This is a watershed moment for absolute tripe by a treasurer.
As Australians plod through an interminable per capita recession and the outright devastation of their real incomes, Treasurer Jim “chicken” Chalmers has released his woke GDP balderdash: Measuring What Matters.
The first problem with the index is that it is presented more as PMI than a time series or trend. As such, it is directional not positional over time.
This renders it useless and misleading.
For instance, national income per capita may have improved over the last year in nominal terms but by how much and how does it compare with the long-term trend?
This measure would have looked great for the past ten years even as it was measuring the worst decade in modern history.
And, if measured it real terms, it was devastated. Why wasn’t the much superior real disposable income per capita used? The ABS says it is the best measure of living standards available.
I can’t wait to see what the weightings for each measure are in the headline index. Should vibrancy rate as highly as income measures?
There are also a whole range of timing issues with the data:
The Measuring What Matters report determined mortgage holders were spending less of their take home pay on housing than two decades ago — but this was based on 2020 data when the official cash rate ranged from 0.75 per cent to a record low 0.1 per cent.
…Responding to questions about out-of-date data, a spokesman for the Treasurer said compiling the report “revealed some data gaps that we will work to address as we refine and develop the framework going forward”.
“As part of the consultative process, Treasury identified the best available indicators for the framework using data from the ABS, commonwealth departments and other sources,” the spokesman said.
“The latest available data is used and where there are gaps, we’ve drawn on a variety of data sources to help inform the commentary in the framework. This is the first iteration of the framework, which will evolve over time.”
How about the Treasury and Chicken Chalmers get back to doing what matters instead of producing Orwellian data bombs to blow smoke over their own failings.
Reform the bloody economy so that it lifts instead crushes living standards.
