This rather crude graph can be found in the Liberal Party’s Our Plan Real Solutions for all Australians: The direction, values and policy priorities of the next Coalition Government recently released by Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott.
I draw your attention to the fact that the left hand sidebar indicates the rankings are out of one hundred.
However, the World Economic Forum’s The Global Competitiveness Report 2012–2013 clearly shows that the ranking is out of one hundred and forty-four (up from one hundred and forty-two in 2011-12 and one hundred and thirty-four in 2007-2008):
Australia’s national economy ranks 20th out of 144 countries, with the third lowest ratio among advance economies of Public debt to Gross Domestic Product.
Australia ranks 48th out of 144 countries when it comes to Wastefulness of government spending.
While the nation ranks 96th out of the same 144 countries in the category of Transparency of government policymaking.
Finally, when a ranking for Pay and productivity is calculated Australia is 80th of 144 countries.
No reputable statistician would eliminate 44 countries and still keep the same ranking as does this graph. Nor would they try to merge two separate financial year ranking results in the same graph without adjusting for the 10 country difference.
Therefore this graph may be nothing more than a sly attempt to skew the electorate’s perception of how the country is faring in the lead up to the September 2013 federal election.
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