A confronting graph shows how Australia\u2019s standard of living has slumped in recent years, as real per capita GDP fell into decline under the Albanese government.<\/p>\n
The graph, from conservative outlet The Spectator, compares GDP growth under each Australian government since 1976.<\/p>\n
Real per capita GDP growth is a useful measure of living standards because it adjusts for inflation and population changes, showing the average quantity of goods and services produced per person.<\/p>\n
Adding more people to the economy grows overall GDP, but if each worker doesn\u2019t become more productive, the economic pie is sliced into smaller pieces.<\/p>\n
If Australians produce goods and services at a faster rate than population growth, however, real GDP per capita rises, which generally leads to higher material living standards because more goods and services are available per person, increasing average income and consumption. <\/p>\n
The chart shows that real per capita GDP rose by more than 30 per cent during the Hawke\/Keating government, a period of major reforms that transformed Australia into an open, globally competitive economy.<\/p>\n
It also rose more than 30 per cent during the Howard government, helped by further reforms and the mining boom.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter Howard, the picture changes,\u201d according to the chart\u2019s author B.W. Williams.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Rudd\/Gillard period was impacted by the Global Financial Crisis, with per capita real GDP increasing by less than 5 per cent over six years. <\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the Abbott\/Turnbull\/Morrison period, per capita real GDP grew at a steady but subdued pace before the pandemic struck, and then subsequently bounced back sharply to end around ten per cent higher at the end of the nine years of Coalition government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Real per capita GDP has been weak over the past 20 years, as the economy got bigger mainly due to population growth, while productivity growth has \u201ctanked\u201d, Mr Williams wrote.<\/p>\n
He described the weaker productivity performance of the last two decades as an \u201cindictment of both major parties\u201d, neither of which had \u201cfound the policy answers that made the Hawke\/Keating and Howard eras so strong\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then there is Albanese,\u201d he continued, describing the current Albanese government\u2019s line in the chart as \u201cembarrassingly weak\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the only government in these fifty years to deliver per capita real GDP that was lower at the end of its first term than it was at the start. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd now, a year into Albanese\u2019s second term, this measure is still below its starting point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Williams said the government had relied on immigration-driven population growth to boost GDP, instead of productivity growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia is a wealthy, resourceful, and well-educated nation. It has delivered strong per capita GDP growth before. It can do so again,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut that will require a government that understands the difference between making the cake bigger and making the slice bigger.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter four years, it is clear that this government is not that government. The charts do not lie. The Albanese government is an economic failure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weak productivity growth has swept across many advanced economies over the past 20 years as business investment fell and employment shifted from manufacturing to lower-productivity services and healthcare. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a headwind also faced by the United States, as Mr Williams showed with a chart of American presidencies.<\/p>\n