Autumn 2016
By Stephen Koukoulas
In May 2016 both sides of politics will have been in office for the same amount of time since Gough Whitlam won the December 1972 election: 43 years and six months ago, during which Labor and the Coalition will each have been in office for 21 years and nine months.
Polls show that voters overwhelmingly see the Liberal party as better economic managers, but in this analysis, Stephen Koukoulas looks at GDP growth and employment numbers  across those years to test that assumption.
His analysis finds that the Hawke-Keating government presided over the strongest rate of GDP growth, closely followed by Howard with a gap then to Whitlam and a further, larger, gap back to a cluster of Abbott-Turnbull, Rudd-Gillard and Fraser.
Read the full analysis by clicking on the link below.