Prime Minister Scott Morrison fiddling while worm turns

While Rockingham is burning, the fiddlers are still looking for a tune. Well, maybe not Rockingham or Roleystone or Ravensthorpe specifically, but the past few weeks at the political level are certainly being played out against a string-heavy score.

There’s been plenty of focus by the Federal Government and political commentators on the results out of Wentworth.

But they haven’t been keeping track of some more tangible insights into how the rest of the country is dealing with the self-described Muppet Show now passing itself off as government.

The Commonwealth Bank tracks spending through its network of EFTPOS machines and cards right across the economy.

That measure for September came in lower than expected, the worst result in 16 months, with analysts suggesting the turmoil out of the Government was affecting consumers’ shopping habits.

That appeared to be confirmed the next day when the ANZ-Morgan weekly measure of consumer confidence had its biggest fall in six years.

This covered the period that the Government lost Wentworth. Remember, ahead of the poll Scott Morrison had warned of instability and trouble if independent Kerryn Phelps was successful.

That seemed to be the point picked up by shoppers who took the Prime Minister at his word.

“Political uncertainty is the biggest threat to business and consumer confidence,” CommSec economist Ryan Felsman noted.

“While Aussies are becoming increasingly used to hung Parliaments, one concern is that businesses will stop investing and hiring, and consumers pull-back their spending in the lead up to the Federal election, due before May 18.”

That appeared to be confirmed by the NAB’s survey of small and medium-sized business conditions and sentiment that was also released last week.

While overall trading conditions moderated a touch, confidence slipped sharply and is now running below its long-term average. And while conditions still seem good, future expectations on profits and capital spending have started to wane.

Then there was NAB’s quarterly insight into consumer attitudes. That report should worry any self-thinking politician.

Most MPs are picking up deep concerns about cost-of-living issues. That’s one of the reasons the Government is fixated about electricity prices (even though its plans won’t touch the WA or NT systems and their consumers).

However, the NAB survey suggests getting a grip on power won’t go close to dealing with the concerns of voters.

NAB found people believe they need about $102,000 a year in income to get by in a reasonable manner. The problem is the average income is about $86,000.

That’s $16,000 of pain that inane terms such as “fair dinkum power” won’t cover.

The same survey also found a worrying number of people who don’t believe they’ll achieve the living standards of their parents.

Those aged over 50 were most likely to say they would have a better lifestyle than their grandparents. That should be a no-brainer given a person aged 60 would have grandparents who lived through the Great Depression and World War II.

But the number of 20-somethings or people in their 30s and 40s who reckon nan and pa might have had a better life should send a shiver down the political class.

Closer to WA, a separate set of figures should also highlight issues that will come into play at the next Federal election.

While the national jobs market is in rude health, with unemployment about 5 per cent, WA continues to lag.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that lag is concentrated in seats held by the Liberal Party.

In Perth’s north-east, taking in Christian Porter’s seat of Pearce, the regional jobless rate is more than 7 per cent. In the neighbouring north-west, which includes Stirling and parts of Perth, the jobless rate is about 6.5 per cent.

Head to the city’s south-east that takes in Labor’s Burt and the Liberal Party’s Canning, the jobless rate is about 6.4 per cent while around Mandurah — which also takes in parts of Canning — the unemployment level is closer to 8 per cent.

While the national jobless rate is positive it has come along with a relatively high level of under-employment, a development that has the attention of the Reserve Bank, which is trying to work out why we are not seeing higher wages in such a tight jobs market.

Couple elevated levels of unemployment with stagnant wages growth (1.5 per cent over the past 12 months after 1.4 per cent the year before that), a property market that’s still edging south and high levels of debt and you have a perfect political storm.

Morrison has bemoaned the so-called “Canberra bubble”. But what issue did he hit the last week of the Wentworth by-election?

A debate about whether to move Australia’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. That’s not a Canberra bubble — that’s a Middle East one.

It might play well to religious voters in a seat with the biggest Jewish population in the country, but it’s got nothing to do with unemployment or stagnant wages in Gosnells or Ellenbrook.

Populists like Pauline Hanson aren’t wrong when they complain that the mythical “ordinary Australian” is feeling financial pain. There is a reason why the hard Left and the hard Right and independents are resonating with voters.

But policies that might deal with the legitimate complaints of many Australians are as rare on the ground as a St Kilda premiership.

Instead, we’re stuck with sound bites, policy sleight of hands and turns of phrase that would suggest we’re a nation of drongos.

Consumers, the people who make the Australian economy turn, are showing how peeved they are with events being played out in government and across all major parties.

Every leadership rumble, every deposed PM, just makes it harder for whoever is in office next to bring together their parties and have a decent conversation with the public.

Nero would surely have a tune to play.