Hey everyone, I wanted to do a quick breakdown of how some of our everyday costs and economic indicators have shifted since the Albanese government was elected back in May 2022. I have broken this down into what you could call wins and losses.
Starting with the wins, average income is the main bright spot.
Back in May 2022, the average full time worker was making roughly $89,700 a year, which was about $1,725 a week.
Today, the latest ABS data shows that average has grown to approximately $108,400 annually, or $2,083 a week.
Moving over to the macro level, our export economy is still massive. We were exporting about $668 billion in 2022, and we are still going strong at roughly $665 billion in rolling annual data, keeping our trade surplus healthy.
However, the losses column is unfortunately quite a bit longer.
Let us look at unemployment first. When Albanese took office, unemployment was sitting at a 50 year low of 3.9%.
Today, the official unemployment rate has ticked up to 4.7%.
The cash rate set by the RBA is another major hit.
In May 2022, the cash rate had just been bumped to 0.35%, but today it is sitting at a very restrictive 4.60%.
Because of that, the average mortgage repayment has skyrocketed. A typical Australian with a $700,000 mortgage is paying roughly $1,773 more per month, which is over $400 more a week, compared to before the rate hikes started.
Renters are feeling it just as badly. The national median rent was about $570 a week in May 2022, and today it sits at roughly $665 a week.
Groceries and everyday essentials have also climbed.
A standard supermarket loaf of white bread was around $3.00 in early 2022, but now it is typically around $3.80.
A standard 2 litre bottle of supermarket milk was averaging $3.10 and is now sitting around $3.40 to $3.50.
If you want a 600ml bottle of Coke, you were paying about $4.00 in 2022, but now it regularly costs $4.70 to $5.00.
Even grabbing a Big Mac has gotten much pricier, going from $6.40 in 2022 to about $8.55 today.
Power, fuel, and transport are stinging hard.
The average price of electricity was around $0.26 per kilowatt hour in 2022, and it has since risen to roughly $0.31 nationally.
Fuel prices have crept significantly higher than their May 2022 averages across the board.
91 Unleaded went from $1.84 a litre to roughly $2.37 to $2.40 today
E10 94 Unleaded went from $1.82 to $2.36.
95 Unleaded jumped from $1.98 to between $2.56 and $2.59
98 Unleaded went from $2.06 to $2.64
Diesel drivers are getting absolutely hammered! In mid 2022 diesel averaged $2.09, and right now you are staring down prices sitting around $2.81 to $2.85 a litre, which is a massive jump.
If you need a new car, the absolute cheapest on the market was the Kia Picanto S manual at $18,490 drive away in May 2022.
Today, the cheapest new car is the MG 3 Vibe starting at $20,990 drive away.
Finally, our trade balance has narrowed.
We imported $513 billion in 2022. Today, our imports have climbed to $547 billion while our exports have dropped slightly to $571 billion.
When you weigh all of this up to look at how much better or worse off the average family is today, the math is brutal.
Even though average gross wages have increased by roughly $358 a week since May 2022, the tax man takes a chunk of that, leaving maybe $240 of actual take home pay.
That gain has been completely wiped out by housing and non discretionary inflation.
If you have a mortgage, your weekly payments are up over $400.
If you rent, your weekly costs are up almost $100. Once you add in the extra $50 to $100 a week required to cover the price hikes across basic groceries, power bills, and massive jumps at the petrol pump, real household disposable income has gone deeply backwards.
Ultimately, despite taking home a larger paycheck on paper, the average Australian family is functionally $150 to $250 a week worse off in real purchasing power today than they were when the government took office.
Now, this isn’t to say Albanese is doing a bad job in a vacuum. I don’t believe that if Peter Dutton had won in 2022, we’d be looking at a significantly better spreadsheet today, these are largely global macroeconomic headwinds.
Nor do I think figures across the rest of the political spectrum, whether it's David Farley, Barnaby Joyce, or Elizabeth Watson-Brown, are sitting on a magic bullet.
But looking ahead to the 2028 election, pointing fingers doesn't pay the checkout total.
The real question is: who actually has the policies and the long-term vision to turn these numbers around and make things genuinely better for everyday Australians?
What questions should we be asking?
