To Solve Australia’s Cost-of-Living Crisis, Labor Should Tax Superprofits
Inflation is eroding paychecks and rising interest rates are hurting people with mortgages. Anthony Albanese’s government could defend workers’ living standards by taxing the rich and controlling prices, but Labor’s neoliberal orthodoxy stands in the way.
The Australian Labor Party is in charge of an overheating economy, with inflation spiking and real wages sliding backward. (Hu Jingchen / Xinhua via Getty Images)
Treasurer Jim Chalmers gave a speech earlier this week on the state of the economy. Spoiler alert: it’s bad. Inflation is spiking, real wages are falling, and economic growth is slowing.
“The economic picture I have set out today represents a convergence of challenges, the kind of which comes around once in a generation,” he told Parliament.
As veteran political commentator Michelle Grattan observed, “Jim Chalmers delivers bad economic news well, which is a good thing because there’s a great deal of it about.”
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