A political shell game

Fiddling with interest rates won’t alter inflation — or change the fact that people are doing it tough, despite Reserve Bank boss Michelle Bullock believing it’s all a lot of winging background noise and all is well in ‘candyland’. What is fact is that the Reserve Bank interest rate decisions are decidedly nothing more than the 'pet shop galah variety'.

6 December 2023

ALAN HAYES

 

LET’S face it – groceries are  becoming more expensive to purchase, and petrol prices are rising, and electricity rates are skyrocketing so fast that it won’t be long before craft lessons in making candles or rush-lights becomes a way of life. And what about paying off the mortgage so that you can keep a roof over your families head? Tucking into a plate of baked beans will become a staple evening meal, because even the once humble sausage will become, which was once cheap but is now an expensive protein booster, will become a mouth-watering dream.

 

Yet despite the hardship everyday Australians are facing to make ends meet, Reserve Bank boss Michelle Bullock doesn’t need to worry about her mortgage, and she doesn’t need to worry about inflation. As the bureaucrat in charge of pulling the levers on Australia’s economy, she earns well over $1 million a year. And last year, as deputy governor before her promotion to the top job, she was hauling in $828,313 a year (after a 12 per cent pay rise – double the rate of inflation).

 

Now some may argue that Ms Bullock deserves the obscene salary she receives – the one per cent in the wealth bracket – because she has an enormous responsibility to keep the economy on track. But is she? How much blood can you squeeze out of the interest rate ‘stone’ before people are driven into penury, lose their home and the country is the middle of a massive recession?

 

But since Ms Bullock is the one deciding how much interest you’re shelling out to the bank, or other financial institution, it would not be unreasonable to think she’d understand how much Aussies are hurting right now. Or is she so lost in the opulent rooms of her new ivory tower she believes that Australians are doing just fine?

 

Apparently so! In a speech she delivered in Hong Kong , Bullock said complaints about her interest rate hikes were just “a lot of noise from the general public”.

 

Bullock reckons Australian households “are actually in a pretty good position” - even though inflation is out of control, rents are spiralling and she is overseeing massive rapid-fire interest rate hikes.

 

To add insult to financial purgatory, Ms Bullock had the audacity to say that unemployment was too low. Seriously, how out of touch can the Reserve Bank boss be? Will she only be satisfied when middle class Australia has joined the ranks of those already living in abject poverty, as we see ‘packing-crate-shanty-towns’ and tent cities ever increasingly popping up in our towns and suburbs.

 

And what about the cost to the nation? The Commonwealth Government’s answer is to hand out more cash to struggling families. Why? Because they are continually seeking popularity, like all governments do, subsidising you into believing that they’re doing a great job and have your ‘best interests at heart’ - as Treasurer Jim Chalmers said last week "providing billions of dollars of assistance with the cost of living pressures".

 

But where does the cash come from? By increasing the taxes paid by middle class Australians – the very people who are falling down the financial rabbit hole.

 

And just like Michelle Bullock, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who appointed her, is equally out of touch with the needs of struggling Aussie families. The same Anthony Albanese who recently collected a $30,000 a year membership to the Royal Sydney Golf Club – a nice kick in the guts for struggle street.

 

So, when your children are singing “Tell me a story before we go to bed”, it will be the same old story – ‘Them’ versus ‘Us’. Because it is the same old story - overpaid politicians and bureaucrats telling you to eat cake.

 

It’s all about politicians and top bureaucrats – it’s entirely all about them, not about what you and your family want.

 

They relentlessly pursue every half-baked ideological pet project while ignoring the real struggles of Australian families. All the while leaving you to pick up the bill.

 

It’s about time these overpaid bureaucrats had their obscene salaries cut back to a realistic wage and the money returned to the people. Because right now, it’s just a bureaucratic-government shell game… neither efficient nor effective.