after the government changed from Labor to the Coalition. The 2013 PEFO set out the forward estimates for three years under Labor’s settings. We then saw a rapid reversal of fortunes with all outcomes worse under the Coalition. Much worse.
The independent public servants estimated deficits for the four years 2014 to 2017 would total $54.6 billion had Labor continued after 2013. After the Coalition won, actual deficits totalled $159.1 billion.
Debt to be added from June 2013 to June 2017 was forecast in 2013 at $112.6 billion under Labor. The Coalition blew that out to $243.6 billion.
The boffins confidently expected Labor’s policies would return the budget to surplus in 2016-17. So when did the Coalition achieve this? Never.
The Coalition cannot argue that times were easier for Labor than for the Coalition. As we saw here last week, the boom following the global financial crisis enabled all well-managed economies to generate strong budget surpluses in each of the five years 2015 to 2019, pre-COVID.
Australia was one of the sorry losers which did not generate a single surplus in that period of worldwide growth and prosperity.
That this was due to sheer incompetence was confirmed when the first two Coalition prime ministers were sacked as the economy deteriorated – by their own side.
Updates on ever-rising standards of living
Evidence that the majority of Australians are now enjoying a strong consumer recovery keeps coming. The Bureau of Statistics has reported that Australian residents in February took a thumping 923,360 overseas flights, an all time record for any February (which always records fewer than in December and January).
The total for the three months December to February comes to a record 3,291,250, which is 13.2% higher than the same period last year and 45.2% higher than 2023.
Jobs outcomes for March, as reported by the Stats Bureau last Thursday continue to be close to best-ever. The unemployment rate of 4.05% extends the streak of months below 4.25% to forty, the longest since the Whitlam years.
Only four other OECD members have managed this: Switzerland, Japan, Mexico and South Korea.
Jobless Australians have been fewer than 650,000 for 40 months, another impressive milestone. Remember this exceeded 900,000 seven times under the Coalition and clicked over one million in July 2020, during the COVID downturn.
Job participation is near-perfect 66.8%. The employment to population ratio remains at 64.1%, just under December’s all-time high.
Editorial endorsements last time
Most daily and weekly newspapers urged a return of the Coalition in 2022, as they did in 2019. These included the Australian Financial Review, the Advertiser, the West Australian, The Australian, Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, Courier-Mail and the Sunday Mail.
Labor was backed by the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, NT News, Canberra Times and the Saturday Paper.
Guardian Australia supported Labor, the Greens and the prominent independents.
The NT Times was the only Murdoch newspaper to back Labor, despite it being clearly the better choice. Whether this was an independent decision or ordered by News Corp HQ to make the sordid outfit appear less partisan we don’t know.
We do know, however, that all newsroom criticisms of Labor’s economic management this year – cost of living, excessive spending, high interest rates, housing crisis – fail under scrutiny. The PEFOs bolster this.
Hence the editors will support Labor and the independents if they want what is best for the majority. But do they?
*
This is an edited version of an article published today in Independent Australia. The original article is available here in full for free:
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/news-editors-must-choose-between-majority-or-own-selfish-interests,19648
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/22/2317978/-Australia-s-media-proprietors-and-editors-will-soon-choose-their-preferred-next-federal-government?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
