TED O’BRIEN MP
DEPUTY LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR FAIRFAX
MEDIA STATEMENT
Wednesday, 3 September 2025
Today’s national accounts confirm what Australians already know, under Anthony Albanese households are poorer and the economy is weaker.
The June quarter figures show Australia’s economy grew at its slowest pace in a financial year since the 1990s, outside of the pandemic.
Since Labor came to office, Australians have suffered the steepest fall in living standards in the developed world and remain stuck in a cost-of-living crisis.
The Albanese Government promised a private sector-led recovery, yet business investment is falling.
While household spending lifted modestly in the June quarter helped by the holiday period and end-of-year sales it is no substitute for sustained private sector investment and productivity growth. At a household level, the Australian economy today is smaller than the one Labor inherited three years ago, and productivity is down.
According to the budget papers, in the financial year just ended government spending grew at four times the rate of the economy. Until the government reigns in its spending spree, the private sector will continue to be squeezed, and productivity and living standards will continue to languish.
The Treasurer may be content to argue that “any growth is a good outcome”, but Australians deserve more ambition than that.
One or two rays of sunlight do not hide the fact that Australia has endured a long, cold three-year winter under this government, and there is nothing in these figures to suggest that’s about to change.
Australians deserve better.