Australian Labor Party

And of course, we're starting with Tuesday's rate hike.

Anthony Albanese denies Labor's policies are responsible for Australia's latest interest rate hike.

Andrew Green of the Nightly writes, the Prime Minister has signalled cuts to government spending in a looming budget update later this year, while again rejecting suggestions that Labor's policies are to blame for the Reserve Bank's latest rate rise.

Speaking from the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, Anthony Albanese said both international pressures and domestic demand were feeding inflation and could not be ignored.

The RBA lifted the cash rate for the fifth time this year on Tuesday to 4.85%, with Governor Michelle Bullock pointing to strong public and private demand across the economy.

Mr Albanese said the government would take appropriate action in the May budget but would not strip money from health or schools.

He said Labor had announced savings in every budget statement and accused the coalition of blocking some of them, including the move to scrap private health insurance rebates for Australians over 65.

He also took aim at the opposition's split over the European Union trade deal, arguing the agreement would lower prices and help bring inflation down, and said his government would continue to make hard decisions and remain fiscally responsible.

Look, there's some merit in it, I agree.

James O'Doherty reporting that upfront costs creating a cash flow crisis for home builders will be slashed under a re-elected New South Wales Labor government, while council red tape will also be scrapped for businesses making minor changes to their premises or activity.

Now, again, I don't want to poo-poo the announcement, but rather than defer the cost, why aren't they reducing the amount of money being charged to build in this state? Deferring the infrastructure charges might keep builders solvent in the short term, but it doesn't make the end product cheaper to build.

If the Premier is serious about unlocking supply, he needs the political courage to go a lot further.

The Commonwealth Public Service headcount has swelled by 14.7% since the Albanese government came to power, almost double the rate of the rest of non-public sector workforce.

While its wages bill, oh, this will do me, its wages bill has blown out by 35% over the same period.

Have a guess what Labor spent on consultants in the last financial year.

This is according to the Parliamentary Library.

But last election, there were enough people out there willing to support it.

And as long as Labor can secure the loyalty of roughly 32% of the vote, they'll be in with a very good shot at re-election.

Now, the problem for Labor is that they're now struggling to even attract that sort of support anymore.

And so we read today that Jim Chalmers has tasked Treasury with yet another assignment to go on the hunt for productivity-enhancing policies that could be included in December's mid-year economic update.

Which is a nice idea and all, but you see, the problem is twofold.

I mean, there's your productivity boondoggle right there.

Game, set, match.

Anthony Albanese, his Labor Party, just don't get it.

But last election, there were enough people out there willing to support it.

And as long as Labor can secure the loyalty of roughly 32% of the vote, they'll be in with a very good shot at re-election.

Now, the problem for Labor is... that they're now struggling to even attract that sort of support anymore.

And so we read today that Jim Chalmers has tasked Treasury with yet another assignment to go on the hunt for productivity-enhancing policies that could be included in December's mid-year economic update.

Which is a nice idea and all, but you see, the problem is twofold.

I mean, there's your productivity boondoggle right there.

Game, set, match.

Anthony Albanese, his Labor Party, just don't get it.

And that does mean that we cop a lot of backlash.

The Labour Party itself was born out of the union movement in sort of the early 1900s as the political arm of the worker.

But what you see now, and particularly over the last 20 years, is the Labour Party become the party of big business.

They've become the party that the party of mass immigration that will happily let people into the country and open the floodgates, I suppose, when that is objectively bad for the living standards of the working class here in Australia.

So there's a lot to that.

And I think that's a very noble purpose.

I think it's something that's required.

But the union movement, which is affiliated with the Labour Party, particularly over the last 30 or 40 years, has absolutely ripped out the soul of this country in a financial sense and in a political sense as well.

One nation in front of Labor, sort of 28 to 26, and the coalition around 23.

But when you do it two-party preferred, it's 50-50 coalition to the ALP.

But if you do two-party preferred, it's ALP over one nation, I think about 52 to 48.

So that's the way preferential works.

And I'll say it again.

That's why I don't like preferential voting.

It skews the vote.

But anyway, we're going to have to put up with that for a while, especially with the Labor Party in power because it favours them.

A party needs 45 seats in the lower house to govern, and the latest polling ranks the coalition a firm favourite to win government, with almost 30% of the primary vote ahead of Labor's 22.5%.

Roy Morgan had previously published research suggesting that in the lower house, the ALP could finish on 40 seats and the LNP on 31.

Michelle Levine is the CEO of Roy Morgan and had this to say in early October.

Overall, if an election were held today based on a seat by seat analysis of Roy Morgan data from the past six months with preferences allocated based on how electors said they'd vote.

And when you do two-party preferred on some of these polls, it is now 50-50. the Coalition and the ALP.

You do two-party preferred with Labor and One Nation, then two-party preferred, Labor comes out on top, I think about 52 to 48.

And Angus Taylor up two points to 41 compared to the PM's 39.

Now, a few months ago, you wouldn't pick that.