The news is bad, millions are doing it very tough in 21st Century Australia. The triple whammy of skyrocketing cost of living, housing and suppressed wages has dealt a body blow to a swathe of Australians. The social costs are exhaustion, domestic violence and depression. Governments wring their hands and offer useless platitudes.
Yet other parts of our society have never had it so good. Record high profits by our major corporations, unhindered from paying tax. They leave that task to workers.
| Company | Profit AUD | % Increase |
| Woolworths Group | $907 million | +14 |
| Coles Group | $643 million | +17 |
| Qantas | $1billion | + |
| Commonwealth Bank | $5.22 billion | +10 |
| Woodside (oil & gas) | $6.5 billion | +228 |
| Whitehaven Coal | $1.78 billion | +423 |
| BHP’ | $6.46 billion | -32 |
| Rio Tinto | $12.4 billion | -41 |
| Australian corporate profits | $1.50876 trillion | ABS Dec 2022 |
People are working 3 jobs , 7 day working weeks, to survive. Foodbank in December 2022 noted that 3.6 million Australians (15% of the population) experience food insecurity (hunger) with 40% of children in these households. Tens of thousands live in insecure “housing” in parks ,cars and boarding homes. Most have jobs .
Citing Covid or war in Ukraine, prices are out of control with rises on all the commodities of daily life. Government regulators are powerless or toothless to prevent massive rip offs.
And the favourite commodity of capitalism in the 21st century: money is swept out of the reach of people by the Reserve Bank. The banks must get their dues and the people will pay.
The story presented is we must suppress inflation by cutting spending by diverting all available funds to the banks via higher mortgage repayments and rent. What have banks done to warrant all this loot? Absolutely nothing except that they are the lynch-pins of the system. It’s theirs. This is the era of the dictatorship of monopoly capital. Needless to say the Reserve Banks board is made up of “respectable” leading figures of the business world. See for yourself at https://www.rba.gov.au/about-rba/boards/rba-board.html.
Wages and salaries have been suppressed for the last 12 years following the policies of the neo-liberal experiment. Governments across Australia have stifled organized labour leading to atomized worker wage bargaining process and massive profits. The ideas of Hayek promoted by Reagan and Thatcher, influenced Federal Labor governments and were used in full vigour by the Howard LNP government. Despite two subsequent Federal Labor governments, nothing has changed.
For advice they turn to commissions and consultants, who mouth the standard line we must improve productivity- the classic bogey man. Or be condemned to work longer for less.
As for productivity we were promised dividends from digitalization but huge numbers of jobs were lost and branches and offices closed. The message is- do it yourself online. The colossal benefits to corporations of profits from digitalization can not be counted .
“Jim Chalmers says Australians’ incomes will fall and the working week will get longer without major boosts to productivity” Guardian March 16 2023
Workers must get organized and not diverted down the elusive electoral path to parliament in the hope of legislative relief for wages and prices that never satisfies.
