Embarrassing moment finance ‘guru’ David Koch accuses Labor star Jason Clare of economy gaffe – when HE actually stuffed it up
- David Koch wrongly claimed Australia did not enter a recession during Covid
- Labor frontbencher Jason Clare tried to correct the Sunrise finance ‘guru’
- But the TV host doubled down on his incorrect assertion during interview
Channel Seven finance guru David Koch has made an embarrassing live TV gaffe about the economy during a showdown with Labor campaign spokesman Jason Clare.
Kochie, who trained as an accountant, defended Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s record during the Covid crisis following criticism from Mr Clare on Thursday morning.
‘They kept us out of recession though during the greatest economic threat since the Great Depression with the pandemic,’ Koch said. ‘They haven’t done too bad.’
The visibly confused Opposition frontbencher – who has outshone Mr Albanese at moments during the campaign – replied: ‘I think we went into a recession Kochie. The last time I remember we went into a recession.’
Koch then doubled down and insisted the economy didn’t go into recession during the pandemic.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (right) and Australian Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese shake hands during the third leaders’ debate
Koch told viewers: ‘Just to clarify we didn’t have two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth so we didn’t actually go into an official recession.’
But Australia did enter a technical recession in June 2020 after almost three decades of uninterrupted growth.
The March quarter saw a 0.3 per cent decline in gross domestic product at the beginning of the pandemic, followed by a massive 6.8 per cent drop in the three months to June during national lockdowns.
It was the first time Australia’s economy contracted since 1991 as the federal government spent close to $300billion on stimulus measures.
Since then the economy has bounced back and is no longer in recession.
Debate about Labor leader Anthony Albanese’s economic credentials has been front and centre of the debate in the lead-up to the May 21 federal election.
He has not held any significant financial portfolio in government since entering politics in 1996 and has made a series of blunders on the topic during the campaign.
On day one he failed to recite the national unemployment rate of four per cent, guessing it was ‘about 5.4 per cent’ and also had no idea what the official cash was when it sat at the record low of 0.1 per cent.
But Mr Clare, who has garnered praise on the campaign trial for his smooth persona, argued on the morning TV show it’s Scott Morrison and the government who cannot be trusted to manage the economy.
Pictured: Mr Clare with partner Louise (left) and son Jack. The handsome MP for Blaxland has been in parliament since 2007
‘The idea that this government has good economic managers is a bad joke,’ he said.
‘They’ve spent $660million dollars on imaginary carparks and railway stations that don’t exist, $5.5billion that’s been spent on submarines that don’t exist and $50billion on copper for the National Broadband Network.
‘They bought enough copper to wrap around the world one and a half times and now they’ve got to rip the copper out and put in fibre.
‘So I wouldn’t trust this mob with a tin piggy bank.’
Channel Seven finance guru David Koch (right, with Natalie Barr) made an embarrassing live TV gaffe about the economy during a showdown with Labor campaign spokesman Jason Clare
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