Back an old nag named self-interest
Imagine for a moment that Australia wasn’t led by upstanding model citizens with an eye solely on the welfare and prosperity of our country no matter the political impact. Imagine that we were led by deeply self-interested politicians. People supremely focused on maintaining political power.
In this fanciful scenario, what would they be thinking come September? That’s the date the current JobKeeper payments are set to end (13 fortnights from their introduction on March 30).
Would it not be tempting to extend stimulus measures another three months or even more? What might that do for an ambitious polly?
It would underwrite a more positive Christmas trading period for the retail sector (around 17% of the Australian economy).
