Retailers alarmed by the sudden downturn in consumer spending in the lead up to the Christmas season should buy a mirror if they want to see who is at least partly to blame.
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The lowest wages growth in decades, coupled with the axing of weekend penalty rates, both contributed to the lowest increase in household consumption since the global financial crisis.
With many employees wondering when, or even if, their next pay rise will come and fearing for their jobs in a rapidly changing economic landscape in which staff are often the first casualties of "reforms", spending on discretionary purchases plummeted during the September quarter.
While the Government, and the retail sector, are both talking up the prospects of a Christmas bounce they would be well advised not to hold their collective breaths despite the fact household savings are on the increase. That is a sign of fear; not of rising affluence.
Middle Australia is being squeezed at both ends with rising utility prices, unaffordable real estate prices in all the major cities, static or even declining wages and fears all the good jobs are going and they aren't coming back.
Life in the regions, despite homes being cheaper, is as hard, if not harder, than in the big cities.
Access to essential services, including healthcare and education, has declined significantly, take home wages are often lower and any increase in the price of fuel bites much deeper than in "the big smoke".
Treasurer Scott Morrison conceded times were tough all over on Wednesday.
"This (result) isn't surprising given the cost of living pressures on essentials," he said. "Concerns around electricity prices were at the front of mind in the September quarter and remain there."
While the Government, which ran an effective campaign against electricity suppliers earlier this year, has happily politicised energy policy for years, it is is less inclined to talk about its own contributions to the burdens facing households on incomes of $80,000 a year or less.
Little or nothing has been said about the recent spike in petrol prices that have seen motorists paying more to fill up their cars in recent weeks than at almost any time in the last two years.
The increase in the Medicare levy, intended to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme, now seems counter intuitive given the PM recently foreshadowed small cuts in tax rates for middle income earners designed to offset bracket creep only a few weeks ago.
And, of course, the "trickle down" tax cuts for big business look set to go ahead as planned.
Meanwhile the parsimonious approach the Coalition has adopted to public sector remuneration since coming to power has meant tens of thousands of Canberra families have effectively gone without any pay rises for close on four years.
These are the issues people are talking about and that are impacting on their lives.
Is it too much to ask that after a year of policy paralysis the Government makes 2018 the year it starts looking at how to relieve some of these pressures on households?
