Like a school report, the International Monetary Fund forecast for the global economy arrived in yesterday's post.

No one escaped the Trump carnage. The UK in particular is in trouble, as is potentially Australia.

Australia was warned not to exacerbate wartime inflation. It was a slap down, a mark against the Government and a big reveal into the way Albanese and his cronies run the place.

The reference was to a debate that has been going on since the last election – is Government spending driving inflation? The answer of course is yes, but the Government denies it.

The IMF laid the truth bare. They were warning against a spendathon in the coming Budget.

Australia's inflation is already way worse than ours and for the very obvious reason they keep handing out money they don’t have.

We should be proud of our war time approach, as hard as it may be for some to stomach.

Handouts are easy and Australia has yet again fallen into the trap. It will hurt them more in the long run, but they don’t care.

It dovetails, I think, into the Labour approach here, which is to say nothing policy-wise. But also dare I suggest they have finally worked out the traditional Opposition line of promising free money is no longer tolerated here, because of the carnage Labour caused in Covid. The results are still too real and too raw for them to run the old playbook.

They are snookered by a government that is fiscally mature and restrained, so they can't be seen to be loose and flagrant.

But no such luck in Australia. Tax is cut on petrol, so every millionaire Ferrari driver gets a subsidy, and big companies are forced to pay the extra on previously signed contracts so small companies don’t have to.

There seems no amount of gerrymandering Albanese won't get amongst and the IMF sees it all.

If you want to see a cost of living crisis in real time that puts ours into some relief, look at Australia. Like Covid, or the financial crisis, or the war, the government you get in dark days is luck.

In 2019 ours ran out. This time around it's Australia's turn to see what economic damage amateurs from the left can do.

I know where I would rather be.

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Mike's Minute: The reality of NZ vs Australia's fuel response

The Mike Hosking Breakfast