Lady economists drive economy into a ditch

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I don’t think gender is relevant to stupidity, but The Australian does.

They are the three women ­steering the nation’s economic course, a triumvirate of power not afraid to push back and make tough decisions.

…On Tuesday, Treasury secretary Jenny Wilkinson attended her first RBA board meeting, ­replacing former secretary Steven Kennedy and ­shifting the gender ratio 2:1 in favour of women. That’s six women and three men setting our interest rates.

Ms Wilkinson’s name goes on our banknotes alongside ­Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock’s signature, marking a first for the nation.

As chair of the Productivity Commission, Danielle Wood on the same day released an agenda-setting blueprint for a “growth mindset” ahead of the government’s productivity roundtable next month.

As we know, the economy is going backwards at a terrific clip for the living standards of working Australians.

To me, it is obvious that Labor has done this with its immigration-led, labour market expansion, economic growth model.

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But, if we must consider it in terms of gender, then let’s be honest about it.

The driving of the economy into a ditch coincides with the appointments of two of the women.

RBA governor Michele Bullock was appointed in September 2023. Her performance has been terrible. She steers interest rates in the rearview mirror and handles communications meeting-to-meeting in the most chaotic manner anybody can remember.

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Danielle Wood was appointed in November 2023 and has presided over the worst Australian productivity performance in history. She has yet to produce any substantial blueprint to change it, and will go very soft at the forthcoming roundtable by rubber stamping the same old immigration-led productivity-killing economy. Her history at the corrupt Grattan Institute guarantees it.

God knows what Marion Wilkinson will bring to the table, but the one thing we can be certain of is that it will not be “to push back and make tough decisions”.

To my mind, gender is irrelevant. It is the gutless, garden-variety Australian incompetence that is at work.

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But, again, if we must view it through the lens of gender, then more questions present themselves.

Are these women a soft touch?

Or, are they trying so hard to be tough guys that they have lost their judgement?

Or, were they so compromised by climbing the corporate greasy pole that they are more corrupt even than the blokes?

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Or, are they the beneficiaries of DEI that has promoted them above their brainpower?

In being so inept, have these “women” entrenched stereotypes that their mothers fought so hard to eliminate?

Because there sure aren’t any tough decisions being made on their watch.

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About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.