Today the Reserve Bank downgraded its forecasts for economic growth for the third time since the May 2019 election.

The RBA is expecting below-trend growth of only 2 per cent this year, down half a percentage point from its previous forecast, partly due to weakness in the economy before the bushfires and the Coronavirus outbreak.

The economy is floundering because Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg had a political strategy to get themselves through an election but no plan to boost wages or growth in the economy.

Australians are struggling, household debt is around record highs, almost two million Australians are looking for work or for more work, but the Liberals and Nationals have no plan to turn things around.

In its latest Statement on Monetary Policy, the RBA emphasised that the Australian economy was navigating a “period of slow growth”, noting that “Growth in nominal household disposable income has been low for more than five years” and that Australia was experiencing the “slowest rate of growth in consumption in a decade”.

For too long the Prime Minister and Treasurer have left the Reserve Bank to do all the work instead of coming up with a plan to support the economy.

Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg now want us to forget that the economy was deteriorating long before the bushfires or the Coronavirus outbreak.

Because of the Morrison Government’s economic failures, Australia meets the serious challenges and uncertainties of the fire season and the Coronavirus outbreak from a position of weakness, not strength.