Opinion: Afterpay for Fuel – Welcome to Albanese’s Australia

The state of Albanese’s economy isn’t hidden in a report or buried in a fine-print budget. No, it’s flashing at you in an ad: “Pay for your fuel in 4 easy payments with Afterpay.” Four easy payments. For petrol. Four payments for the stuff that gets you to work, takes your kids to school, and keeps food on the shelves. That’s not progress. That’s desperation packaged as convenience.

Our parents and grandparents never needed this nonsense. They filled their tanks, bought their groceries, paid their bills, and didn’t wonder if they could scrape together four payments just to survive the week. Wages matched life. Inflation didn’t gnaw at the bones of every household. Debt wasn’t normalized for necessities. Today, it is. Today, survival is a constant negotiation with the banks, the government, and the rising cost of absolutely everything.

Australians are being forced to adapt to a new reality they never asked for. We ration, we stockpile, we patch, we plant, we scrape, we survive. Not because it’s clever. Not because it’s the future. Because the economy isn’t built for people anymore — it’s built for profits, policies, and political spin.

The Afterpay fuel ad isn’t just an ad. It’s a punch in the gut. A national embarrassment. A flashing neon sign that says: “Welcome to Albanese’s Australia. Enjoy your poverty in installments.” This is the death of the middle-class dream, and if we don’t wake up, the rest of our lives will be nothing more than a series of “easy payments” for the basic things that used to be taken for granted.