They panicked and confected a crisis (ably assisted by some dreadful SWtate premiers) when the best brains in the world said don’t, they did. That was the Barrington Declaration in case you have forgotten.

We suffered as a nation under COVID; Scott and Josh spent far too much, and the nation went into a debt spiral.

SPEND

Most people have either forgotten or don’t know, but Albo and Doctor Jim, told Scott and Josh they should spend even more.

Now they gloat over a surplus or two which they had nothing to do with creating; there was a surge in commodity prices, coal and iron ore, and the taxes rolled in, and the sun shone on the “handsome boy” and his doctor.

Typical Labor though, claiming something they have no right to; it’s like being the school bus driver for Gout Gout and claiming some of the credit for his outstanding performances.

The problem now, is under this Albanese/Chalmers government the economy is declining faster than any economy in the OECD, and there are no plans for the decline to be arrested, except it seems, by inflicting more taxes and then of course, more taxes just to help out.

Chalmers and his colleague Katie Gallagher have no idea what to do. Bye the bye, did you know that Gallagher, like Jim Chalmers, has a degree in political science and sociology?

Although Chalmers is a little different, he specialised in international relations, rather than sociology.

Dr Jim got his PhD on public policy when he studied the life and times of Paul Keating. So, the qualifications which our two leaders in Treasury have, are what is needed to run the finances of Australia; bet you didn’t know that.

You need to be a political scientist specialising in sociology or international relations to run the economy. (I am reading his thesis at the moment; no, don’t bother, I’ll tell you later if the pain, so far, is worth it.)

Forget economics or banking, forget the stock exchange or even running a business that has to make a profit to exist; all you need is a degree in political science to sit behind the big desks in Treasury.

Soon a majority of the people in Australia will realise that all is not well with the country; aspirations cannot be realised, ambitions are being blunted by reality.

I wrote recently that the millennials in the UK – and I suspect here as well – are the first generation ever to be worse off financially than their parents at that age; in the UK to the tune of £8000 a year; that must hurt.

The wait list at our regionally based charity for houses for those on low to medium income and those with disability grows at 20 per cent a year and we are regional not metropolitan; it now stands at about six hundred for a population of less than fifty thousand. There are more than two hundred people who are homeless.

Our building costs have increased by more than 50 per cent since COVID, a two-bedroom unit built to meet national regulations (which it must by law) now costs half a million dollars. Think about that.

Our profits are modest because our rents are tied to a percentage of household income and we have to maintain the rest of our extensive housing portfolio; so, the money to build houses for those desperately in need, must come from the State and federal governments, and we all know where their money comes from.

Forget philanthropy; gone are the days of the example set by the Cadbury family with the “garden village” of Bournville circa 1893, and the still famous and wonderful Port Sunlight, built in 1888 by the Lever brothers; two extraordinarily wealthy families who built villages for their workers away from the city and “out in the country” of rural England.

Still there and still remembered. Many will remember Sunlight soap and the international company, Unilever, and of course we still have, Bournville chocolate all over the world being made by Cadbury.

There are some extraordinarily wealthy people in Australia and so-far, the desperate plight of so many Australians at the lower end of the economic spectrum has been of no real interest to them, at least of which I am aware.

We will build them a Port Sunlight or a Bournville in the South of Western Australia, all they have to do is make an offer to our charity.

LUXURY

It is a basic human right for everyone to have a roof over their heads, at a price which doesn’t put them in penury. That is a luxury not enjoyed by many in our society today, especially the young and ambitious.

How many sleep rough in your town? Ask the police how many are sleeping in cars.

Back to money and the government.

The trouble is in this welfare age of demanding from the government benefits which used to be provided out of personal income, is that I don’t think everyone in our community realises and appreciates that no government has any money of its own.

It’s time the governments of Australia told the people of Australia that the only money they have is what they levy in taxes; so whatever demand they make of government, they, one way or another, will pay for.

The Phoenicians taught the world that the price of everything is controlled by supply and demand.

The demand for houses is extreme because of our rapid growth in population; the demand for what is used to build a house; wood, steel, pipes and cables as well as toilets and sinks, has put strains on supply of both materials and labour.

What is not being appreciated by many but soon will be as matters get worse, is that the three million people who came here from all over the world to enjoy what we have, now demand all those facilities which we have paid and still pay for.

Health, power, water, law enforcement, aged care and childcare are all in crisis because of the increased demand of another three million people.

No matter where we look in Australia, we have major challenge; I see panic in the eyes of the Prime Minister because he knows he doesn’t have an answer, so he keeps moving to present a distraction from answering, what is to him, the unanswerable.

He knows what his colleagues told him would happen, isn’t happening; it’s in his eyes, just watch him.

A new “early learning centre” has been built next door to where we live. Every morning, sometimes very early in the morning, I see little children, some not yet walking, being carried into the centre.

In the evening, fiveish, I see mums and dads picking up the toddlers and little ones.

In the care of others and away from mum for nine hours goes against so much that I believe in; how fortunate we were, in spite of the war.

I know we are all paying for the day care centre, because the PM never stops telling us the purse has no strings; he seems to be obsessed with the subject, which I am sure is a vote winner with the young, even if it puts the country further into debt, why should they care?

Albo doesn’t and they need two incomes these days just to get by.

There are about two million people in Perth and about one million in Adelaide. Three million more people; that is the size of the strain which has been deliberately put on Australia by federal and State Labor governments.

FAILED

Another three million people welcomed into Australia in less than four years in an attempt, which failed, to make the national accounts look good. All it has done is make the housing crisis even worse; few of us thought that was possible.

How many new hospitals have been built in your State in the past three years? How many new power stations have been built to power another Perth and Adelaide, more power if only to provide the power for three million to have a shower and cook a meal.

How many new dams have been built for the water to wash their clothes? The basics have been ignored.

The only people who are laughing are the Chinese, because they make most of the “things” these new Australians need; phones, TVs, computers, washing machines electric stoves. No wonder the price of electricity is going up.

What this nation is now suffering from is a severe case of self-inflicted injury, which in the military is an offence, while in politics in Australia (and many other places) it is the ticket to re-election.

Give the people what they want and promise the rest. The Australian Government supports the old-fashioned cargo-cult.

Is there an answer as America pours kerosene on the fire of debt and demands that we increase our defence spending?

They are telling us we must spend more on defence because they cannot afford to defend us any longer (their debt is $36 trillion by the way, that’s US$ as well).

The reply from our government is denial and silence.

There has to be an answer, productivity in Australia is in decline, the public service is growing at an exponential rate as is the NDIS, and the debts are out of control both in Canberra and in the States.

Just 770,000 people are supported by the NDIS, and their spend is about $48.5b and budgeted to rise to $63.5b by 2028-29.