Kieran Gilbert: Let’s go live to Liberal MP Zoe McKenzie, the Member for Flinders. This unemployment number down. The Treasurer says it’s the first time that any political party of any persuasion, has created 1 million jobs in a single term. Do you welcome that?
Zoe McKenzie: Yeah, look, he just can’t stop congratulating himself for the economic conditions that he inherited from a Coalition Government. Anyway, 4.1% is good news, but let me tell you what I’m seeing down in my electorate. I met a woman a few weeks ago who works as a cleaner in the Somerville shops where my electorate office is. She cleans offices from five to seven at night. She works in a real estate shop from nine till five, four days a week, and then she works in a chemist on Wednesdays and on Saturdays. That’s what people are having to do at the moment to make ends meet. Three jobs just to afford the mortgage, which has gone up by $25,000 in interest payments year on year, and to afford kids coming home. They can’t afford to get into a house themselves, so they’re living at home. Three jobs, one person, one woman. Extraordinary. That’s what I’m seeing up and down the length and breadth of my electorate at the moment.
Kieran Gilbert: So more jobs, but people doing more jobs, essentially. That’s the message right now, given how tough things are.
Zoe McKenzie: You’ve got to. You’ve got to. Fruit and vegetables up 10%. Education costs, 5% each year, so up about eleven. Insurance is up 17%. If you just want to try and stand still, you’ve got to work harder, you’ve got to bring more in to keep paying the bills. I’m really tired of Labor congratulating themselves for these figures. People are doing it really tough. And I heard this left, right and centre as I walked down the street in Rye yesterday, talking to small businesses. You have six to ten shops closed in a thriving tourist area. That shouldn’t be the case at this point in the economic cycle. It shouldn’t be this case in October. So all I hear is people doing it tough. So, yep, employment figure today is good. Could be better. But a lot of people are working really, really hard doing multiple jobs just to keep their head afloat.
Kieran Gilbert: And in terms of that inflationary pulse, as Warren Hogan put it, the economist from Judo Bank, he thinks it’s still strong in the economy. He believes the RBA won’t be talking rate cut come Melbourne Cup Day. They’ll be talking rate hike, and he doesn’t think there should be any consideration of a cut before the election. He still argues we’re facing another rate hike before we go to the polls. What’s your read?
Zoe McKenzie: So I heard his interview as I was driving up the freeway to join you here, Kieran. That’s really frightening news for most Australians, but I don’t envy the RBA. It hasn’t got a great set of stats in front of it. Yes, the monthly inflation rate’s between two to three now, but core inflation still stays in the high threes. So they won’t have a great set of figures to look at on Cup Day in terms of making their decision. As I understand it,
only the Commonwealth Bank expects a cut this year. So everyone will be looking to February now and we’ll be smack bang in the middle of an election campaign, whether a real one or a faux one by then. Gee, the Labor Party will have its fingers crossed, won’t it?
Kieran Gilbert: They will indeed. And I guess we just go straight to the notion of what timing does this encourage election wise? Do they wait on, do they hold on and have that March budget and hold on till May, and hope with their fingers crossed that maybe they might have a rate reduction by then? But either way, they’ve got to make the argument that the labour market remains strong. They are on track for what economists call a soft landing, Zoe?
Zoe McKenzie: Well, after I saw the release of the parliamentary sitting timetable for February, I thought, oh, look, that looks like a March election. But after the Prime Minister awarded himself the ding-dong award for 2024 this week, really putting himself behind the eight-ball in terms of the housing and rental affordability debate. I don’t blame him for buying a house, good on him, but, geez, the timing could not have been worse. Again, I heard that at length yesterday. I walked up and down the street in Rye. Everyone knew that the Prime Minister bought himself a beautiful retirement home and they were wondering what it meant.
Kieran Gilbert: Were people angry at that? Were they angry at that, or did they think, in Rye, they think good on him?
Zoe McKenzie: No one in Rye can afford a $4.3 million house on the beachfront, my friend. We are lucky that we have so much investment. You know, it produces a lot of economic activity down on the Peninsula. People are very, very angry about land taxes, though. The Airbnb tax is also going to disincentivise people coming down to the Peninsula, and we need that injection of funds over summer. People survive. Their businesses survive through the winter to get to that summer boom. But everyone knew about it, including people who are really struggling to stay in the area. You can’t buy into the Peninsula unless you’re earning about $130,000, $140,000 a year. And so the 4.3 thing did hit them as a bit of a slap in the face.
Kieran Gilbert: Yeah, well, Mornington Peninsula is not a bad part of the world, either, just quietly, alongside Copacabana. I’m sure you’d make that argument Zoe McKenzie, but appreciate you making the time for us today.
Zoe McKenzie: Copacabana, Sorrento Moon, we’ve all got good songs. Thank you.
Kieran Gilbert: We do indeed. Bit of Tina Arena. Who would have thought on a Thursday? Love it. Okay, we’ll talk to you soon.
