Among the myths that seemingly never die is the belief – parroted by a supine media – that Liberal Governments are competent economic managers.

This is despite overwhelming evidence that Australia’s performance across a range of areas is in decline compared with other comparable countries.

Now Labor MHR for Bruce, Julian Hill, has belled the cat with a comprehensive report (and a social media campaign) which demonstrates that “Australia is going backwards under the Liberals, and falling behind much of the rest of the world.”

The report itself is damning for the Government – but it is equally damning for most of the media who have failed to pursue the facts and are likely to accept any feeble attempts by Morrison to explain away or just ignore the facts.

If the report does get traction we can look forward to a Morrison special ‘look over here’ diversion which will be cheerfully embraced by the Press Gallery.

Hill says that when Morrison won the 2019 election his speech rhetorically asked “how good is Australia!?”

“The Prime Minister has developed a truly inane habit of asking that same question over and over again. Expecting that no-one will ever bother to answer.”

But, it is a question which Hill says can easily can be answered – “not so good anymore – going backwards and being left behind”. The answers he provides are drawn from OECD and other official figures, including detailed research by the Parliamentary Library, which show how Australia’s performance compares with other countries since the Liberals came to power in 2013. They show:

Real wages in Australia were 0.7% lower in 2019 compared to 2013, and Australia sat in third last place out of 35 OECD countries for wage growth. Now the Government is pursuing policies which will further depress wages and increase insecure work while inequality is getting worse. Australia has become the 11th most unequal nation in the OECD and ranks behind most of Western and Northern Europe, as well as Canada in its rate of inequality.

Hill cites Bloomberg research which shows COVID has been great for Australian billionaires whose combined worth is 52.4% higher in December 2020 than at the same time in 2019. Needless to say Morrison tax policies give leave passes to companies which use tax havens and major tax avoidance strategies while delivering tax cuts which favour the wealthy.

Just 20% of people in Australia hold 64% of the nation’s wealth while the younger and poorer 60% have just 16% of the wealth.

Australia ranked fifth last in the OECD in terms of its productivity rates. In fact, Australian productivity was negative at -0.3%.

Household debt as a share of GDP is 119.4% — now the second highest rate among 43 countries.

Australia ranks behind Uganda at 87th out of 133 countries globally for economic complexity. For those worried about things getting complex economic complexity measures the ability of countries to make and export a wide variety of goods, especially complex, high value products that few other countries can make.

We dig things up, harvest things and cut things down and under Morrison’s Government the economic trend is towards the products of the past and not the future.

In doing so we are putting too many of our eggs in the one basket as the IMF Export Diversification Index (a long-term study of export diversification and quality) showed with us ranked 84^th globally in 2014. Back then trade with China was about 26% of total exports but in 2019-2020 it had reached 35%. To make matters worse swashbuckling foreign policy is putting much of that at risk.

Australia has the third most unaffordable housing market and is the 11^th most unequal OECD country.

Australia ranks 54^th out of 64 countries in the 2021 Global Climate Performance Index. Our rate of greenhouse gas emissions per capita has been the highest in the world. It’s official government policy to invest in dying industries while claiming it can’t encourage electric vehicles because that would involve subsidies   – typical Morrison hypocrisy given the subsidies and rorts it throws around.

We also have the second highest level of biodiversity deterioration in the world and Australia’s wild koala population is now at real risk of extinction.

For a government allegedly pro-business the World Bank has news – since 2010 Australia has slipped from 12^th to 14th place globally in ease of doing business and fourth to seventh place overall for ease of starting a business.

Australian children’s educational outcomes have slipped in both national and international terms. Remote education during lockdown has been handicapped by the fact that broadband speeds are now so slow that Australia ranks 61^st in the world. Only our new French submarines will be less value for money than NBN.

The outlook for young Australians as measured by the NEET rate is not that flash as Morrison would say if he was interested in the subject. The rate for 20-24 year olds was 11.9% eighth lowest out of 27 countries compared with fourth lowest in 2010.

Private health insurance costs 36% more than it did and the coverage rate is at its lowest since 2005. Meanwhile out-of-pocket costs for seeing a GP have increased by a third under the Morrison government and Australia now ranks eighth out of 11 high-income countries for healthcare affordability.

Enemies are punished relentlessly. Cumulative funding cuts for the ABC $783 million between 2013 and 2020. As a percentage of GDP arts funding is 0.72% – well below the OECD average of 1.09%.

International corruption rankings are not needed to tell Australians that Australia is becoming more and more corrupt and that Australians are increasingly distrustful of government.

Our greatest source of international shame is our treatment of Indigenous Australians. First Nations Australians have the lowest life expectancy amongst First Nations people in the world.

Indigenous incarceration rates are 27% of the prison population despite Indigenous Australians being only 2% of the population. We also imprison young Indigenous (and non-Indigenous Australians from the age of 10) an age not comparable with other developed nations.

We might well ask: how the bloody hell did Morrison get us here?