As we hurtle towards another Christmas, the turkeys are out, clamouring to be at the front of the line.

Australia’s latest quarterly GDP figures were released  on December 4, generating a flurry of commentary from all sides of the political and economic tables.

What are we mere every day Australians to make of this welter of ‘informed’ commentary, that takes the same set of figures and comes up with entirely different analysis, delivered as fact.

We have the treasurer spewing patronisingly about how well it is all going, the plan is working, as the number is 0.4% growth, an annualised 1.6%. This is down from forecasts, way down from the post GFC average growth of 2.6%, and a long term average of around 3.4%.

Not so sure I like the plan, particularly as all the anecdotal stuff I see indicates we are much deeper in the doo doo than those figures would indicate.

For example, household spending is steady at best by the numbers, awaiting the yet to happen Christmas shopping binge, which seems  unlikely to emerge. Household spending is a key component in the GDP figures, when it sags, the economy is heading for trouble. I expect a very poor outcome when the next quarters figures are released in March.

Unemployment was 5.3% in the latest numbers, and when you look at the graph, it is on a rising trend.  Perhaps it is time for a revision of the manner in which that number is calculated, in order to offer a more realistic picture than the one delivered by the current sanitised nonsense? Unemployment is the number of people looking for work in the period. It excludes those who could work, but are not actively looking. However, the catch is that ’employed’ is defined as anyone who is paid for more than 1 hour a week. By that measure, our unemployment rate may be 5.3%, but the real rate, the point at which the so called ’employed’ are able to live, pay the bills, and not look for more paid time, is way, way, way higher, and the rate amongst significant slices of the population, such as those under 20, is devastating.  Then you have the problem  my client base of SME manufacturing has, of actually finding tradesmen who are capable and willing,  to do the jobs necessary to keep our SME manufacturers competitive, thriving , and employing people.  Those trades do  not exist because we stopped training them and offering the dignity of work.

The unemployment number is an absolute nonsense, we all know it, yet it is a highlight of the political discourse.

The tax system is stuffed, as stuffed as that turkey that will be crammed into the oven as the kids rip the paper off the latest imported offering from K-mart. It is beyond the comprehension of the average person, all we see is the balance swinging against those who are in the PAYE system. Companies, particularly  multinationals, have the resources to manage down their taxes at a time when the governments are spending more, which needs to continue as our infrastructure ages, schools and trades education are in trouble, health costs are rising at a rate significantly greater than the anaemic inflation, and there are added costs like the NDIS.  There has to be a tipping point somewhere, and about now seems to me to be a fair bet. The Henry tax report is now a decade old, and none of the recommendations have been implemented. None. Ken Henry may have blotted his copybook at NAB, but that does not take away from the value of his contribution to public life generally, and specifically as the boss of Treasury, on whose advice Australia dodged the GFC bullet in 2008.

Trust in public institutions has never been lower. It is hard to pick the catalyst for this reality. Is it the realisation that institutions of all types, but  particularly those operating on a platform of faith, have been abusing our kids, that financial institutions have been stealing, politicians have a truly flexible relationship with the truth, or that social media has made us informed, lied to, mesmerised by trivia, and deeply cynical, all at the same time?

Enough, I am depressing myself, just as I have to think about going to the shops and spending on stuff I am not sure people want, for reasons I do not really understand, as should we not be generous with things way more important than money, with those we love and value all the time, not just around the summer solstice?   

The turkeys are all coming home to roost.