Gary Hardgrave on 4BC Mornings and HR Nicholls Executive Director James Mathias dissect Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's early economic election pitch, accusing him of cherry-picking data to mask a per-capita recession, falling real wages, and soaring living costs.

They argue that massive government spending, public service hiring, and an overwhelmingly complex industrial relations system of over 205,000 pay rates are artificially propping up unemployment figures while crushing small businesses and costing average workers $205 a week.