Australia’s unemployment rate fell to four per cent earlier this week and would ya look at him go: Prime Minister Scott Morrison has already made false claims about how good that is.
This is a modal window.
Morrison incorrectly claimed at a press conference on Thursday he was five years old the last time the unemployment rate fell that low ‘cos wooow his government is such a good economic manager.
“The unemployment rate at four per cent is the lowest rate that we’ve seen in almost 50 years. I was five years old when we last had an unemployment rate this low – and I think that says something,” he said.
But that is oh so untrue.
The last time it was at four per cent was actually in 2008, when Kevin Rudd was PM and Scotty was still very much an old man.
Morrison was born in 1968 so he was five in 1973.
Unemployment was at four per cent in both February and August 2008 and before that, in 1978.
In fact this February’s jobless rate was 4.042%, above the 4.016% in August 2008 and 3.981% in February 2008.
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s office has since acknowledged the error and said Morrison misspoke after a bunch of people including reporters and Labor politicians pointed it out.
Employment Minister Stuart Robert defended Mr Morrison’s statements at a press conference in Canberra and said he was “quite correct”.
“The last time it was four per cent was August 2008, February [2008] and [1974]. That’...
A person in his 30s who demanded compensation for alleged foreign substances in cup noodles and the absence of meat in stir-fried pork was sentenced to prison in both the first trial and the appel...