Australia's rising unemployment is coming despite record government spending to prevent it, and we will pay through rising inflation and higher interest rates.

Last week the latest unemployment data came out showing a sharp uptick to 4.5 per cent.

This is despite analysis from the Australian Industry Group showing 8 in 10 new jobs being created by government spending. In Victoria it is 9 in 10.

A job is a job, but not all are economically created equal.

Jobs created by private investment reflect future hope in our State.

Government financed jobs are about servicing today but rarely create new economic growth and opportunity.

What these numbers mean is investors are losing faith in the future of Australia, and Victoria even more.

Victoria already has the highest unemployment in the nation.

It is widely discussed amongst the nation’s corporates that when someone resigns from a role based in Victoria, they replace the role interstate.

Corporates don’t want to be exposed to future tax increases, and they’re losing confidence.

The Allan government is engaged in an economic cover up. They’re simply borrowing from the future to keep employment numbers higher today.

Where Victoria goes, so follows the nation.

The Allan and Albanese Labor governments aren’t focused on building confidence and consequently private sector employment is collapsing.

This is a problem now, but the bigger issue is what it means for the future. Once investment dries up, it takes years for the economy to rebound.

And Victoria and Australia are broke. That means spending comes from debt.

When governments borrow from the future to prop up jobs today, they’re pushing more cash to into an economy producing too few goods.

When there’s too much money chasing too few goods that’s when we get inflation, prices rise and interest rates follow.

For the first time in a while Australians are breathing a sigh of relief after watching their savings being eaten away by rising interest rates.

These numbers show it sadly isn’t over.

Spending from debt today fuels inflation and higher interest rates tomorrow, and that includes spending on government-created jobs to hide the collapse in employment confidence.

When interest rates rise it will be because of Allan and Albanese government spending.

Governments face wicked choices when they’ve created this downward economic spiral.

Unemployment hurts those who lose their jobs. But their solution is to stoke inflation that hurts everyone.


Published in the Herald Sun, Tuesday 21 October 2025