Yesterday was not only the death knell for Australian hopes and dreams of its glorious economic growth future. It was also the bell tolling for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his inept Treasurer.
Why so? Because the result was so bad that it means Australian growth is virtually guaranteed to retain a “1” handle for the next year. Using reasonable assumptions of similar quarters to recent times of 0.7, 0.6 and 0.6 ahead, this is what it looks like for annual GDP throughout:
1.5% growth for a whole year is political poison. Do-nothing Malcolm has already registered six straight negative Newspolls and here we have another dozen lined up irretrievably before him. That comes with its own dividend. As Do-nothing sinks, already laughable Coalition unity will disintegrate, probably enough to weigh on growth a little itself. Turnbull will be very lucky to be leader by the end of next year.
