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muddling malcolm .....
Opposition treasury spokesman Malcolm Turnbull has accused the Government of making tough economic times tougher and undermining confidence in the Australian economy.
Yesterday the Reserve Bank kept interest rates steady at 7.25 per cent after figures pointed towards a sharp slowdown of the economy. Economists have now predicted there could be an interest rate cut as early as next month.
Speaking to Lyndal Curtis on ABC Radio's AM program, Mr Turnbull said the Government lacked economic leadership.
He accused Treasurer Wayne Swan of spending too much time 'talking up' inflation and undermining confidence in the Australian economy.
'The Treasurer's statements have an enormous influence across the economy,' he said.
'Remember the day before the Reserve Bank met at the beginning of this year it was Wayne Swan who said the inflation genie is out of the bottle.- By Gus Leonisky at 6 Aug 2008 - 11:51pm
- Gus Leonisky's blog
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ticking clocks
As Australia's best ever PM, P J Keating, said:
PAUL KEATING: Keep poverty at bay, enough to put bread and milk on the table, keep poverty at bay, reduce the rate of the pension. So I got up and said well excuse me we've actually thought of something better in Australia. It's called an income replacement model and we have already got nine per cent of wages and salaries going away but nine is not enough and that's the point. We've already got a trillion in savings.
This is a thousand billion for 20 million people; we're the fourth largest accumulation in the world. The second largest in Asia, we will soon be the largest in Asia and the third largest in the worlds. Now, the great problem, Kerry, is when John Howard and Peter Costello promised to honour the second round of the LA law tax cuts and pay them in to super accounts then broke the promise in their first Budget, the people who suffered most were the baby boomers, the people who have not got enough years left in work to be able to get an accumulation together. So I tried to front end load it for them to get the 15 by the year 2000, so now they would have had the extra six per cent and the earnings through that massive equities boom, 2003-2007, it is now gone.
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PAUL KEATING: I think the narrative has to be to find I think the principal part of the narrative has to be to reverse the savage decline of productivity that occurred under Howard and Costello. We went from three per cent in my days to now under one, which means real incomes in the end will fall and to cement ourselves more solidly in Asia. That is I think, I mean, our bread is buttered in China and Japan, our strategic bread is buttered in Indonesia. These are the places and of course these are the places we lost ground with the deputy, Mr Howard, the flirt with Hansonism, that's going to be very hard to make back. So I think the repositioning of Australia and also to say goodbye to QE2. You can't get around in Asia saying by the way we borrowing the monarch of another country, the Queen of Great Britain is our head of state.
KERRY OBRIEN: So a part of Labor's narrative should be a Republic?
PAUL KEATING: Should be a Republic. Sure.
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Gus: a refreshing breeze from the man of visions. We might not agree with him all the way but at least you can trust the man who collects antiques clocks and listen to Mahler's music with passion. Johnnee only collected brownie points for porkies — sure, big brassy ones, but porkies nonetheless, including the famous workchoices designed to make your life better by bashing you on the head, and going to war with his mate Bushit on a whim with a topping of lies...
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Swan hits back after Keating's super spray
Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has responded to criticism from former prime minister Paul Keating, saying the Federal Government will have a comprehensive look at superannuation as part of its tax review.
Yesterday, Mr Keating criticised the Labor government for doing nothing to lift the rate of compulsory superannuation contributions from 9 to 15 per cent.
He said the inactivity threatened to leave baby-boomers on the verge of destitution during their retirement.
Speaking at a book launch in Sydney, Mr Keating also criticised former prime minister John Howard and former treasurer Peter Costello for failing to make the increase while in government.
He said the current Labor Government was not showing any signs of trying to reverse the trend.
But Mr Swan hit back, telling ABC TV's Lateline that the Federal Government's tax review will put the superannuation system under the microscope.
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Gus: it was not an open criticism, just a reminder to catch up on the "narrative"... which of course Swan and Rudd will do in their own style and time... But for the man of clocks, precision of ticking is essential...
0.2 percentage point less greed....
Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan says the Government's decision to guarantee all deposits at Australian banks has been a factor in interest rate cuts.
The four big banks have all lowered their mortgage rates over the past week outside of an official rate cut by the Reserve Bank.
On Tuesday, Westpac and St George joined earlier cuts from the likes of ANZ, National Australia Bank and the Commonwealth Bank by reducing interest rates by 0.2 of a percentage point.
Mr Swan told ABC 1's 7.30 Report the decision to guarantee all bank deposits on October 12, combined with coordinated international action, has put more confidence in the system.