The economy continues to sink. Even as the new Abbott government begins to clean out the stables, there is this report which I hope more will be made of. Via The Australian we are led to this report prepared by Australian Development Strategies Pty Ltd which is run by a former ALP Senator. This is how it starts:

The Australian economy has been generating jobs for only half the new entrants to the Labor market since early 2012.

The Labour underutilisation rate is now at 13.5 percent, virtually the same as the 13.6 percent we saw during the worst of the GFC in mid-2009.

While blue collar jobs in manufacturing continued to contract during the past six years of Labor Governments, jobs which were either funded or regulated by Government rose to unprecedented levels. [Bolding added]

They attribute this deterioration in the labour market to the new industrial relations laws which is, of course, a major part of the story. But what they do not attribute this to is the “stimulus” which re-directed our resources away from value-adding production towards the useless junk Labor is famous for funding. The last of the three points made above ought to drive home where the problems lie.

Leave the economy to find its way. Just cut spending and balance the budget as soon as you can. The rest will take care of itself.