First the new Prime Minister gaffes big time over a free trade agreement with China with his “whatever we can get” kowtow. Now the new Treasurer is promoting old Australian growth figures from the International Monetary Fund as fresh bad news for the economy. The L plates are being worn large this spring.

Overnight the IMF got around to adopting the existing Reserve Bank and Treasury forecasts for Australian economic growth, which is what it routinely does. In cutting its forecast for Australia's 2013 GDP to 2.5 per cent, the IMF was catching up with what the RBA was saying five months ago in its May statement on monetary policy. Treasury took a little longer to revise its more optimistic budget night forecasts, but by the August monetary policy statement and Treasury economic statement, the numbers were all aligned and pretty much what the IMF produced two months later.

Time for Joe Hockey to provide some balanced comments on the economy. Credit:Andrew Meares

Treasurer Joe Hockey didn't treat it that way, issuing a statement to tell us the IMF had downgraded its expected growth rates for the Australian economy by 0.5 per cent. More bemusingly, the Treasurer said: "Worryingly, the IMF forecasts Australia's unemployment rate to rise from 5.6 per cent in 2013 to 6.0 per cent in 2014.”

It seems poor Joe has been in negative opposition mode for so long, he doesn't recognise possible good news when he sees it. That IMF unemployment forecast is an improvement on what the RBA and Treasury have been saying. The budget back in May guessed unemployment would be 6.25 per cent by June and the pre-election economic and fiscal outlook forecast it would stay there for another year.