Essay by Eric Worrall

You couldn’t ask for a better visual representation of what is wrong with our “let them eat cake” elites than the graph above.

One issue matters more to top economists than any other this election: climate change

Published: April 10, 2022 10.30am AEST

Peter Martin
Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

Offered a menu of issues to choose from as the most important in the May 21 election, Australia’s top economists have overwhelmingly zeroed in on one.

Three quarters of the 50 top economists surveyed by The Conversation and the Economic Society of Australia have nominated “climate and the environment” as the most important issue for the incoming government and the most important in the election.

The 74% who nominated climate and the environment is more than twice the proportion that nominated the four substantial runners up: housing availability and affordability, health, tax reform, and education. 

…

None of the 50 surveyed nominated “lower taxes” as important for the election or the incoming government, and only 8% nominated support for business.

The economists chosen for the survey are recognised as leaders in fields including economic modelling and public policy. Among them are former IMF, Treasury and OECD officials, and a former member of the Reserve Bank board.

Many noted that their priorities were at odds with those of both major parties.

…

Read more: https://theconversation.com/one-issue-matters-more-to-top-economists-than-any-other-this-election-climate-change-180948

Australia is facing a federal election on May 21st. The main contenders are deep green high tax Labor, and the incumbent, slightly less deep green high tax Coalition. Labor are currently in the lead.

None of the economists who contributed to this remarkable downgrade of the concerns of ordinary people have to worry about where their next meal is coming from, or whether they will make this week’s rent payment.

The only thing which might shake them out of their complacency is the one thing none of them voted for, a substantial tax cut – a threat to their government underwritten personal financial security.

But with both major Aussie parties committed to blindly throwing money at universities, and both major parties committed to maintaining a large, wasteful state which pours vast sums of our money into useless white elephants like the Snowy 2 pumped hydro project, the income of Australia’s academic elites is secure for now, regardless of how much ordinary people suffer in the coming energy price driven downturn.