Comment on RBA Monetary Policy Board member refutes on-going claims from the RBA governor about unemployment by Podargus

The useful part

That is a position that I have been arguing for over the last several years in countering the mainstream narratives. RBA governor makes another self-serving public presentation ignoring the dismal reality she is helping to create (July 30, 2026). Apparently the RBA has the interests of the unemployed it is putting out of work at heart.

How it works

• RBA wants to destroy the livelihoods of 140,000 Australian workers – a shocking indictment of a failed state (June 22, 2023).
• None of the events that have occurred within the period covered has shown the reasoning in those posts to be invalid.
• Whatever the rate might be, the data does provide us with some clues as to where the official unemployment rate is relative to this 'conceptual' level.
• That is 235.5 thousand persons have lost their jobs or have been unable to get work if they are new entrants to the labour force.
• A 5 per cent unemployment rate scaled against the current labour force size would require unemployment rise to 778 thousand, an extra 55 thousand workers without jobs.

What to take from it

RBA rate hikes – ideology triumphing over evidence and reason (May 7, 2026). Interest rate hikes will not get ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz more quickly (March 12, 2026). RBA bows to financial market pressure and boost bank profits at the expense of low-income mortgage holders (February 5, 2026).

Example or evidence

• Inflation continuing to fall in Australia further exposing the incompetence of our central bank (July 30, 2025).
• Treasurer, please sack the RBA governor and the Monetary Policy Board members – they have gone rogue (July 10, 2025).
• Australia – the inflation spike was transitory but central bankers hiked rates with only partial information (June 26, 2025).
• Australian inflation episode well and truly over – please tell the RBA to stop trying to push unemployment up further (November 27, 2024).

Details worth keeping

The extraordinary juxtaposition of these views is one thing. Background reading I have traced the shifting RBA positions on the underlying causes of the inflationary pressures for many years now and these blog posts provide a brief history of my concerns covering the pressures during the pandemic and then following the Middle East fiasco: 1. Australian Treasurer refuses to use his legislative power to rein in the rogue RBA (September 25, 2024).

Related coverage

• Billmitchell: "There is no wages problem in Australia that is driving the current inflationary pressures.
• Billmitchell: In reply to Mark Kinnear.
• Billmitchell: What with Chalmers and the mainstream media today announcing an "improvement in the budget bottom line" (a reduction in the deficit!) and tomorrow's interest rate rise, we may well ask what planet are we...
• Billmitchell: Bill's saying that the RBA economists are infested with NK type thinking and NAIRU concepts which means that they want to push up interest rates to increase unemployment as so reduce the rate of inflation.