The prospect of an election early next year focused on the economy is a strong one. But on that front, the government would have noticed two worrying trends | Opinion by mrseankelly
One of the many simplistic stupidities peddled in this country over the past year has been that economic downturns are caused by lockdowns. Increasingly, the evidence points to the main cause of downturns being fear: with or without lockdowns, people tend to stay home if they think that venturing out has a reasonable chance of causing death. And this in turn means that – as Noah Smith at Bloomberg observed in– reopenings do not inevitably give the economy a boost.
In this case, the economist is also a Labor MP. For months, Andrew Leigh has been telling anyone who would listen about the billions of dollars in JobKeeper claimed by companies that didn’t need it. Last night, the story leaped out of the newspapers and onto commercial television – specifically. Gerry Harvey inadvertently did his part in this media push by agreeing to repay several million bucks.
. Then there is the growing concern that funding to the National Disability Insurance Scheme will be cut .The risk for the Liberal Party is that these three elements come together in time for the election: in the midst of an economic downturn, it worries too much about spending and is seen to be taking money from the people who can least afford it. Last week’s media stories gave a hint of what that might look like politically – but only a hint.
Sean Kelly is a regular columnist and a former adviser to Labor prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights.
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