Australians have been delivered a scathing message to “get off the couch and work a bit harder” to save the country from its dire economic position.
Controversial UNSW economist Gigi Foster offered her brutal advice in an interview with 60 Minutes’ Tom Steinfort, arguing that “hard work” was the only way forward.
While she conceded the economic climate for consumers was “awful, unpredictable [and] uncertain”, she said the onus was on individuals to do something about it.
“Get off your lazy couch and actually do something and it will actually make you feel better too,” she told viewers.
Asked if the solution was to simply work a bit harder, she agreed and claimed the way out was the responsibility of all Australians.
“The pathway out is to recognise that we are in a lot of strife for the moment and it’s on everybody’s shoulders to try get us out, even if it wasn’t everybody’s fault that we got here,” she said.
Economist Gigi Foster argued the way forward was for Aussies to get off the couch. Picture: Stuart McEvoy/The Australian
“Because the government’s not going to save us, the government can’t save us even if it wanted to, [and] the bank, the RBA, can’t save us.
“The way that economies work their way out of recessions is through hard work and the pulling up of the bootstraps of the individual person on the street realising, ‘you know what, I’ve gotta make this happen for myself’.”
Ms Foster, who also caused a stir when she opposed Covid lockdowns, predicted prices of everyday goods would not fall to pre-pandemic levels for several years.
“I think we are in for more high prices and uncertainty before all of this resolves and unfortunately I think it’s going to be at least a couple of years before this gets back to anything like what we saw pre-Covid,” she said.
Ms Foster in 2020 caused a stir when disagreeing with Covid lockdowns, saying it was a “fantasy to believe we can eliminate this virus, whether just in Victoria and NSW, or across all of Australia”.
Ms Foster said everyday Australians simply needed to work a bit harder.
“If we did eliminate it, then we would have to commit ourselves to living basically isolated from the rest of the world until such time as there was a vaccine or some other brilliant discovery came about that would protect us against this thing,” she said.
“I just think that’s an unrealistic vision.”
Rates lifted for eleventh time
Australia was dealt another blow on Tuesday when the Reserve Bank of Australia lifted rates by 0.25 per cent to 3.85 per cent, bringing interest rates to their highest level since April 2012.
Last month, the RBA chose to pause its interest rate increases, which skyrocketed from 0.1 per cent since last May.
Now Aussies have been slapped with their eleventh rate hike in the space of just 12 months.
This means those with the average loan size of $586,000 will be forking out around $14,000 more annually compared to what they were paying this time last year.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been urged to overturn the RBA’s decision.
Amid fears the latest hike could result in a recession, the government has been urged to take the unprecedented step of direct intervention.
“The RBA’s decision to raise interest rates again beggars belief and will smash renters and mortgage holders even harder than they were being smashed already,” Greens Senator Nick McKim said.
“The RBA is out of control. Jim Chalmers needs to use his powers and step in and overrule this terrible decision.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has sidestepped questions over whether the Reserve Bank‘s ‘brutal’ interest rate rise could plunge Australia into recession.
Senator McKim said by the RBA’s own admission, interest rate rises are the wrong response to an inflation spike driven by corporate profiteering and supply side issues.
“If Dr Chalmers refuses to act it will be a tacit endorsement of the RBA’s decision and will mean that he supports the rate rises,” he said.
Earlier, the Treasurer sidestepped questions over whether the Reserve Bank‘s “brutal” interest rate rise could plunge Australia into recession.
As the Albanese Government prepares to put the final touches on next Tuesday’s budget, including tax increases for cigarettes, the RBA has stunned experts by handing down another rate rise to tackle inflation.
The Treasurer conceded it was a “brutal reminder” of the inflation challenge but stopped short of reassuring homeowners that a recession was off the cards.
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“I think that the rate rise is really a pretty stark, pretty brutal reminder of the difficult economic conditions,” Dr Chalmers said.
— with Samantha Maiden