The surprising news that Australia’s unemployment rate dropped 5.5% last month has prompted treasury Secretary Ken Henry to declare the Global Financial Crisis over.

But the Business Council of Australia is less enthusiastic about the government’s handling of the economy, launching a scathing attack on the government’s decision to continued stimulus spending despite the economic recovery.

Parliament’s new court jester, Barnaby Joyce, also refused to break out the bubbly over the news, laying into Henry in the Senate economics committee over government debt — an attack brushed aside by Henry as “a gross over-simplification of economic understanding”.

What does it all mean for the Government, the Opposition and the economy? The commentariat gives its two cents (now worth $1.7 US cents!)

The Australian

Editorial: Yes Prime Minister, it IS about the policy

Australia has led the world in economic reforms in the past 30 years, yet we now have a government with little interest in the language of the markets.

Michael Stuchbury: The stimulus outlay must be reassessed

… the further amazing drop in the jobless rate to 5.3 per cent confirms the priority should not be to waste money on school buildings no one needs in order to combat a lack of jobs or aggregate demand.

Tony Makin: We don’t have to dance to Keynesian tune

From Australia’s perspective, the global financial crisis should have been treated more like a calamitous and completely unexpected natural disaster, rather than a war that had to be fought with present and future taxpayers’ dollars.

Sydney Morning Herald

Peter Hartcher: Be like the Kiwis, says Abbott – but they can’t fly

The opposition leader has shown that he can’t tell a kiwi from a kangaroo, a plus from a minus, wreckage from recovery.

The West Australian

Paul Murray: Not all gaffes are created equal

Mr Abbott has done himself no favours by installing maverick Queensland Nationals blowhard Barnaby Joyce as his finance spokesman.

ABC

Michael Janda: Can the good news on jobs really last?

… the longer the Reserve Bank waits to see if the hiring spree continues, the harder it will have to hit the brakes if it does.

Elsewhere…

Alan Kohler, Business Spectator: The great reckoning begins

Ken Henry and David Gruen of Treasury should spend less time sneering at Barnaby Joyce and more time contemplating the unfolding calamity in Europe, and coming to grips with what’s really going on in Australia.

Sue Cato, Business Spectator: Barnaby and the perils of ad-lib

If Abbott knows what’s good for the opposition he’ll jettison or gaffa tape his finance spokesman long before the campaign. L-plates have no place in an election year.

Craig James, Business Spectator: Jobs up, hours down

At face value the jobs result suggests that the economy is going gangbusters. But some restraint on the hyperbole is needed.

The Piping Shrike: Barnaby’s game

The government’s line that Joyce is dangerous may cause trouble with those Liberals worried about their economic credibility, but to some in the electorate, being seen as bravely warning about what needs to be said only adds to the appeal he is trying to create.