Blame shifting
The last time Jim Chalmers prepared to receive his economic scorecard, he sparked a media frenzy by appearing to blame the RBA. This time his approach is markedly different.
There are two techniques media minders frequently use to throw journalists off and reshape the narrative. One is to deflect blame elsewhere. The other is to deny there’s a story at all.
Depending on your school of thought, Jim Chalmers may have already tried the first of these two approaches in the lead up to the last national accounts release in September.
The media often has a short memory, but it’s hard to forget that ahead of that June quarter data the treasurer appeared to take a swing at the Reserve Bank for having allegedly smashed the economy with high interest rates. The claim, though economically uncontroversial, sparked concerns that Chalmers was at “war” with the central bank and put coverage into a frenzy about his relationship with governor Michele Bullock.
So we were especially interested to see how his media team would frame his comments over the weekend in the lead up to tomorrow's release of the economic report card for the September quarter.
