A controversial economist has issued a merciless warning to ‘lazy’ Australians, saying they must get off the ‘bank’ to avoid the economy sinking into recession.
Professor Gigi Foster of the University of New South Wales told Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes on Sunday that Aussies need to ‘get off your couch and actually do something’.
Reporter Tom Steinfort replied, “So you think you can get out of this just by working a little harder?”
Professor Gigi Foster from the University of New South Wales said Australia would soon slide into recession if people didn’t get off their ‘lazy couch’ and help the economy recover.
The economist said that while Australia wasn’t strictly heading for a recession, what mattered was how it “felt on the streets.”
“The way out is to acknowledge that we have a lot of fights at the moment and it’s on everyone’s shoulders to try and get us out even though it wasn’t everyone’s fault we got here because the government isn’t going to save us ‘ replied Professor Foster.
“The government cannot save us, even if it wanted to. The bank, the RBA, cannot save us.
“The way economies work their way out of recession is through hard work and getting up in the boots of the individual person on the street who realizes, ‘I’ve got to make this happen for myself.'”
Her comment comes after one of Australia’s largest consulting firms, Deloitte Access Economics, warned in April that the country was heading for a “consumer recession.”
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Prof Foster said post-Covid communities needed to work together to rebuild a strong economy by helping neighbors where they could.
“We need to stop the lazy attitude of ‘she’ll be right’ and you know, ‘I’m going to have a barbecue and let our government make the decisions,'” she said.
“People are finding it really hard, after the destruction that was Covid, to find the energy to fight. These are the people I’m trying to get this message to.”
‘People are insecure, they’re exhausted, they’re weaker, they’re stressed because they don’t know whether to trust institutions or each other. That’s no way to live,” she said.
Prof Foster, speaking of the government’s use of lockdowns to reduce Covid infections in 2020, said it would take years for Australia to return to pre-pandemic prices.
“I think we have more high prices and uncertainty ahead of us before this is all resolved. Unfortunately, I think it will be at least a few more years before things get back to what they were before Covid,” she told 60 Minutes.
Aussies were quick to respond to the professor’s appeal – many said it was not their responsibility to fix the economy.
“It is absolutely NOT each individual’s responsibility to work harder and harder for a centrally planned currency that is getting weaker and weaker,” someone said.
“We didn’t make it up in the first place, so why should it be up to the people to make it right?” another wrote.
It’s not the first time the Australian economist has shared some uncomfortable ‘truths’. In 2020, she told 60 Minutes that lockdowns were doing more harm than good.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Professor Foster said the decisions made during the Covid era have been made to benefit the elite, rather than ordinary Australians.
It’s not the first time the Australian economist has shared some uncomfortable ‘truths’. In 2020, she told 60 Minutes that lockdowns were doing more harm than good
No death is okay, but welcome to life. Death is part of life,” she said at the time.
“We kill more people by keeping ourselves locked up than we save.”
In March, on an episode of the ABC’s Q&A program, Prof. Foster blamed rising inflation on the effects of covid policies.
She responded to a question from a university student who said her dreams of becoming a teacher had stalled because she couldn’t afford the school fees.
“Unfortunately, these are some of the consequences we are seeing from the mismanagement of the economy in recent years,” she said.
“We spent a lot of money for little return and on things that were never predicted to be very profitable.”
The economist argued that governments’ decisions during the pandemic were “for politics, not health.”
“There are tens of thousands more Australians we’ve lost since mid-2021 than we should have by historical standards, and they’re nowhere near all Covid deaths,” she continued.
‘So what are they? Delayed Lockdown Deaths? Dead of despair? People who had suppressed cancer screenings are now dying of cancer? Vaccine side effects? What is it? This should be front page news because you don’t hear about it.
“That policy has caused the economic crisis you are going through and unfortunately you are paying the price for it.”