00:03It's now clear that Australians suffered a great, quiet disaster after the pandemic.
00:09And here's a good way to visualise it.
00:11The graph shows what happened to someone on the average wage in March 2021 while COVID
00:16was still with us.
00:17That average wage earner got pay rises over the following two years, but they were eaten
00:21by prices.
00:22So by March 2023, an average wage earner was $5,000 a year behind.
00:28And what's more, the gradient of the Reserve Bank's forecast of real wages tells us that
00:33they're not going to catch up.
00:34That was a permanent loss.
00:37So what happened?
00:38Well, this graph explains it, and it boils down to this.
00:41Real wages stopped rising after 2022 and flatlined.
00:46Small business people called gross mixed income in the graph started going backwards after
00:51inflation.
00:51And there was a big increase in taxation as the government returned to surplus and interest
00:57cost, as the Reserve Bank hiked interest rates 13 times.
01:00The result is that for three years, real per-person disposable income has been going negative.
01:07On top of that, up to a few months ago, house prices have been rising faster than incomes
01:12for 25 years, locking a generation out of owning a house.
01:16The result is that those born in the 1990s are the first Australian generation in history
01:22to not do better than those who came before.
01:26Those born in the 50s were better off than those born in the 40s.
01:29Those born in the 60s were better off than those born in the 50s.
01:32Those born in the 70s were better off than those born in the 60s.
01:37And those born in the 80s were better off than those born in the 70s.
01:41But those born in the 90s are no better off than those who are 10 years older than them.
01:47This is the first time that's happened, and they're not happy.
