Yesterday’s GDP growth figures are garbage, and do not reflect the true state of the Australian economy, Citizens Electoral Council leader Craig Isherwood said today.

“In truth, Australians are being economically smashed, but the Government is trying to cover it up with fraudulent statistics,” he said.

“We have an explosion of hidden unemployment, but the Opposition and the unions are happy to help the government cover it up, because they are all committed to the globalisation policies which caused it.”

Mr Isherwood cited University of Newcastle Professor Bill Mitchell, who has exposed the contradiction between the “official” unemployment figures based on the monthly ABS survey, and Centrelink’s count of people on the dole:

“Official unemployment increased by just 900 people in July, but Centrelink paid an extra 22,000 people the dole,” he reported.

“Furthermore, the official stats offset the loss of 122,000 full-time jobs since last September against growth in part-time jobs, but they’re not comparable jobs—one hour’s work per week counts you as employed!

“Tragically, young men—the future backbone of our productive workforce—account for most of the full-time job losses.

“The huge number of part-time workers who are not losing their jobs, but are losing their hours—and income—is also ignored by the official stats: the number of hours lost since last September is equivalent to 300,000 full-time jobs, or a three per cent rise in unemployment.”

Mr Isherwood also pointed to the blowout in Australia’s current account deficit, which doubled from the first quarter to the second quarter to a seasonally adjusted $13.35 billion.

“All of the real measures like true unemployment and the trade balance show a deepening crisis, but politicians prefer the flawed methodology of GDP—aka Gambling, Drugs and Prostitution, which the IMF mandates should be included—which is garbage.

“So if you are one of the millions of Australians who have been slammed by the economic collapse, do not wonder if you are crazy because the government and the media keep crowing about how good the economy is—they’re lying.”

Mr Isherwood concluded, “Real growth, and a true recovery, will be seen in an increase in the numbers of family farms and manufacturing businesses; new water, power and transportation infrastructure, and hundreds of thousands of new full-time jobs.

“Only the CEC has the economic policies to achieve this, so if you’re sick of the lies, join us.”