Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is being roasted online after a “cringe” post boasting of his government’s cost-of-living measures.

The post riffs off the So Fresh Australian compilation CD series.

Albanese’s “Winter 2024” version, posted late on Wednesday with the caption “new album just dropped”, highlights the government’s energy rebates, paid placements for tertiary students and boost to paid parental leave, among other measures.

New album just dropped. pic.twitter.com/hE4boYWMiP

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) August 7, 2024

But it quickly drew a community note on X, with readers noting many of the measures do not take full effect for months – or even longer.

Others blasted the CD post as “seriously cringe”, a joke and “infantile trash”.

“Fire your social media advisor bro,” one X user wrote.

“You’re making light of a very situation currently happening in our country. Whatever intern posted this, be better,” said another.

A third said: “OMG. Are you even an adult? What has Australia done to deserve this?”

On Thursday, Albanese was defending the government’s spending to ease the pain of the cost-of-living crisis.

It followed the Reserve Bank’s decision to keep interest rates at 4.35 per cent earlier this week. After the RBA board meeting, governor Michele Bullock indicated there may be a long wait for a cut, citing strong public demand due to announcements by all levels of government.

Albanese denied Commonwealth spending was the chief reason for the decision.

“Inflation has a range of aspects and that’s why we’ve made sure we agree that inflation needs to be moderated,” he told Sky News on Thursday.

“[Our] measures are designed in a way to assist people who are doing it tough whilst we make sure that we continue to moderate inflation.

“We’ve made sure fiscal policy, budget policy, works arm in arm with monetary policy.”

But shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said the lack of rate cuts meant government action had failed in its bid to lower inflation.

“You need to contain the growth in spending. Containing the growth in spending is the key,” he told ABC Radio.

“The first and most important thing to do there is commit to a fiscal strategy where the economy grows faster than spending.”

Also on Thursday, Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bruce Billson warned Australia was “sleepwalking” into an economy dominated by big players.

Billson said while small business was still a major employer and sizeable contributor to the nation’s economic activity, its prominence was slipping.

“This is a worrying trajectory,” he said.

“We are sleepwalking into a ‘big corporate’ economy.”

In 2006, small businesses contributed 40 per cent of gross domestic product and employed 53 per cent of those with a private-sector job.

Now, they contribute 33 per cent to GDP and make up 42 per cent of the private workforce.

Challenges brought on by the pandemic recovery have further weakened the small business sector, with small outfits particularly vulnerable to inflationary pressures and higher interest rates.

Small businesses had done it tough in the Covid-19 recovery, Billson said.

“If you believe, as I do, that small and family businesses are the ‘engine room of the economy’, we have lost a cylinder in a four-cylinder engine in the aftermath of Covid,” he said.

He wants a tax discount or offset scheme for new small business owners as a way for startups to keep more of their income to re-invest in the all-important early phases of operation.

-with AAP