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Julia Gillard / Wayne Swan delivered peak material living standards

5 points · submitted Jun 2026 by u/artsrc

A couple of discussions about the trend in GDP per capita had me realise I did not remember that Australia delivered such woeful GDP per capita performance with the LNP Abbott / Hockey government, the so call dog days - https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/dog-days

As for the heading I understand the GNI per capita measures national income rather than production, I don't think it is significantly different, and I don't have a good linkable chart.

Some kind of integral of the log of individual financial deficiency measures linear utility better, but we don't have that data at all, and I also don't think the answer is any different, except for the period when we doubled Job Seeker.

17 comments · 67% upvoted · source · other discussions

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whitey9999 23 points · Jun 2026

We had one of the biggest mining booms between 2003 and 2013. Coupled with the GFC the dollar went to parity with the US, increasing the living standards massively. Gillard was just there for the ride

artsrc [OP] 12 points · Jun 2026

It is not that Gillard/Swan were geniuses. It is that we have failed miserably since.

Since 2013 we have delivered essentially zero improvement, zip, nada. We have gone backwards.

And not just Australia. The austerity ridden European zone is another disaster.

This is not a hard problem. Higher productivity comes from higher productive investment.

We could have maintained high levels of public investment in the electricity grid, child care, aged care, hospitals, schools, insurance companies, disability support businesses, public housing, roads, ports, airlines, telecommunications, etc. And left the available private capital to find other, innovative homes. Which of course we should encourage by allowing full depreciation of all investment at any rate chosen.

Instead we are chewing up limited private money in provision of public utilities and services.

jonnieggg 2 points · Jun 2026

Australia had an amazing standard of living before all that and an amazing world life balance.

Esquatcho_Mundo 2 points · Jun 2026

I don’t disagree but then you also can’t blame the govt for inflation from covid or Iran etc either

Maximum_Bit6508 -3 points · Jun 2026

Yeah you actually can. 

war-and-peace 11 points · Jun 2026

Wayne Swan also gave pensioners one of the biggest cost of living rises in a long time. But in hindsight that was a stupid thing to do because, that demographic on the whole didn't repeat the favour back at the polling booth.

artsrc [OP] -2 points · Jun 2026

As you say, unemployment benefits are a more supportive cohort for Labor, they should have been a priority.

The aged pension change is good. It should have been balanced with changes to super. Tax free super income should have been capped at balances of around $1M, and the rest should be at marginal rates.

[deleted] 2 points · Jun 2026

[removed]

artsrc [OP] 0 points · Jun 2026

That destroys any incentive to contribute extra to Superannuation

Once people have $1M in super I don't want to offer any incentive to contribute extra. They have enough for retirement and can invest their money the way they want.

the rest should be at marginal rates taxing it at marginal rates going out destroys any use of it.

I did not intend to propose that a tax on withdrawals. I intended propose a tax on income, which is the investment returns inside of your fund.

A revolutionary reform, which I did not intend to propose, would be to remove all tax on super, up to $1M, contributions, and income, on the way in, and tax it at marginal rates on the way out.

That would deliver much more comfortable retirement to people with low incomes. People with low incomes don't withdraw much from super so there would be minimal tax on the way out anyway. And they would save the 15% on contributions and income during accumulation. It is based on clear, simple principles. It is has a much lower cost to the budget long term than the current system.

LazySlobbers 1 points · Jun 2026

Capping the tax-reduced component of super seems like a good idea to me … the purpose of super is to provide savings for retirement not provide an endless tax dodge..

$1m cap seems a little on the low side though

artsrc [OP] 1 points · Jun 2026

According to the experts, for a comfortable lifestyle, a couple need around $370,000 in super each.

https://www.superannuation.asn.au/consumers/retirement-standard/

I am not saying that the wealthiest Australians can maintain their lifestyle on that amount.

I am saying that we currently tax people who earn minimum wage. I would rather we remove that tax than deliver tax free income on super balances to people who want a lifestyle that people on low wages can never dream of.

LazySlobbers 1 points · Jun 2026

I don’t believe that $300k delivers a comfortable retirement. 300k x 0.4 (the commonly cited draw down rate) is just under $15k a year. No one is living comfortably on that.

I believe agree with you that lower income people should be taxed less.

artsrc [OP] 1 points · Jun 2026

Once you are 65 the legal minimum drawdown rate is 5%.

The aged pension for couples is about 3 times $15K.

A 5% draw down is only $37K, for the couple, so they must be assuming a higher draw down than that.

sien 5 points · Jun 2026

That's in USD.

If you look in AUD it's different.

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CN?locations=AU

Per capita growth is probably better. It's been declining for ~20 years.

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.KD.ZG?locations=AU

iamnerdyquiteoften 1 points · Jun 2026

Yes but allowing east coast gas exports without domestic reservation killed manufacturing in the country due to higher gas prices.

artsrc [OP] 1 points · Jun 2026

High gas prices were harmful for energy intensive manufacturers. The high exchange rate as also a problem.

Manufacturing had been having a long term decline since we started reducing tariffs in the 1980s, before gas prices or exchange rate changes.

iamnerdyquiteoften 1 points · Jun 2026

I think high gas prices have been harmful to everyone - Australia used to have cheap energy. Now we don’t use it because it gets sold to other countries. We might even have to import gas. Bizarre outcome if you ask me.